How Can I Help My Child with Writing?
- Buy books as presents
- Play games such as Scrabble that focus on letter patterns
- Take an active interest in TV programs watched by children
- Talk with children about their interests
- Take delight in children's use of new words and encourage them to use the words in conversation
- Try simple crosswords with children
- Encourage children to write riddles, puzzles or letters for the children's pages of newspapers
- Encourage children to write postcards, letters, lists
- Help children to contribute to writing family shopping lists
- Ask children to underline any words that they think are misspelled in their writing
- Let children see that adults consult dictionaries
- Encourage children to read a variety of functional material eg simple recipes, TV guides, newspapers, how to make...
- Show children how adults spell a difficult word eg write it two or three times and choose the one that looks right
- Be patient and supportive
- Encourage children to make up plays for the family (children may write the script)
- Buy puzzle books that include word games
- Talk about informational books like atlases or street directories and how they are set out eg contents, index, glossary, headings, diagrams, graphs etc
- Talk about ways to remember the spelling of tricky words eg the word "here" is in "there"
- Take children to see suitable "live" theatre performances
- Help children see relationships among words
- Help children make generalisations about spelling
- Encourage children to write stories or books for younger brothers and sisters
- Talk about the layout of newspapers
- Write family rosters
- Be prepared to talk through homework tasks so that children clarify their planning and thinking
- Talk about writing tasks undertaken at school
- Provide a quiet study area for children
- Be prepared to discuss writing tasks with children
- Encourage children to continue to read and write for information and pleasure
- Discuss current events
- Talk about the mass media and its influence on society
- Encourage children to use writing to get things done eg letters to politicians, newspapers etc
- Encourage children to use writing to express their feelings and respect their privacy if they choose to keep personal diaries or letters
- Play word games, talk about word meanings
- Encourage children to use dictionaries and thesauruses independently
- Understand that the process of writing and refining writing for publication takes time
- Understand that writing is for different purposes and audiences
- Understand that different types of writing require different language, setting out and special vocabulary eg a business letter is not the same as a letter to a pen pal