Clipartpanda.com I have a dilemma. My 11 year old granddaughter hates to write. I mean she really hates to write! She loves to research. She loves to develop stories. And, she has literally thousands of ideas that she wants me to write about, but when I try to get her to write them down it's a struggle for both of us. Her usual reply is, "I'll tell you the story and you write it down because I hate to write." Oh, she will write her school assignments begrudgingly and slowly--very, very, very slowly. But, her sighs, head slaps, rolling eyes, and slouching shoulders make me feel like an ogre when I tell her she has to finish the assignment. So, how do I inspire her to write her stories--or anything--down?
There are numerous websites and books that attempt to teach parents (and grandparents) how to inspire kids to write, and I have tried all of them.
We've tried asking questions like, "If you were a Princess, what would you wear?" I gave her ten minutes to write two sentences. Instead, she designed her perfect princess dress and colored it in. I tried the family time capsule idea from the Great Kids website. the whole family writes about who you are today, includes pictures, and seals it in a box to be opened at some later date. That didn't work either. She wanted to take video instead of writing and put it into the box. We tried making a picture book (she has several fantastic stories that would really work), but nope that didn't work either. Then, we stumbled on an idea. I say "we" because it was a joint inspiration on a frightfully long day of, "Are you finished, yet?". These are three ideas we have for inspiring kids to write:
Now, I'm not saying these ideas will work for everyone, but the important thing is it works for us--so far. Do you have other ideas that can inspire a child to write?
There are numerous websites and books that attempt to teach parents (and grandparents) how to inspire kids to write, and I have tried all of them.
We've tried asking questions like, "If you were a Princess, what would you wear?" I gave her ten minutes to write two sentences. Instead, she designed her perfect princess dress and colored it in. I tried the family time capsule idea from the Great Kids website. the whole family writes about who you are today, includes pictures, and seals it in a box to be opened at some later date. That didn't work either. She wanted to take video instead of writing and put it into the box. We tried making a picture book (she has several fantastic stories that would really work), but nope that didn't work either. Then, we stumbled on an idea. I say "we" because it was a joint inspiration on a frightfully long day of, "Are you finished, yet?". These are three ideas we have for inspiring kids to write:
- Create a photo journal of the day with captions. A caption is just a few words that identifies the picture, who is in it, and if you like, what you were doing.
- Make a video diary. After dinner, turn on the iPad ( or phone, or whatever) and record what your day was like. Then, in a paper diary write the date and one thing that stood out from your video. Here is one from her, "January 15, 2016 I won another Pokemon." Hey, it's a start!
- Create a book idea notebook. This is just a small notebook that holds anything that represents an idea for a book. It can be a picture, a drawing, a possible title, or even a sentence or two. When an idea hits, she puts it in the book so we can discuss it later.
Now, I'm not saying these ideas will work for everyone, but the important thing is it works for us--so far. Do you have other ideas that can inspire a child to write?
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