Exploring Creative Writing with your Child
Creative writing is a good time for children to develop their skills in vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure. It’s also good for developing a child’s ability to be creative, exploratory and to enjoy the process. Being creative should always feel fun, so trying out writing is important to nurture. Here are some ways to explore creative writing with your child.
Continue to write all of the time
Writing constantly is a good tool to keep your child engaged and focused on how they are developing their skills naturally. If they do this very often it will show them how well their vocabulary has developed and what it will do to their creative writing skills. Give your child a notebook to continually write in all of the time to help build their development naturally. The more they write, even if it’s full of mistakes at first, the more your child will pick up things as they go.
Read a lot at the same time
While writing is hugely beneficial for children, reading also helps this process along as well. Give your child that opportunity to pick up lots of different books that will help with their confidence and their skills in writing. Having lots of stories to pick up will identify new words and phrases they can use in their creative writing, which will develop their knowledge further. We recommend taking up a range of different genres to help with a child’s reading and development of their vocabulary. Fiction and fantasy are firm favourites with children, who can also experience a lot more of what it means to be creative and inquisitive.
Lean into what your child is learning about in school
School is where your child spends most of their time each week, so it’s worth having a look at what your child is learning about in school and using that to your advantage. If your child is learning about zoo animals at their prep school in Surrey, for instance, you can use those to encourage your child to write a story. This works in both ways – your child is building their skills in animals and biodiversity while also working on their skills in writing creatively.
