This week at school our girls are learning the mechanics of proper writing. On the weekends we whisk them away to local coffee shops (with pencil and paper in hand) to imagine a world with dragons who eat broccoli, cats that fly, and lifetime supplies of confectioneries … candy continues to be a trending theme in their work.
Our children will live in a world where knowledge is simply not enough to succeed.
Foster creative thinking skills by encouraging your children to write outside of school.
Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
— Albert Einstein
5 Simple Ways to Encourage Young Authors
Below are five tips to help you inspire your little author…
1. Life is better with whip cream and sprinkles.
Set aside special writing time. Make a hot cocoa and coffee writing date with your little one. They’ll treasure the special one-on-one time whether you go out on the town or hang out at your kitchen table.
My daughter and I headed to our favorite local coffee shop, chugged some cocoa, and got started.
2. Bring a number-two pencil.
Be prepare. Have a variety of supplies. We have a writing bag that has lined notebooks, markers, pens, rainbow Sharpies, pencils, erasers, and blank drawing paper. I always ask my daughter if she’d like to write in pencil (for easy erasing), but it really depends on her mood.
3. Starting with a blank page can be a challenge.
Provide inspiration. Search the web for Story Starters!
This is the writing prompt Rose got at the coffee shop:
Tell a story about the secret life of a brave little girl whose best friend is a bird.
Here are 49 story starter prompts to get you started!
These prompts are, of course, great for a sit-down writing session. They are equally as cool when you’re standing in a checkout lane a mile long with an ants-in-the-pants child.
Rose immediately dove into writing a story.
The words seemed to flow out of her. She handed me one page, two pages, three pages…
4. A picture is worth one thousand words.
Go with the flow. Children tells stories in many ways. Offer a positive response to any format: drawings, comic style, poems and so on.
5. One suggestion at a time. ONE.
When you read over your child’s work, be positive. If your little one asks for tips to improve their work, Melissa Taylor of Imagination Soup recommends finding three specific things to praise and ONE suggestion.
If you have older children, she also suggests using Post-it notes to make recommendations rather than writing directly on your child’s paper. This simple trick empowers young writers to be able to make changes on their own. Brilliant! [Read Full Post: Help Your Child With Writing Assignments]
The mug says it all my friends…
Be Kind. Be Silly. Be Nice. Be Happy.
How do you help encourage the little author in your life? I am always looking for new ideas. Let’s chat in the comments!
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