If you are looking for something to help make copywork and free-writing a regular habit this year, as well as encourage the kids to read, then I have just the thing....
Showing posts with label creative writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creative writing. Show all posts
Using free-writing to hear what your child wants to say
I want to draw your attention to something that you probably haven't paid much attention to, and it will blow your mind when you realise it....it did mine!
As obvious as it is (when you're aware) not many of us actually see it until its pointed out (I got my alert from Brave Writer).
Whether you read newspapers, books or online articles, one thing for sure is we're all used to reading good writing.
Most of us read the work of professional writers in some way every day. We know what good writing looks like, and we know what it does not.
So when our child steps forward to present before us their humble piece of work, in all its unedited glory, we see how it doesn't even come close to the good writing we are more accustomed to interacting with from professional writers.
What we miss, is the fact that all the professional writing we read, has been drafted, proof-read, edited, and corrected before we set our eyes upon it.
And yet we still somehow expect (even without realising we do it) that our child should be able to produce a piece of written work equal in stature, free from misspellings and grammatical errors... on the first attempt.
The good news is, once we realise this, there are a lot of fun ways we can help encourage our children to improve their writing skills, and importantly, develop their writers voice. Because lets face it, no matter how grammatically correct a piece of writing may be, it is the writer's unique voice which propels that writing forward and makes it something special.
Homeschooling with Brave Writer
One of the most common questions I get from sisters contacting me is about Brave Writer. If you see me on Facebook, Instagram or any Whatsapp groups we share, I'm always recommending it and so you come to me wanting to know more. I feel as though Brave Writer really should be paying me because so many conversations I have with mums are like sales pitches convincing them why Brave Writer is so awesome.
I'm going to set out in this article everything I love about Brave Writer and explain what it is so that you can understand it a little better. I kindly request if you have questions about which programme you need for your children, to please contact Brave Writer directly to help you with that....I'm not a Brave Writer employee (I felt that needed clarifying).
I totally get why Brave Writer causes a little confusion. We tend to be more familiar with English and Literature studies through the eyes of workbooks, textbooks and worksheets. Brave Writer uses non of these things, so we are puzzled. How does Brave Writer work if there isn't a textbook in sight?
I'm going to set out in this article everything I love about Brave Writer and explain what it is so that you can understand it a little better. I kindly request if you have questions about which programme you need for your children, to please contact Brave Writer directly to help you with that....I'm not a Brave Writer employee (I felt that needed clarifying).
I totally get why Brave Writer causes a little confusion. We tend to be more familiar with English and Literature studies through the eyes of workbooks, textbooks and worksheets. Brave Writer uses non of these things, so we are puzzled. How does Brave Writer work if there isn't a textbook in sight?
Writing mini-office
In an attempt to improve writing skills, this basic Writing Mini-Office has been designed to help prompt and remind younger writers of some key writing basics inshaAllah!
It is not a learning tool, but rather allows students to recap already learnt basic fundamentals whilst writing!
So if your child needs to be reminded to add their capital letters and full-stops, to check spelling and basic punctuation, then this is for you!
Just print out onto thin card and laminate, or stick onto strong cardstock, before taping together the sides to produce a professional looking tri-fold mini-office!
I always suggest printing onto thin card when laminating, as it gives a smoother final finish and also will give you a stronger tri-fold stand inshaAllah!
I find when laminating paper, the sheet will be noticeably weaker and tends to bend slightly- which is fine if you are laminating something to go on the wall for example, but as we are wanting this to stand, thin card gives a much more professional and stronger final finish.
If thin card is not available to you, then I would recommend printing onto good quality strong paper.
Whether you choose to laminate your mini-office pages or stick them onto strong card-stock instead, a stronger paper quality will help to prevent wrinkles when laminated or when glue is applied!
To download this mini-office, just click on the high-lighted text below inshaAllah.....!
Non-Fiction creative writing prompts!
However, I will say because I am not sure of this matter, I prefer to not delve into it purely for the fact that for me as I am unsure, it is something doubtful, a grey area. Therefore my children do not write fiction accounts and stories.
When my eldest daughter was learning to write and developing her early writing skills, we used to do a lot of story writing! Since leaving that, we haven't really done any "free writing" as such, instead we have been using factual accounts and Islamic Studies as a means to practice writing development.
However, I feel it is difficult to express your own creative thoughts and ideas when writing in this way. I wanted her to learn how to express her own ideas and thoughts because it is an important writing skill to have. And so, after maybe a year of no creative writing, today we found a way to explore this again but using non-fiction Alhamdulillah!
All I did, was find a few pictures online to act as a writing prompt. I gave her 4 images to choose from, and in this instant, she chose a pink cottage house with a perfectly manicured garden!
I asked her to begin her writing with "I think that...." and continue to write what her thoughts are on the house, what type of people or family might live there, what she likes, what she would do if she lived in such a house etc etc.
So in this way, she was able to explore and express her own thoughts and ideas . It has been a long while since we did any kind of free writing, so we need to work on building up our skills inshaAllah. But I think its a pretty neat way to encourage expression of thoughts and ideas and to develop articulating them inshaAllah.
Just to add -after a long time of not understanding the point of pinterest, I have finally "got it"..although still learning!
I'm slowly building up my pinterest list of boards and pins of useful ideas which I think may be useful "one day" inshaAllah!
I've made a pinterest board to gather images to use for non-fiction creative writing prompts, which I plan to continue adding to inshaAllah. So feel free to check that out! (it is very much a work in progress!).
Design a game worksheet
A simple worksheet to design a playground style game. This lesson was done with my 6 year old and a couple of her friends, so they had opportunity to talk about ideas first and to try out one anothers games after they finished.
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