Can't convince your homeschooled child to do creative writing?

by Beverley Paine, May 2019

What is the purpose or aim of asking your child to do creative writing? Is it to demonstrate the ability to write - that is, grammar, sentence construction, spelling, etc, or is it to encourage imagination, or the ability to express his imaginative thoughts?

Most adults would baulk at needing to do creative writing once a week or more often. So why should we ask our kids to do it? Our children tend to do things that make sense to them, that have immediate meaning in their lives.

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Most children I know - in fact, I don't think I've met a child that doesn't do this - will talk endlessly about their favourite TV show or computer game. Some will only talk about what they've seen, but most are ready and able, if not already doing it, expanding those scenarios into the realms of imagination - it is easy to suggest 'what would you do in that situation', or 'if you had those powers, how would you use them in that situation (or a different situation)', etc.

Okay, the kids still won't write it down - but what is stopping us from writing it for them if the aim is to encourage imagination or creative thinking? Write it down verbatim and then work through the paragraphs with the child to polish it, turn it into something that approximates what they'd read in a text or script. Over time you'll see how the child is developing their ability to critically evaluate their creative and imaginative thought processes.

There are plenty of ways you can help them hone that process: we've used 'story stones' or 'story cubes' (either with words or pictures) to stimulate ideas, as well as my old favourite 5 questions "who, what, where, when and why".

You can also spice up creative story writing by suggesting writing a script for a stop-go animation movie, and develop the ideas by drawing a storyboard (which is how many film makers begin to shape their movie ideas). Many published authors use sticky 'post it notes' contain the 'bones' of the story (character descriptions, big events, main ideas, plot twists, big reveals, etc) and stick them on a wall or window and move them around to form the 'skeleton' of the story that they later flesh out. These ideas will help generate those imaginative juices. The rest becomes the mechanics of writing.

If the aim is to prove the child can spell, use punctuation, get the grammar write, don't use creative writing as an exercise for that. If the reason behind the objective is to help children learn how to arrange their ideas and present them in a way that other people can follow and understand them, then there are other forms of writing that can be used to demonstrate and hone those skills: my favourites are persuasive and report writing.

Another reason home educating children may be reluctant to write is that writing is laborious and thoughts flow faster than small hands (and even most big hands!) can get those words onto the paper. Helping children learn typing skills may overcome that barrier for kids who have lots of stories inside them - and you'll know this because they'll take any and every opportunity to share them with you.

Not every person will grow up to be a writer and many of us channel our creative side into other avenues of expression: inventors, modifiers, engineers, scientists, artists, performers, architects, crafts people, etc. It's okay to reject this curriculum pressure to write creatively and allow our children to express themselves creatively in other areas of their lives instead.

See Beverley's other articles on writing: http://theeducatingparent.com/sitemap.html#writing.