Help Children Unleash Their Creativity And Develop Lifelong Writing Skills

Writing is a skill we all want our children to develop because we believe that as good writers they will have great opportunities in life. In today’s highly competitive world, a big chunk of our children’s lives is spent in school, in post-school academics, and in organized extra-curricular activities. In the short time children spend with us at home, we are intent on engaging with them not only emotionally and spiritually, but also intellectually. In many homes, this translates into more reading, writing, and math homework for children and more frustration and headaches for the parents. The challenge, therefore, is to make intellectual engagement seem like FUN.

There is also truth to the adage ‘monkey see, monkey do’! Our children do what we do, not what we say. The child that observes the parents reading, writing, or doing math puzzles for fun is more likely to do some of the same than the one who only hears the lecture on how important it is to develop these skills. Don’t worry; we can make it fun for you too!

What is creative writing?

Creative writing is just that – CREATIVE. The most important reason to focus on it is to encourage creativity in your child. Imagination, quirkiness, originality, uniqueness, individualism, self-expression are all aspects of creativity; all good reasons to write!

When was the last time you wanted to get something out of your system, but kept it bottled up because you feared the consequence of letting it out? Children too need an outlet. Give them a journal to write in (and while you are at it, you can get one for yourself one too!).

"Keep it spontaneous; it’s not school. The important thing is to create. What your children create need not start out as ‘correct’ – let go of your need to see grammatically correct, well-organized writing with all the words spelled correctly." Correctness invariably interrupts creativity. Give your children permission to allow the unregulated flow of thoughts and ideas.

If your child has a flair for creative writing

Author Judy Blume points out that the best writers write not because they want to, but because they need to. They feel compelled to write because there is a story inside them waiting to be told; a poem waiting to be written. Some children have this natural interest and flair for creative writing. What they often lack is an audience.

As children, they are not taken seriously as writers by anyone except their English teachers. Their creative writing skills may also not result in better grades in their exams because of the assessment parameters, so parents dismiss them. This attitude has to change. Parents need to provide the encouragement and recognition their children crave and deserve.

Here are some easy ways to make the creative writer in your family feel important and encouraged:

Get absorbed in your child’s work

Become an active reader of what your child writes (unless your child does not want you to read what they have written). It is important to establish that your interest in reading their work is not to find the errors and correct them but to understand their thoughts and stories.

"Express emotions that the piece may evoke in you – talk about whether you were saddened by something in the story, moved by an incident, or amused." 

Relate it to other stories you have read or events in your lives (when doing this with teenagers, be sensitive to the fact that they feel the need to be unique almost as much as they feel the need to find connections and relate to the outside world).

Follow up on unfinished projects

If your child has problems completing a story, poem or project, gently follow up. Offer to help or find a writer friend who may be able to help. Showcase finished projects This is perhaps the most crucial thing you can do for your young writer.

Suggestions: 

• Bind all finished work into volumes with your child’s name as the author.
• Start a library of collected works by your child (and friends).
• Help your child and neighborhood friends put out a block in the neighborhood newspaper—of, by, and for the kids.
• Suggest storybooks authored by the child as gifts for grandparents on birthdays or other occasions.
• Use stories written by older siblings as bedtime reading for younger siblings.

Reward all attempts (finished and unfinished) in different ways

Show your appreciation for the writing effort with small and big rewards – get a new pen; buy a favorite book; buy a song from iTunes. Make it something your child will enjoy.

To motivate the child with little or no interest in creative writing

Some children might not have any interest in creative writing and probably hate the idea of having to write even for schoolwork, let alone outside school. Nevertheless, there are benefits of encouraging creativity and self-expression in children. Children without an internal impulse for creative writing need a reason to write, in addition to the showcasing and audience talked about earlier. Two common reasons we would do things that we do not particularly enjoy are – wanting to become part of a group or to impress someone.

Parents can create the need to write by encouraging a variety of activities:

Make writing collaborative

Writing can be fun and less intimidating if done with someone else. This can be the parent, a sibling, or a group of friends.

• Write a story on the same subject (like using a picture as the inspiration) and read the story to each other.
• Have different people write different parts of the story and put them together.
• Write the next sentence in the story and make it funny.

Make writing meaningful

• Write stories about the things that happen in your child’s world. This can help them deal with events that may be weighing on their mind.
• Write stories or poems that express your moods as a way to create an outlet. When your child is mad with a friend (or even with you), help them draw a picture in words or in colors to express the emotion.
• Write solutions or resolutions. When there is a difficult problem, have your child write out how they would like to see it resolved. This may also make the child reflect on the complexity of issues.

Age-Wise Activity Ideas