Is it a challenge to get your student writing? Creative writing develops valuable skills that help students with academic writing and critical thinking. For homeschool parents, it can seem like an uphill battle to get your student writing. If you’re the parent of a reluctant young writer, the task is difficult.
The summer is the perfect time to encourage your child to get creative. With a helpful start, your student can find a love for crafting stories.
1. Let your student’s writing be personal — or not
Kids are experts at making up stories. Chances are, your students already have years of practice creating characters and situations from the playground.
However, for many struggling young writers, the hurdle is not creating a story, but in being afraid to. Some of your students may have a knack for writing autobiographical stories, and that’s good! Just be sure to encourage your budding writer to be as fantastical as she wishes.
Being self-conscious because a piece of writing is “too personal” can be discouraging to students and stifles creativity.
2. Draw your story or explore with other mediums
For elementary students in my creative writing classes, I like to incorporate arts and crafts into assignments. This helps those who are less confident about their ability to write sentences with ease.
After all, storytelling is not limited to words. Young writers can still learn valuable storytelling lessons through a visual medium. If your student struggles to put words on paper, try letting him illustrate his story instead as a comic strip or by putting on a puppet show.
3. Use the Chopped writing approach
Everyone knows the fun of writing is the sense of the limitless possibilities it gives the author. It’s surprising how rules can get the creative energy flowing.
Luckily, there is a fun writing game that uses this idea to almost guarantee a story. If you’re not familiar with the Food Network show Chopped, it is a competition where chefs must utilize an assortment of strange ingredients and create a dish within a limited time.
For a writing game, come up with a few zany elements and give your student fifteen minutes to create a story that uses them. You’ll be surprised! A little bit of fun pressure can be useful. And for added fun, feel free to “compete” with your student and compare stories at the end!
4. Write a chapter of a favorite book
A good way to get your student invested in writing is to let her pursue her interests in her story.Your budding author may be an avid reader, or not, but everyone finds inspiration in something.
If your student wants to write his own chapter of a Harry Potter book, or a story set in the Marvel universe, that’s fine! It means your student is showing interest in writing and will likely be more enthusiastic about it than if he found the subject of his story boring.
Be sure to suggest your student follows her passion if she seems to be running low on story ideas. Often, starting out with fan fiction is a good way to spark a completely original story idea.
5. Encourage them to finish
This may seem silly when you’re trying to get your student to start writing. However, finishing a piece of writing is an important lesson to learn. Get your young writer started right by encouraging him that his writing is worth pursuing.
Even if the task is difficult, your student should try to follow through with every piece of writing. Learning to persevere is an important step to becoming a writer, and it’s a lesson that one is never too young to learn. Plus, your student seeing her own finished story is a great motivator to picking up the pen again!
Want more writing tips?
Check out my free printable, 75 Writing Prompts for Creative Writing for more ideas to jump start your student’s creativity!
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