With exclusive tips from a children’s writing expert, our blogger looks at the top five writing games and activities that will encourage your kids to write more!
Our expert, featured in this blog, is Dr Alison Keegan, a lecturer from the Progressive College of Further Education!
Games and fun activities you can use to encourage your kids to write more!
1) Use audio games!
Dr Keegan told us: “Not all kids are visual learners. Have them listen to a recording of their favourite song or recording and then get them to write down the words as a game.”
TOP TIP: Tempt your child to write by buying them some tracks from their favourite singer . . . as long as they promise to handwrite the lyrics to the song they like most!
2) Online games and apps
You might think the right thing to do is to keep them away from tablets and smartphones. But games found on the internet might actually get your kids into the idea of creative writing.
EXPERT RECCOMENDATION: Dr Keegan recommends the ‘writing’ page from the Weebly Interactive Sites For Education which can he found here!
She says: “The Weebly site helps children to learn to write through cartoons and interactive exercises. Using it can be a great way of encouraging your child to write more often!
3) Acting games
Dr Keegan says: “Writing doesn’t always have to describe a story or an event, it can actually be the basis of the event”.
She suggests getting children to write a script for a short film because: “It is a great way to encourage them to write and also switch on their creativity as well”.
TOP TIP: Once the script has been written get your kids to act it out! They should really enjoy it . . . especially if you have any little drama queens in the family!
4) Board games (aren’t boring)!
Dr Keegan says: “Children get excited when it’s game time because it’s generally a good positive time.
She continued: “For a child, the outcome of winning the game is much more attractive than having a perfectly written piece of work.”
BOARD GAME TO TRY: Boggle, because it involves handwriting and improves your child’s vocabulary at the same time!
5) Pen and paper games
There’s nothing wrong with good old fashioned games that just use just pen and paper! They are perfect if you can’t afford to buy a board game or your kids don’t have the attention span for them!
Hangman is a fun way of encouraging your kids to write more, a simple guide to playing it can be found here
Charades can be enjoyed by the whole family and as you’ll see here, it is really easy to play.
The fantastic thing about charades and hangman is that they only involve a small amount of handwriting! This is ideal if you child is reluctant to put pen to paper (even when they are playing a game).
If you are trying to encourage your children to write more we have some great tips for improving handwriting and lots of free handwriting worksheets for you to download on our blog!
Can you recommend any games or fun activities that have encouraged your kids to write more? If so please let us know by tweeting – @uniball_uk!