Writing is one of the best ways to communicate with other people. We write everywhere and every time. We compose different emails, essays, and statements daily. Good writing is a lifelong craft one has to develop continuously. However, the sooner you start working on your skills, the more impeccable and creative style you will have in the long run.
It is imperative to start developing writing abilities from an early age. If you are a parent or plan on becoming one, you should think about teaching your kid writing. This article will focus on five tips on how to help children learn to write more virtually.
Read With Your Child
It goes without saying that writing and reading go hand in hand. To improve your writing skills, you have to read a lot of literature and augment your imagination, grammar, and vocabulary. Expert writers say that this useful source plays a pivotal role in a person’s writing abilities and future academic success.
Ensure reading together every day. Give your kid freedom of choice. If a child wants to read fairy tales, that’s natural. However, if he or she wants to read something more complex, let the kid try. Kids should know what they want, and under no circumstances should you select books to read.
Reading helps you become a stronger writer. It works when you are an active reader. That is why you should engage children in the process of reading. Try asking related questions. For instance, “What have you just read? Can you describe it in several words? What image do you have in your mind? Did you like the story? Why?”
Create Specialized Space
Indeed, composing letters must be scheduled and systematized. And the same goes for the working space. Decide on where you and your children want to work together. Make this place extremely comfortable for writing. Ask your kid what he or she wants to have there.
Such a working surface gives signs to the brain that makes one focus on relevant activities, improving children’s writing skills. However, it might be hard to organize your scripting for the first month. The thing is that different activities create habits after 21 days of systematic repetitions. Frequent writing is not an exception. Let them merge with the schedule and the working space.
Respond To Your Kid’s Writing
Even if your child doesn’t show it, they await your reaction. Analyze the ideas your child puts on paper. Make sure you are genuinely interested in what is written and try to make your kid elaborate on those ideas. Ask additional questions, such as why and how.
When it comes to the errors, you don’t necessarily have to point them out and say directly that the word is written wrong. Instead, you can ask your kid to spell the incorrect word and craft it together. When doing that, you can complete it slightly faster so that your kid can look at your example. It will help your child write a term correctly.
Moreover, take a gratifying approach and highlight great things to say about your kid’s writing. The piece might be original, fascinating, vivid, impeccable, and coherent. This will encourage children to use such words more frequently.
Once Your Child Is Older, Write Together
Needless to say that you can’t stop working with your child when he or she gets older. Practice writing makes your style polished to shine, and the longer you work with your kid, the better the skills he/she will obtain. Make the texts more complicated gradually. Start with shopping lists, simple messages, changing them into emails, book reviews you might have read together earlier, etc.
Such writing activities will ease a child’s future academic life. Try to teach your offspring the proper structure of such works. Explain that every written text needs to have structure, such as an introduction, the body section, and a conclusion.
You can also work on various dictations together. Ask your little one to multitask, meaning to read out loud and write the text simultaneously. When checking the work, give him or her positive feedback about the completion of such a challenging task.
Ask Your Child To Write Emails Or Messages To Relatives And Friends
Sending messages or letters to relatives and friends is an excellent opportunity to improve writing abilities. We talk with our friends and relatives in a different manner, using various informal and semi-formal constructions. A thank you letter to friends differs from a thank you letter to relatives. Knowing such differences will help your child learn how to write specific texts quickly following a relevant tone. You may also want to find the same kid who learns how to write and make it your child’s pen pal.
And don’t forget to emphasize the importance of occasional letter writing. It is crucial to send frequent letters and keep in touch with people. Even a couple of sentences sent once in a while will deliver pleasure and warmness to the addressee.
Wrapping Up
Writing is a skill that needs to be nurtured and developed. Childhood is the best period to invest in such abilities. Of course, to make your child’s writing skills skyrocket, you have to put lots of effort into showing an offspring how to write. The process of learning and teaching is time-consuming. However, you are likely to work with your child more productively and enthusiastically employing the mentioned tips.