Writing With Young Children

writing involves multiple skills so can be really hard for kids.
There is a wide scale of normal at these young ages. Your child sounds within normal! This child of mine is what some would refer to as a gifted learner ( we don’t like labels so we don’t call it that. She is who she is.) so I would say her writing for age 7.5 is likely on the higher end of normal. Just as with reading, we have done a lot to create a positive writing environment. Our approach with reading worked like a charm so we are doing the same with writing. Here are a few of things we do...

-have lots of different writing materials ( mini note pads, stick notes, index cards, blank cards, fancy writing stationary, journals, diaries ect.). And various writing tools available for free use.

- my husband and I do a lot of writing and therefore she sees that as part of the culture of our home. She has been making lists of her own since she was two. They use to just be scribbles but now she fills pages with real words! We still write letters to people or send them cards. She then follows in our footsteps.

- we are a big story telling family. Good writers know how to tell a a good story. This has been huge in her finding her writing voice and gaining confidence in what to write.

- We spent three last two years doing a bi- weekly poetry tea time. We read poetry, but we also wrote it! We would make up our own pieces and then share them, or we would write something together, or i would have my daughter dictate what she wanted to write and I would write it down.

- We play with writing. When playing restaurant I would have her write a menu. When doing a puppet show or a made up play, she writes the program or script. When playing vet, she writes the records for her stuffed animals. While driving in the car we play a game where I give her a basic sentence and she has to make the Sentence more interesting with rich language.

- I model writing for her. This allows her to see the writing process played out without doing the work. She contributes, but I guide it.

- We look for inspiration. For example the other day I had a purple felt tip pen dry out. I called out I have a great writing idea for the next time we do free writes. “ The pen that failed me”! We may be outside on a walk and my daughter will yell out I have an idea for a writing piece ...”The windy day”.

- free write Friday’s. On Friday’s we both do free writing. I feel it’s important for me to do it alongside of her. It models a positive attitude towards writing and makes it more fun. We both enjoy sharing our work. This is ungraded, uncorrected, I don’t care if it’s sloppy writing. The point is to enjoy writing, and We Do!

- No pressure. I do not force writing.
We really lead by example in our house. If there is something we want our child to be doing , we make sure to do it ourselves. Everything from making our bed, to using manners, to taking time to relax, to writing and studying, our child sees us doing it. You want a child to read more, read more yourself. You want them to write, write yourself. You want them to exercise, do so yourself. You want your child to read the Bible , let them see YOU reading the Bible. Children live their lives by what they see.