How to Improve Writing Skills

How to Improve Writing Skills: Helping Kids & Exploring Some Very Fun Ideas —

Teaching children how to improve writing skills will help them in numerous ways later in life, from getting into college to performing well at their job. It will also stimulate their minds and encourage a natural curiosity about the world.

For some children, writing can also serve as an outlet to deal with negative feelings. We all process information differently when we write it down rather than when we talk about it. The process of writing about a problem can often help children find a way to solve it in a constructive way. Of course, writing can also help children be more creative.

Ideas on How to Improve Writing Skills in Kids

To help children learn how to improve their writing skills, you should consider finding ways to make writing more fun. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Children love to travel and experience new things. When you take a trip, even if it is just a weekend outing, encourage them to keep a travel log. You could also encourage them to write about the photographs they take on the trip which can help them learn how to be more descriptive in their writing.

A dream log is another way you can get some children interested in writing. Ask them to write about their dreams as soon as they wake up in the morning. If they feel like sharing these with you, this can spark really interesting discussions which will help them understand the true magic of words.

Encouraging children to keep a daily journal or a more traditional diary will help them improve their writing skills. Sometimes they will want to keep these written thoughts private. Be sure to honor the child’s choice.  Moreover, keep the focus of journal writing on the child’s unique self-expression, otherwise it may end up seeming more like a chore or a written assignment and they will be less motivated to keep the journal. This is their opportunity to just write freely without having to be judged.

It is well known that children who read more tend to write better so anything you can do to encourage reading will also help them improve their writing skills. Some children respond really well to taking turns reading a book out loud with you. Some will also enjoy story hour at your local library or bookstore. This type of activity can be used as a reward and will usually gets them excited about reading. If your child leans toward reading comic books or exciting adventures like Harry Potter, don’t discourage them and try to make them read the “classics” instead. Almost any type of reading, appropriate for their age of course, will help them pick up new vocabulary and learn how to form well-constructed sentences, paragraphs, and whole stories.

Some people believe that texting, Twitter tweets, Facebook posts, and other social media outlets ruin writing skills because of all the slang and codes that are used. However, recent studies have shown that this type of writing actually improves writing skills a great deal. You may want to monitor children with these types of activities to make sure they are not exposed to inappropriate people.

Letter writing can also help improve writing skills. Regardless of whether or not they write an old fashioned letter with a pen and paper or use a more modern method like email, they will be more motivated to make sure their writing gets their point across if they are writing to someone they know and care about. Encourage your children to write letters to grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, cousins, or anyone else in the family. Pen pals can also be a lot of fun for children, especially if the child they are corresponding with is in a foreign country.

In conclusion, anything you can do to help make writing fun for your children will also help them learn how to improve their writing skills. It is a skill and a joy that will last them a lifetime.

Until next time, write on…