Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How to encourage sneaky writing practice

I have two boys, both gifted, one 6, one 8. They love typical boy stuff and neither is a big writer. My 6yo is more so but rarely writes outside of school assignments. They are prolific readers, I'd like to encourage writing as well so that's it's not always seen as a chore.

I thought about setting up e-mail accounts (with as much privacy settings as I can set up!) so they can e-mail back and forth with each other and with their grandparents and older cousin. Obviously, to each other it would be super silly stuff but they'd need to reign it in when talking to Grandma!

Would this be a good idea to encourage composition? (I also think 6yo doesn't like the physical part of writing b/c it's not fast enough for him.)

Other ideas are welcome, they do need to be sneaky as my boys know very quickly what's "fun" vs. what's "Mom's latest idea to get us to write more".

thanks!
Shannon L.

Do they know how to keyboard well? If not, I'd start with typing software so they develop good habits. There are plenty of options that are fun. I'd personally have no trouble making that mandatory for 10 minutes a day during the summer.

You may also want to take a look at the book Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye. It has a lot of fun ideas. http://www.amazon.com/Games-Writing-Playful-Child-Learn/dp/0374524270

Thanks--they have keyboarding at school but haven't really learned to type--my speed still fascinates them. They start school on Monday, we are in year round public here. Thanks for the link!

Shannon L.

With our DS7, we had him start his own blog about his favorite topic, Minecraft. He doesn't write on it as much as I'd like, but with encouragement, he will write about exciting new releases of the game and what he's working on. We used a free wordpress blog.

I welcome other sneaky ideas too...Mine DS skipped 1st (which apparently was a big writing practice year), and he has always hated writing (mechanics and handwriting both).

We just did what St. Pauli suggests!

But writing is harder- because DS struggles with handwriting, not just creative writing. I always make him write thank you notes by hand for any gift he receives and he's not allowed to open said gift until thank you note is written. I'm mean like that :-) I often trick him into writing the grocery list, pretend my hands are full with a bunch of stuff and ask him to take a message down for me or have him write a note to my parents to ask them to do something for him.

It's getting harder in a world where nobody he knows as adults ever has to really write anything!

Grocery Lists, Birthday Party Lists, Friend's Telephone Number Lists.

to teach handwriting - Handwriting without tears

to teach composition - 6+1 writting traits, Mom reads the book, then introduces the vocabulary, and then let the literay analysis begin. My son earned a big read question mark on his 'writing practice' at school with the sentence to illustrate the word 'breaks' in 1st grade.

"The TV show 'Blue's Clues' breaks the fourth wall."

Yeah, I had no idea he was gifted at the time - he just seemed to love it when I told him interesting tidbits - his eyes got so big and fixed on me, it just encouraged me!
Me: 'Look honey, 'Steve' is talking right to the audience! In my college class theater class they call that 'breaking the 4th wall - because there is usually an imaginary wall between the actors and the audience that the characters pretend to not be able to see us through, see?'

In the begining I thought DS was gifted because I filled his head with all these oddball thoughts. Only later did I try it with his friends and realize that most little noggins rebel at that sort of treatment.

You can also post stories here, and show the kiddos all our kudos.

Smiles,
Grinity

It's not so much that my oldest can't write, he actually prides himself on his neat handwriting, it's composing paragraphs, etc. He can do a wonderful job for school, seems to like actually dreaming up the story, etc. but talks about hating writing afterwards. He's done well in his writing class, I just don't see any extracurricular writing, no journaling, few notes, etc. Will this just come with time?

My youngest likes to write but is just 6 so his mechanical ability is still stifling his creativity. He is very, very quick and I think maybe teaching him to type would help him get the words out fast enough. I know I no longer write much b/c typing is much faster.

I like the blog idea too, thanks for the website. I am concerned about exposing them on the internet so I want to be careful.

Shannon L.

I encourage my kids to write reminder notes like school supplies or groceries I should remember and Notes for Dad to let him know we went to the park.

Do you kids like to draw? Words can be added to pictures. You might try leaving some inspirational books around. I have best results with just one or 2 appealing books at a time, rather than a stack. If you just pick up a book to read they might just come over to share it. If you make a book they might like to get involved.

More Library or web for ideas: write songs and plays, video tape a story board acted out, Poetry magnets, comics strips, book making, writing prompts, journals (nature, trip or summer), card making, poetry, letter writing, post cards. You might get a rhyming dictionary.

http://www.shelsilverstein.com/pdf/poetry.pdf (make a poetry puzzle, like word magnets)

http://www.loreenleedy.com/
The Furry News: How to make a Newspaper
Look at My Book: How Kids Can Make Terrific Books
Messages in the Mailbox writing letters
Look at My Book: How Kids Can Write and Illustrate Terrific Books

http://www.eduplace.com/tales/
similar to Mad libs

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ make comics

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/poetry_engine.htm#

http://www.shelsilverstein.com/html/Teachers.html

Library mouse / Daniel Kirk (My kids made their own little library at one time. This book might encourage book writing)

You Can Write a Story! : A Story-Writing Recipe for Kids by Bullard, Lisa; Melmon, Deborah H.

Cartooning : the only cartooning book you'll ever need to be the artist you've always wanted to be / Art Roche.

http://www.klutz.com/kid/express-yo...pnav_kid_express-yourself///nav/txtl////

http://www.americangirlpublishing.com/advice/beyourbest/WritingSmarts.aspx

Creative Writing By Children
The Print Magazine for Kids Who Love to Read. Established in 1973, Stone Soup is the leading publisher of children�s writing and art in the English-speaking world.
www.stonesoup.com

This should keep you busy for the whole summer.

Keep us posted on what works. This is a great thread. (I enjoyed the diversion in finding all of this)

Great suggestions!

I bought a stylus for my iPad and have my son draw in one of my paint apps or write notes in the Bamboo app. He is intrigued with the technology and will embrace this activity quickly.

OK... my situation is different as my son is MATH. But I got creative b/c he needs to get MORE reading/writing in. so....

one of our discipline techniques has been... get ready -

I purchased the entire 26 book series of the "Help Me Be Good" books.

When my children show behavior that we would otherwise give consequence for... they have to pick the appropriate book, read it aloud then complete a worksheet.

The books are a normal 2-4th reading level and about 22 pages. (Way easy for gifted readers but perfect for that developmental age in terms of social learning practices/skills) The text is on one page and cartoons on the other... but kids love flipping through them.

They have to write out the worksheet which has questions:
1. What happened (that I had to read the book)
2. What did I learn from the story
3. What can I do differently next time

They only complete it when they have sentences that reflect good writing - complete sentences... capitalization, punctuation.

kills 3 birds with one stone - discipline, reading, writing!