Q. How can I encourage my child to write stories?
A. If the problem is that your child is not willing to write, you can still tap their creative juices by asking them to draw their story. Let them be inspired by cartoons or comic books. Look at classics such as Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs. Point out how pictures can be variously sized, how they can show long-views or close-up views just like on television.
Q. My children lack inspiration!
A. There are several tried and true methods when the wail of “but what shall I write about?" echoes around the kitchen! My favourite is to get the children to choose five words at random from a dictionary.
Yesterday my son chose plague, lance, insult, half and comic. Not only did he compose an interesting story but we also got to discuss history and he learned to spell a new word!
Another interesting method is to play Snakes and Ladders board game. Whatever number you land on is the number of the page in the dictionary where you must choose your next word. When you go up a ladder, something good must happen in the story. If you go down a snake, something bad must happen!
If you are going on holiday, buy your child a soft toy and attach a writing book to it in some way. Help the child choose a name for the toy and discuss where it comes from and what its background is. During the holiday the child could write a holiday diary in the book outlining what the toy has done.
Cut out a picture of a person from a magazine and ask your children to describe that person physically. Later on try to guess what their personality would be like, how they might sound, what they might say.
Discuss the atmospheric conditions on another planet and get your child to imagine what kind of alien might live there. What kind of body would they have? Would they walk? Would they be intelligent? Would they be friendly?
Read "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" (by Jon Scieszka) with the children. This tells the "Three Little Pigs" story from the wolf's point of view. Then encourage them to rewrite another fairy-tale, such as "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" from the point of view of the troll"
If you have read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl, you will remember the marvelous description of the Chocolate Room in Chapter 15. .Your child could try to think of other rooms that may be in the factory, and try to describe them.
These are just some of the inspiring ideas you might try – but the possibilities are limitless. The best method for inspiring children to write is to create stories with them – to let them see that you too love to create!
If you like the advice Sharri has given here and you have some questions yourself, please email Sharri directly and she will do her best to help.
To email Sharri directly please click here Sharri@dancingleaf.co.uk
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