Homeschooling your child or children can be fantastically rewarding if it is done properly. However, it can also be incredibly hard work, especially if you are not a teacher yourself!
When homeschooling a child, not only do you have to ensure that you are following a curriculum which will teach your child all of the skills they need, you also need to make sure that you are teaching them in a way which keeps them interested and engaged in the subject – if a child isn’t interested in what you are teaching them, then they will not learn!
This article is going to go through some of the tips and tricks you can use to keep your child motivated to learn about writing, no matter what stage they are at…
Reading
Reading has to come first. A child will never be able to write well if they don’t read widely. For young children, repeatedly reading the same books can help them to internalize the language structure of the texts.
Reading the same story over and over again probably isn’t any fun for you at all. However, young children delight in the comfort and familiarity of routine, and once they love a book you could read it to them over, and over, and over again … and they won’t get bored.
Games
Games are a great way of motivating children to learn. Depending upon what stage of education your child is at, and what you are trying to teach them, there are a huge number of games you can play.
For children who are just starting out writing, you can give them paintbrushes and a bucket of water. On a dry day, they can go outside and practice writing letters and words on the ground or the wall.
Using products like Sentifix, you can physically build sentences with your child. These bricks are color-coded to help your child learn about the different word classes.
Older children might benefit more from adding a competitive element to the writing, for example, who can write the most sentences using a certain adjective/adverb combination.
Apps
Apps can be a useful way of encouraging children to learn the technical skills of writing is to use apps.
Apps can help children to learn concepts such as the various grammar rules, where there are clear right and wrong answers.
However, apps cannot judge how effectively a child has composed a piece of writing and as an effective composition is fundamental to writing, you cannot rely on apps alone to help your child develop their writing skills.
Board Games
The great things about board games are not only that they are educational, but they also mean that you get to spend some great time with your children having fun – they are learning without even realizing it!
There are many websites which will suggest fantastic board games that you will be able to play with your child.
When selecting a game for your child, think carefully about their current level of knowledge and understanding of the writing and the particular skills that you want them to develop. Although it might be tempting to buy a game that is harder for them in order to develop that specific skill set, you could find that their confidence is undermined if they find themselves struggling.
Board games are a great way of developing composition skills for writing texts such as instructions. Children can design and make their own game, before writing the instruction text.
This can be extended by asking children to write persuasive texts to board game manufacturers, persuading them to buy the rights to the game so that the game can be mass produced.
DIY crafts
As with board games, DIY crafts are a great way of developing your child’s writing skills… but only if you take part in the actual craft!
As you work through the craft with your child talk about what they are doing, what the materials are like, how the materials feel, the resources they are using etc. As you are completing the task and the discussion, note down some of the great words and phrases your child is using. You can use these notes as prompts later on for their writing.
Online learning
Online learning can be a great tool to use in developing your child’s writing skills. However, for every fabulous educational website, there are probably ten or more really poor educational websites.
The difficulty is that almost anyone can create a website, and because practically everyone has been to school or been educated in some form or another they think that qualifies them to create educational content….so beware!! This is especially important if you are using the website to help teach a subject in which you lack confidence or are unfamiliar.
There are some great websites out there to help your child develop their writing skills. Just surf the web and find out what suits you best.
A combination of all these suggestions will really help you to develop your child’s writing skills over time. Remember, it is important not to put too much pressure on your child (unless they are being lazy!) as you don’t want to risk putting them off writing. Make writing a fun, enjoyable process and ensure that writing happens every day!
Whilst they are getting used to writing, why not buy custom written papers online from a professional writing service so they can see what great writing looks like as they are learning? Reading great examples, and lots of writing practice, as they say, makes perfect!
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