Parents and educators are constantly searching for new and improved ways to teach young kids how to write. This is because, over the years, they’ve realized that it’s not upon kids to adapt to existing teaching methods, but the responsibility of teachers and parents to figure out a child’s learning method.
After learning how to read, writing is an important life skill. Kids should learn how to put pen to paper from a tender age. And if you don’t know how to go about teaching these skills, consider looking for insights on RankMyService.
The good news is, writing is an easy skill to learn, so your child will get the hang of it pretty fast. All you have to do is find a suitable teaching technique that caters to their specific needs. Another thing is to be patient with the child because if you rush then, you’ll make them feel like writing is this impossible task they won’t ever be able to master.
What’s more, acknowledge any progress the child makes as this motivates them to keep learning and to grow better and better with time. You also need to reassure your child that they can approach you with something they’re struggling with. Tackling all the challenges might have in the early stages allows them to move one having rectified all the issues that would have compromised their writing prowess in the future.
Even though writing seems like a clear-cut activity, find a way to make it creative and fun for your young one so they can look forward to the learning sessions. Your portrayal of writing as a skill determines how your child will perceive it and the effort they’ll put in to learn it.
Keep reading to learn secret tips you can use as you teach your kids how to write.
Start with the Basics
Since writing has guidelines that govern grammar and spelling, this is where your lessons should begin. Starting with the basics ensures that by the time your child moves on to actually writing, they know the writing rules to follow. For instance, your child should know that the word at the beginning of every sentence should be capitalized and that every sentence should end with a period.
A basic understanding of grammar concepts ensures they don’t make weird mistakes when they’re writing because they’ll know the right way to go about it. This is not to say you should introduce your child to all writing rules in the beginning. The knowledge you expose them to should correspond with their age and mental capacity.
Introducing a student to new writing concepts as their age advances ensures that by the time they get to college, they have all the knowledge they need to write impressive essays. What’s more, the slow progression allows them to absorb the most important information and gives them time to fall in love with writing. Your child will end up enjoying writing because they understand it so well.
When they get to college, they won’t struggle with structuring their essay and stay on-topic because they shall have had years of learning, preparation and practice. This is because exposing a child to writing concepts from a tender age makes writing less tricky and more fun. They’ll be able to think for themselves and come up with creative storylines and approaches for essay assignments.
Create an Outline
As you introduce your young one to the basic concepts of writing, you should also help them create an outline. Every time you’re having a writing lesson, work with an outline so that your child gets used to working with a structure. Outlines help students balance the logical progression of their writing from beginning to end.
They need to learn how to achieve sentence consistency and to ensure their work is enjoyable to read no matter how basic it is. What’s more, structure helps your child make their work contextual and relevant. How they link their sentences determines what different phrases would mean when they’re put together.
This is where you introduce the use of punctuations and conjunctions to establish the continuity of anything your child is working on. Over time, they’ll learn how to achieve comprehensive communication using words.
Encourage Reading
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “to be a great writer, you’ve got to be an avid reader” more times than you can count. Well, it rings true because reading helps you explore new writing techniques you can apply in your future writings. Your child can discover everything you’ve been trying to teach them when they go through books that target readers their age.
Use Technology to Help Your Child
Since we live in a digitized era, you should take advantage of technology to make reading easy for your child. Look for online writing resources that use fun activities to break down the writing process. Your child will be better engaged by a visually appealing platform or application that meets them at their point of need. Since children interact with the world through play, letting them interact with fun applications ensures they don’t perceive learning as a chore.
Conclusion
When you make the decision to teach your young one how to write, make an effort to make the process fun and enjoyable for them. Remember to the patient and slowly explain anything they might be having trouble understanding. Your child will later thank you for the sacrifices you made to make them great writers.