There are aways parts of school and learning that we all are less fond of. Personally I was never a fan of chemistry or physics. They bored me to death, my husband on the other hand loved them.
Writing is a common dislike among children, especially younger ones who are just learning to read, write and spell. I hope that these tips will be able to help your reluctant writers turn a corner and start to love…or at least not detest writing.
Why Does My Child Dislike Writing?
The first step in being able to overcome a problem is to figure out what is causing it. You can not attempt to fix something without knowing it’s cause. There can be a multitude of reasons why a child doesn’t like writing.
Writing Hurts Their Hand and Wrist
This is particularly true of little children who are not yet proficient at writing. It takes a long time to build up the strength they need in their little fingers to be able to sustain a long period of writing. They will tire easily and become obstinate about wanting to write. And who can blame them, no one wants to do something that causes pain no matter how important it may be.
One way to remedy this is to put the writing away and work on building up strength in their fingers and hands. Play doh and clay are perfect for this, along with using clothes pegs, spray bottles and squeeze bottles. Anything that gets those little fingers and hands moving is great.
Soft pencil grips are also a good idea to make writing more comfortable. They help children maintain the correct grip which is, for most children the predominantly more comfortable grip. If they are holding their pencil strangely it could be increasing the discomfort without them realising there is an easier way to hold a pencil. My daughter learnt to hold her pencil with all five fingers. It looked ridiculous as did her writing. She had little control so her letters were ginormous and she got a sore hand within 2-3 minutes. Once we corrected her grip, her writing became neater and her ability to write for longer periods of time increased.
Writing is Boring
Yes some things are boring but we can always find away to make them a little less boring.
- Write out a list of writing prompts on popsicle sticks and put them in a jar. Each week/day they can pick one stick out to write on. When they have something that is fun and exciting to write about it suddenly becomes a lot more enjoyable.
- Make the writing have a purpose. Many times if children feel like they are writing just for the sake of it, it becomes mundane. Once their writing has a purpose it becomes more important. Some ideas include, letters to family/friends/penpals, shopping lists, recipes, plans for Summer, invitations to parties etc.
- Talk about writing. One of the biggest obstacles to overcome is know what to write. The way to overcome this is to sit down with them and help them to work through some ideas. Teach them how to brainstorm and get their brain thinking. Writing is as much about ideas and imagination as it is about the actual act of writing.
Is My Child’s Spelling a Factor?
This has been where we have stubbled in our family. My children love to write but only when they can spell the words. Unfortunately their spelling is not up to the same level as the content they want to write. This causes so much frustration and avoidance when it comes to writing.
Mindset is one of the ways that I am using to overcome this. Creative writing and writing for fun does not need to be perfects. We have used some of the Big Life Journal mindset printables to help encourage them in feeling like it is okay to make mistakes and mistakes are the first step in learning. This alone has made a big difference in their approach to how they feel about writing. They are now attempting to write everything they are wanting to say without worrying about spelling. Once they have their draft copy done we then go over the spelling. We use the word they have misspelled as spelling words for the week.
If you are looking for a spelling curriculum I would All About Learning has a wonderful program. This is a solid spelling program that teaches not only how to spell but the rules surrounding why we spell words they way we do. It was eye opening to me as I had never learnt this way. We also use their reading program for the early years which you can’t go wrong with either. Such a great company who really has the needs of the child at the centre of it.
Will Narration Help My Child’s Writing?
Yes it will. It seems somewhat counterproductive to encourage dictation in order to promote writing skills but it really does work. Have you noticed that a child can narrate an incredible story to you but is not able to write it down? This is because they learn the skill of narration far earlier than they learn to write. Narration however is a precursor to becoming an proficient writer. It teaches them how to articulate their sentences, and add in descriptive language.
Instead of asking your child to write a story or essay, have them tell it to you verbally while you act as a scribe for them. This is really important for those younger children. Charlotte Mason has a great philosophy surrounding this which would be really beneficial for you to read up on.
Narration takes the pressure off children that writing can cause, but they will soon be more willing to write down their own stories as they become better at knowing what to write and how to word things because they have had so much practice at saying it out loud.
Making Writing a Game
There are lots of ways that you can make writing into a game. One of my favourite ways is to have one person write a few lines of a story then pass it along to the next person for them to carry on and so on. At the end you will end up with a usually hilarious tale that has been enjoyable and exciting for everyone to create.
Use Different Writing Tools
I am a stationery geek I will freely admit that. There is something wonderful about new pens and fresh paper. Take your child to a stationery store and let them pick out some new pens and books to write in.
My oldset, who is my most reluctant writer has just fallen in love with bullet journalling. It has been an amazing way to get him writing because he wants to and not because I require it. Have a look at it on YouTube because it really is super cool.
Window markers are another tactic that we have used to encourage writing. It seems slightly rebelious to be writing on windows so I guess that is why my children love it. I then pay my three year old to go clean all the windows for me. It’s a win win. He prefers to be paid in M & M’s than money these days.
Really what I am saying is have a variety of different pens, papers, colours, sizes etc available. It makes writing a lot more fun and enjoyable when it isn’t just presented to you as a ruled white sheet of paper and grey lead pencil.
Speed Writing
Some children work best when there is a time restraint. For example my six year old will work her hardest when she knows that she will only have to do it until the alarm goes off in 10 minutes. If there is not a set time she will likely complain and drag out a 10 minute task to at least 30 minutes (and you are silently screaming in your head “if you had just got on with it you would be done by now!”)
You could set a timer for 10 minutes with the task to write as much as you can with the journal prompt ” If I had super powers I would…”. Once the timer goes off they can then share what they wrote. I really do find journal prompts to be a great way to get them started.
So there were have it. I hope this post gives you some ideas to get you started. Writing can be really tough, it is still not something I particularly enjoy. My handwriting is atrocious. Unfortunately it is a fairly essential life skill and if we can help our kids to come to love it and enjoy it then it will make a huge difference in the years to come.
