Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Getting Kids To Write ...


About a week ago, Jo blogged on Books go Beyond Reading a post called Ways To Get Children Interested In Writing. She discussed ways to spark imagination in young children by using writing prompts or "what if ..." situations. She has some good ideas, so check out her blog if you can.

I'm pretty lucky when it comes to my kids. I don't know if it's because we homeschool and it's a part of our everyday life, or if they've picked up the love of reading and writing from me. I hope it's a little of both. My girls are avid readers and they're really into classics. You would think at ages 19 and 18 that they'd be into all the young adult books, but that's just not their thing. Check out Nichelle's blog, In My Own World to see what I mean. Nicole is the same way and can be found reading writings from Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, and such. She's considering a writing major for college also, which I think will be perfect for her.

My boys are the same way. Nathan is 9 and Neil is 7, and they both love to read and write. Nathan comes up with the most amazing story ideas. I keep telling him to write them down, but he's just bursting with ideas. He has a few that sound really good. He'll be explaining them to me and I can totally picture them in a book or movie. His new thing is making movie posters of his story ideas. He draws the cover, or characters, and then designs them to look just like the posters you'd see at the theater. He even includes the actors and rating system. They're really detailed. Neil isn't into the writing part so much, but he tries. He'd rather draw things out and explain them to me. I'm sure he'll pick up the other part eventually. The boys also come up with book ideas for me -- they're a constant source of ideas. Sometimes they're silly, but other times they're really good. I've included a lot of them in my stories -- including A New Job for Dilly, which will be out soon!

This picture of the girls was from 2001, and it was taken with a really old digital camera, so the quality isn't the best. One thing I've always done to encourage my kids to write is fill out a form called All About Me on the first day of school. It's 2 pages long and they have to write down all sorts of things -- from their address, to how tall they are, to what pets they have, to their favorite kind of cereal, their favorite books at the time, to what they want to do in school that year, and so forth. It's pretty detailed and usually takes them awhile to fill out. There is even a place to glue their picture on it. I've found it's a great way for them to keep track of their likes and dislikes and it's fun for them to go back and look at it years later. Did you write as a kid? If you have kids now, how do you encourage them to write?

13 comments:

  1. Wow, very impressive Rena! I didn't write as a child and don't now and neither do my kids, unfortunately. We don't read nearly as much as we should either which is very sad.

    I really like the All About Me paper, I think Emily would love that.

    Nancy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rena -

    I know you are very proud of your kids! They all seem to have their own specific talents and I LOVE that you encourage them. I see some many kids who don't have that in there lives...

    I hated writing, and still do, but like Neil, I drew everything I was thinking. Which sort of makes sense today!

    I also love that you homeschool. The idea is slowly taking to communities where I live and I find the kids who are homeschooled seem to be a lot more creative! I don't have children, not really in the cards right now, but I would love to homeschool!

    Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh! I like the "what about me" idea. Maybe I'll try that with my older girls as a summer project.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Before he started kindergarten, my son would draw pictures and dictate the words for us to write down. I still have those early books he wrote. He's still writing. Making movies now, too. My daughter also caught the writing bug. They inspire me every day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My son's reading and writing is totally picking up. I've been cracking the whip a bit on what books he can read because Captain Underpants does not need to be read over and over, and it seems to be really engaging a new love for reading for him

    ReplyDelete
  6. First off - I have been away and have missed your blog - I am off to read the ones I have missed.

    I was never a great writer - always a reader from early on. Then I found penpals when I was 17 and became a prolific writer... just no fiction! lol

    My kids are pretty young but both have a great imagination and we read to them every day. I can only hope they enjoy my love of reading and writing as they get older.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I loved everything about school as a kid (which may be why I became a teacher). My oldest son loves reading more than writing. My daughter loves to play school and make up stories. Her latest is called "The Very Shouty Girl" about a girl who always yells. It's cute!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I home school as well and am so glad my children have a love for reading!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I definitely wrote as a kid. It was something I discovered I liked doing during the time my mother homeschooled me. It didn't matter that I couldn't spell (still don't do very well in that department) Mom encouraged me. She was my first fan.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love the All About Me idea. I try to save the best samples of my kids' writing - I don't have anything like that from when I was little.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hmmm..my parents didn't take time to really do anything with me. Do you suppose that is why it is hard for me to read? I love to write and I like to read, but not really IN to reading. Trying though. And seriously! =/

    ReplyDelete
  12. My eldest loved writing stories until he was 13 when he got a teacher who described one of his stories as 'strange' (she didn't get his sense of humour). Fortunately, he now has a teacher who's encouraging him again.

    Sometimes I think homeschooling would have been a very good idea.

    ReplyDelete
  13. It is so cool that you are encouraging your boys to write. They'll be publishing their own books before you know it!

    ReplyDelete