Many parents fail to realize the importance of creative writing in a child’s life. This essential skill impacts all aspects of a child’s life from school to college years and all the way into their work life.
If you are wondering whether your child has it in them to be a good writer, then here’s a fun fact: everybody has the potential to be a great writer, but it takes a lot of practice and commitment to do it on a regular basis.
In this post, we’ll talk about how you can help your child become a good writer. Read on to know more.
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Why Creative Writing Is Important For Kids?
Studies show that children who practice creative writing are likely to be better in subjects like science, math and languages. When children challenge themselves to think and write creatively, they become good at problem-solving, confident and disciplined – all are essential skills to succeed in all areas of life. Some of the benefits of creative writing are:
- Boosts imagination
- Broadens thought process
- Improves problem solving and analysis
- Develops confidence to assert themselves and voice their opinions
- Enhances persuasion and communication skills
So, encourage your children to write, be creative, and use their imagination. And don’t forget to praise them when they do.
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Expert Tips to Develop Creative Writing Skills in Your Child
Here are some ways you can help your child develop their creative writing skills:
Create a writing environment
Your child needs a dedicated space to write. Organize a space in a room with a desk or table with a flat, smooth surface. Ensure that the room has good lighting.
Use writing prompts for practice
Writing prompts will guide your child to write about a particular topic in a particular way and improve their creative writing skills.
Encourage journal writing
Journaling is particularly helpful when kids are learning to write. The best way to encourage journal writing is to ask your child to write about the best and the worst part of their day – every day.
Use visual images for prompts
Visual writing prompts are an exciting way to engage your child and assist them with creative writing ideas and concepts.
Teach them about working in drafts
Putting their ideas down on paper, checking the language and the flow, correcting the spelling errors, reviewing, and revising are steps involved in the creative writing process. Make your child understands the importance of a draft through which the perfect write-up develops.
Encourage them to read
Statistics show that avid readers tend to be good writers. A child who reads is exposed to new words and know how these words are used and in what context they are used. Once the new words are a part of their vocabulary, they can use them in their writing correctly.
Emphasise character development before writing the story
A story should be able to truly connect with the readers. Therefore, it is very important your child learns the importance of character development and pay close attention to it while writing.
Sign up for online creative writing classes
Help your child explore and expand their horizons by enrolling them into online creative writing classes like PlanetSparks. With the help techniques, tools, and varied topics, your child will learn the art of writing compelling content.
Keep a dictionary handy
When in doubt about a certain word, your child should have a resource that they can go to for help. A dictionary can help them understand the meaning of the word, and also learn the context of using it in their writing.
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Ideas for Creative Writing Prompts for Kids
Creative writing prompts for kids help them get into the storytelling mode quickly. You can simply give your child a topic to write about and let them come up with a creative prompt to get started
- Write letters to friends and family members
- Write grocery list
- Newspaper summary writing
- Write reviews of their meals
- Interview family members and write family stories
- Create a story around random 5-6 words given
- Draw a picture and write about it in 5 to 6 lines
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Creative Writing Prompts & Short Story Ideas
Here are a few creative writing prompts and story writing ideas you can give to your child:
- Imagine a large box is delivered to you at school. Write about what’s in it.
- Write a story about a boy who rode his bike to outer space.
- Describe what it is to have an ostrich as a pet.
- Write about how you would design your dream house.
- Write a story of a girl who ate candy all the time.
Creative Writing for Kids: Games, Activities, Exercises and More
Below are a few games, activities, and exercises you can do with your child to encourage and develop creative writing:
Telephone Pictionary
This is a group activity. The game is like playing telephone, hence the name. Have your child write down a quote from a movie or just any sentence that describes how they feel and pass it over to the next friend or family member – and that person has to draw what the sentence says.
Vocab Challenge
Ask them to learn one new word from school or books and then ask them to use that word in a sentence. If your child is older, ask them to use all the sentences they have made through the week to create a story.
Caption Contest
Use copies of funny family pictures and paste them into a scrapbook. Ask your child to write funny captions for each of the pictures.
Dialogue Writing
Print a comic strip with no dialogue and ask your children to fill the empty bubbles with dialogues.
Advertisement Writing
Give your child an object and ask them to write a creative advertisement to sell that object.
Scavenger Hunt
It’s a group activity. Using post-it notes, ask your child to create a simple scavenger hunt for family or friends.
Write Letters
Writing letters to friends and family is a great way to get kids to write creatively. Make your child write a letter to an older relative, cousin, or friend who lives far away.
Acrostic Associations
This is a great way to get your child to write poetry. Start simple by asking your child to write about their favorite pet, or a toy and make them write about it vertically down the page. Giving structure to their thoughts imposes some discipline on their wordsmithery.
The “What If” Challenge
It’s a group activity and a great family game. This challenge helps the child to create an entertaining piece of content in response to an interesting hypothetical question.
Ask everyone in the group to come up with a single “What If” question and write it down on a piece of paper. Then fold it and drop it into a bowl. Each participant pulls out one from the bowl and writes an answer to that question for a pre-decided amount of time.
How PlanetSpark Helps Your Child with Creative Writing Skills
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Online classes
Your child can learn the art of creative writing in a safe, low-risk environment – from the comfort of their homes.
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Comprehensive creative writing curriculum
Your child gets to explore various forms of creative writing such as narrative writing, descriptive writing, mystery writing, and fantasy story writing.
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Develop skills around the creative writing process
The program doesn’t aim to teach the basic syntax of the letter, essay writing, etc., but instead focuses on developing skills at each step of the creative writing process that includes:
- Free writing and Idea Generation
- Building Strong Characters
- Plot
- Setting and Description
- Revision
- Book Cover Design
Your involvement in encouraging and developing your child’s creativity at an early age will help shape their future. So, organize your daily schedule to make enough time for performing various creative writing activities with your child. Let PlanetSpark be a part of that routine.
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PlanetSpark can help your child bring a story to life. Our online classes for creative writing are fun, interactive, and naturally helps children to express themselves confidently.
Enroll now
