The Art of Creative Writing for Kids

/ December 30, 2020

Whether your child or student misses going to school because of social distancing, continue to share the joy of reading, literacy and creative writing!

Creative Writing for Kids by Lisa Caprelli

Teaching kids the value of reading and writing on their own time is important. Getting them into this habit can help them with their development in writing skills and reading comprehension.

What does your child do to keep his brain active at home and outside the classroom when it comes to writing?

Words Create Worlds

Understanding the basics of writing is a critical skill on its own. Knowing how to blend words and thoughts together on paper is an art form.

Children develop the strongest language patterns in their writing during the ages of five and six. The same goes for reading comprehension as well! If they consistently work at honing their writing skills now during their early years, kids will have a much easier time of it all later on when they reach age seven and beyond.

The Never-Ending Story of Experience

Writing a creative story doesn’t have to be a daunting task for kids. They can make it as simple and personalized as they want to!

As parents watching over our younger writers, it is more important to emphasize the fun of the process over strict reasoning. For starters, have them write the beginning of their own story with no current ending in mind.

Your child can go on creating the world that is their story and the characters that inhabit it. This includes their appearance, personality traits, important background info, and their goals.

There are also tons of things to write about if your child doesn’t have a story in mind. If they prefer to write about something else, they can write a plot based on their favorite movie, cartoon, video game, or even attempt a spin-off of their favorite book series!

A Place for a Kids’Thoughts

Prepare a weekly routine at a fixed time that fits your child’s schedule. Set aside 20-30 minutes for them to sit down and reflect their thoughts and ideas on paper.

Having a space designated for writing purposes helps get the process going. Kids should have a comfortable chair and a table with enough elbow room to write on. That way, they can make themselves feel as free as they want to with a pencil and pen. To make it more fun and special, have them select their own new pens and pencils that they can use specifically for their creative writing experience.

A Nudge in the Right Direction

While creative writing is meant to be fun at this stage, it is also important to provide the constructive criticism needed for them to learn and progress.

However, times will come when there’s a part to their writing or overall story that just doesn’t seem to work out. In these cases, simply explain to them why it wouldn’t and what they can change to make their fiction more understandable and relatable.

This is also an optimal time to make sure that their spelling and understanding of punctuation is correct.

For kids aged 7 and up, begin introducing them to synonyms and other figures of speech so that they can diversify their use of language.

10 Fun & Easy Writing Prompts for Kids

The quickest way to help your child get into the creative process is by giving them a prompt or two to start with.

Kids are full of imagination and ideas. However, they may tend to get stuck when it comes to narrowing their choices down to just one thing when given the opportunity. In this case, you can provide them with some writing prompts for inspiration, and take it step-by-step from there.

Here are 10 of the most imaginative prompts that kids can use to begin their creative writing process:

  1. Describe your dream house. What sorts of things would you like to see in it? Include furniture, art, toys, amenities, and what the outside would look like.
  2. Which period in time would you like to go back to and why? The Renaissance? Medieval Era? Or maybe you would like to walk among the dinosaurs during the Jurassic Age?
  3.  Spring, summer, autumn, and winter all have their qualities to them. Which season of the year is your favorite and why?
  4. Do you have a pet? Write about its habits and what it looks like. Add things such as what food it likes and dislikes. If your family doesn’t own a pet, describe which pet you would like to have in your home and why. How would you play and interact with it?
  5. Write about your favorite toys! Describe what they look like and how you like to play with them. Do you create your own story in your head when you play with all of your toys together? If so, write about it!
  6. Describe your favorite or recent dream. What was happening in your dream, where were you, and how did it make you feel?
  7. If you had your own secret superpower, what would it be? Describe why you chose that particular superpower for yourself and how you would use your powers for the greater good.
  8. Write a review of your favorite movie or book. What did you like about it? What things would you change? How did you feel while watching/reading it?
  9. Pretend that you are a reporter interviewing your favorite celebrity (music star, actor, sports figure, etc.). What questions would you ask your chosen interviewee?
  10. Write about something new that you would like to learn. What about this new thing makes it special enough to you that makes you want to learn it? You can mention more than one thing if you choose. For kids aged seven and up, this prompt can also be used as an essay concerning their goals for the future.
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