Tips on Improving Your Child's Writing Skills
Keeping a journal is an easy way for your child to start building their writing skills. Depending on their age they may want to keep their journal private, regardless of this though they will still benefit from the daily exercise. Younger children should be given a daily topic to get them started, while older children should be given creative freedom. You may elect a certain time of day to share journal entries, although this should be optional.
Have a family book club. Choose a book to read with your children and then have them write a short essay discussing their thoughts and feelings on the book. Go over the themes of the book, analyze the writing style and have them break the story down by sections, plot etc. Your local library is an excellent resource for selecting age appropriate books. If you have children of varying different levels have them read different books or choose a book that can be interpreted on on many levels by different age groups.
Complete writing exercises with your children. This is particularly beneficial to children who participate in standardized testing or who will be taking college entrance exams. Starting them at a young age writing essays will give them a leg up above other children their age. Choose a topic such as the importance of recycling or something of that nature and allow the children a certain time frame to write an essay. The topic should be something that they would be asked on an exam. Keep in mind when go over the exams the different age levels and comprehension levels of the subjects with each individual child. Repeating the topics every other year will give the ability to gauge improvement in their skill and it is interesting for them to read their old responses compared to their new ones.
Making writing and reading a part of your home, will enable your children to have a higher comprehension of the written word. Encouraging their writing efforts both at home and school will give them added motivation as well. Although some people have natural ability when it comes to writing, as with anything practice makes perfect.
Published by Hillary Marshall
I love to write. I have since I was a girl. I write short stories, essays, and poetry. I have one daughter and she is 14. Someday my daughter will surpass me her writing is fantastic. Currently I freelance w... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentIn our state, we have writing tests. In order to help our writing skills, my parents started paying me to write. 1 cent a word, 2 cents if edited. Now my writing is awesome! (And no, I'm not the only one who says that.) I have been told that by many people, many language arts teachers, my parents, pretty much everyone who reads my stuff.
Another way to help writing are to read. The more you are exposed to literature, the better you are at it. In 6th grade they tested my voacbulary in speech (I had/have a speech impediment) and they found out that m y vocabulary, in 6TH GRADE, was at/over a college level. Why? Because I read and wrote a lot. It truly helps.
Very practical!