Writing is one of the essential skills we acquire in school with lots of exercises and class assignments revolving around it. It can however be a stressful process for children especially. However, this skill transcends being just an educational skill into being a personal life skill with which one can find expression. Helping your child find expression through writing can give them an extra boost in life.
Although many find writing very challenging when compared to expressing oneself verbally, it is still important to learn and develop it. Writing can serve one better going forward either as a means of earning or for social interaction. Everyone holds a point of view they wish to express, nevertheless while this may be expressed verbally, it is also pivotal to learn how to express oneself in writing.
To do this, you need to state clearly the different points of view from which writing may be presented; the first person or the omniscient point of view. While the first person point of view implies the active involvement of the writer using ‘I’ or ‘We’, the latter is devoid of the writer’s involvement using he/she/him/her/ they/them/ or it. The first-person point of view is however applicable to children and should be introduced to them.
As an adult, you already know all of these. For a child though, it can all be a gruesome boring process to assimilate. If you however want your child to fall in love with writing, you have to make it easy and fun for them. Below are some of the tips to help your child find expression through writing.
Encourage them to read books.
A good writer is often a good reader because a writer is often a product of the book(s) they have read. Reading expands one’s horizon and knowledge. It also makes it possible for one to create mental pictures and have them penned down.
Encourage them to share their opinions with you.
Children need to be encouraged to share their opinion. You can have them pen it down in the same manner as they have expressed them. You can also encourage this habit through the provision of a diary or journal which you may ask them to read out to you during their leisure time.
Teach them to make an outline.
An outline is a skeletal framework through which one is able to logically express his or her thoughts. Creating an outline is essential in writing. This is particularly relevant in essay writing to make one’s writing more presentable and logical. Children should be taught to understand this, once they can successfully create an outline, writing becomes very easy.
Encourage them to practice writing often
Provide them with writing materials and a topic of interest to write on. It could be a cartoon series they enjoy watching. As a fun exercise, you could ask them to narrate the event in writing. They could also state the lessons they learnt from the story as a story. You could also ask them to create their own spins off a book they like.
All of these tips are helpful in developing a kid’s writing skills. However, if you’ve got other ideas on how kids may improve their writing skills, kindly drop them in the comment section.
