Throughout history writing has not only been an important form of communication, it was also once a work of art. Many of our forefathers spent endless hours working to perfect their handwriting as each stroke was believed to in some way tell who they were. Haphazard writing indicated that a person was lazy or unkempt; while beautiful strokes proved that the person was organized and well put together.
Today it isn’t so much about our own personal strokes of the pen, but more about which font we use. Handwriting has become a utilitarian skill used for note taking in class or meetings. It is a skill that we still teach in the third grade to equip our youngsters with the tools for this task, and hopefully, we are not longer drilling this task in the grades to follow.
What should we be preparing this next generation of writers to do? OUTPUT INFORMATION! Writing is actually one of the most difficult tasks for most children to learn. Taking ideas from inside their minds and getting them out on paper can be just as tricky for them as looking at a tree and painting it to perfection. Writing uses the entire brain—first by utilizing the right side to creatively compose our masterpiece of ideas, and secondly to go back and use the left side to correct punctuation and semantics.
My tip for today is for us to give our children more opportunities to write which will in turn help them to output ideas. Some suggestions on ways to do this are:
• Have your child keep a journal.
• By all means, let them see you write and write often!
• Have them write a letter or e-mail to a friend
• Make up stories in the car and just tell them.
• Play “Finish my Story” and start a funny story for other family members to finish
• Point out specific writing techniques when you read to your child—“I really like the choice of words that the author used here. It helps me to picture what he’s trying to say.”
• Introduce your child to a thesaurus as well as show them how to access it on the computer
• When at the beach, brainstorm words to describe all 5 senses
• Sit outside and listen to the sounds. Brainstorm words that can describe these sounds
The more children have the opportunity to write—without someone constantly critiquing them—the more automatic and intuitive it will become. After all, the greatest writers have declared that their best works have come from deep within their souls!
