How to Improve Writing Skills for Kids– It has been said that if a child can talk, they can write. We wholeheartedly agree with this statement, although writing improvement may still be in order. To help children learn how to improve their writing skills, we suggest using exercises that are enjoyable. We also suggest you use writing prompts with your writer to further support their writing skill advancement.
A key to improve writing skills for the young writer is to help them have fun so they can enjoy their writing skill development process. Furthermore, it is well-known that teaching young writers how to improve their writing skills will help them in numerous ways in life. The importance of improving a child’s writing skills level should be a top priority, especially when an improvement in writing ability will assist them in so many ways. From getting into college to thriving in their careers, the ability to write — and write well — is a vital component to most people’s success in life.
Of course, improving one’s writing skills can also help a child be more creative. Moreover, encouraging a young writer to improve their ability to write will also stimulate their minds and may increase their curiosity about the world. For some children, writing can also serve as an outlet to deal with difficult life situations and/or negative feelings. The process of writing about a problem can often help children find a way to solve it in a constructive way.
Take a look at the prompt ideas and writing exercises to improve writing skills that are outlined below. We think your young writer will enjoy them and, as an added bonus, they will — hopefully! — have a lot of writing fun with these exercises and prompts.
Improve Writing Skills Exercises Prompts & Ideas to Write About
- Choose a random item and make a list of words that describe the item without giving away what it is. Then, trade your list with someone else and try to guess what the other person was describing.
- Find a popular historical speech and write a brief analysis about how and why you think it successfully convinced listeners of its main point.
- Choose one thing that happened to you last week and then write a fictionalized account of it.
- Write a brief reflection on any topic you like (such as your favorite hobby, your favorite family tradition, or your favorite food). Though you may normally sit down and begin writing immediately, today you should first spend 3 minutes thinking about what you want to say. Write down some notes or make an outline before you begin writing.
- Think about your writing process and write a brief reflection on what makes writing most enjoyable to you. Do you have a particular place you prefer to write? Do you have a favorite notebook or pen? What kinds of things do you like to write about the most?
- Write a short story that includes each of the following words: gold, song, horse, apple, lamp, muffin, scissors, game, and ocean.
- Write a rhyming poem that includes each of the following words: ball, phone, hear, smile, and green.
- Look to your left and list the first thing you see. Then, look to your right and list the first thing you see. Write a brief essay comparing and contrasting these two things.
See even more prompts to improve writing.
6 Exercise to Help Kids Improve Their Writing Skills
Below are six writing improvement exercises and ideas you can share with your child to get them on their way to improved writing skills. Enjoy!
Improve Writing Skills Exercise #1— Travel Log
Children love to travel and experience new things. When you take a trip, even if it is just an afternoon outing, encourage them to keep a travel log.
You could also encourage your child to write about some photographs they took while on the trip which can help them learn how to be more descriptive in their writing.
Improve Writing Skills Exercise #2— Dream Log
A dream log is another way you can get some children interested in writing. Ask them to write about their dreams as soon as they wake up in the morning. If they feel like sharing these with you, this can spark really interesting discussions which will help them understand the true magic of words.
Improve Writing Skills Exercise #3— Daily Journal
Encouraging children to keep a daily journal or a more traditional diary will help them improve their writing skills. Sometimes they will want to keep these written thoughts private. Be sure to honor the child’s choice.
Moreover, keep the focus of journal writing on the child’s unique self-expression, otherwise, it may end up seeming more like a chore or a written assignment and they will be less motivated to keep the journal. This is their opportunity to just write freely without having to be judged.
Here are 67 Journal Prompts to Inspire Your Young Journaler!
Exercise #4— Read
It is well known that children who read more tend to write better so anything you can do to encourage reading will also help them improve their writing skills. Some children respond really well to taking turns reading a book out loud with you. Some will also enjoy story hour at your local library or bookstore. This type of activity can be used as a reward and will usually get them excited about reading.
If your child leans toward reading comic books or exciting adventures like Harry Potter, don’t discourage them and try to make them read the “classics” instead. Almost any type of reading, appropriate for their age, of course, will help them pick up new vocabulary and learn how to form well-constructed sentences, paragraphs, and whole stories.
Exercise #5— Texting… yes, Texting!
Some people believe that texting, Twitter tweets, Facebook posts, and other social media outlets ruin writing skills because of all the slang and codes that are used.
However, when done properly, this type of writing can improve a person’s writing skills a great deal. There is a great book to support this form of writing skill development called, “From Texting to Teaching” that you may want to check out. Also, we highly suggest monitoring children with these types of activities to make sure they are not exposed to inappropriate people.
Exercise #6— Letter Writing
Letter writing can also help improve writing skills. Regardless of whether or not they write an old-fashioned letter with a pen and paper or use a more modern method like email, they will be more motivated to make sure their writing gets their point across if they are writing to someone they know and care about.
Encourage your children to write letters to grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, cousins, or anyone else in the family. Pen pals can also be a lot of fun for children, especially if the child they are corresponding with is in a foreign country. For specific prompts that can be used when writing to a pen pal, see this fun post here!
See 32 Letter Writing Prompts here.
The bottom line is this: anything you can do to help make writing fun for your children will help them learn how to improve their writing skills.
There is no doubt about it, writing is a skill and a joy that will serve your child well throughout their lifetime.
Until next time, write on…
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journalbuddies.com
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