Right, Its Time To Write

Writing is a vital skill that children will eventually use over and over again in all subjects at school.  Whether writing up an experiment in a science lesson, writing a story in an English lesson or writing about their favourite sport, writing is unavoidable.  But, learning to write can be tricky to start with and some children are simply put off by all the complications of writing.  This is easily avoidable and because writing is so vital at school and indeed in the adult world too, it's important to introduce children to writing in a fun and positive way.  Then, these early skills will be built upon and writing will be the next step.

Some ideas to make learning to write a positive experience:

1. Spend lots of time talking to your child and listening to them.
2. Read lots of stories - whenever and wherever you can.  Try all sorts of books with all sorts of pictures.  As they get to school age, introduce non-fiction books: how things work, children's books about topics they like such as cars, trains, dancing etc.
3. When writing yourself (shopping lists or notes to school or nursery) encourage your child to watch and see you write words.  Encourage them to write too.
4. Get some fun paper to practice writing on: different sizes, textures, colours etc.
5. Get some good (and fun!) pens and pencils for them to use.
6. Give lots of praise if they do manage to write and don't focus only on their mistakes.
7. Break down the letters when they are learning, so they an see how to build the letter shapes.  (ie. a P is a straight line and a circle at the top.)
8. Once they are beginning to learn, leave messages for your children or post it notes on their bed or door  Write on their chalk board say hello!
9. Put together a photo album and caption the pictures.
10. Send yourselves a postcard if you go away or out for the day.

It can be fun and with a little thought, you'll find that your little ones enjoy writing and begin to make great progress.  Perhaps one day they'll be writing their own blog!