Not only can creative writing be a fun addition to your homeschool or English studies, it can also bring your family together by having regular read aloud times, working together on a family writing project, or playing word games. There are several tips and ways to teach creative writing to your children.
6 Tips on Creative Writing for Homeschoolers
Unit Studies
Spend a week or a month studying different forms of creative writing such as:
- Poetry
- Short stories
- Plays
- Essays
- Journaling
- Letters
- Song lyrics
Homeschoolers can practice the structure of each type of creative writing as well as learn about authors of creative writing. Creative writing can also be incorporated into other subjects such as history - by writing essays, stories, or poems based on historical events - or electives such as art.
Play Word Games
Word games can help to develop vocabulary and confidence in spelling. Knowing vocabulary and spelling will assist homeschoolers in any style of creative writing. Below are some ideas for word games.
- Scrabble
- Bananagrams
- Catchphrase
The Homeschool Review Crew has some reviews and articles on games.
Provide Prompts
Give prompts for topics to write on and about for essays, stories, and poems. Having a ready list of topics can make it easier to choose and decide what to write. Include a range of things to write about, both for more serious subjects for essays as well as fun circumstances or situations for stories.
Get daily writing prompts for the month of April and May from the SchoolhouseTeachers.com course, Writing on this Day in History - yours free to download and print. The whole course provides several prompts each day related to history in separate files for each month to encourage writing (and learning about history!) throughout the entire year.
Read and Discuss
Take the time to read together with your children and then talk about what you have read. Notice and ask questions about character growth and development (in stories and plays), structure and rhyme (in poems), choice of words (in stories and song lyrics), logic and arguments (in essays), and history and family history (in journals and diaries).
The Canadian Schoolhouse has some lists of books for read-aloud times and suggestions for biographies and literature.
- Family Favourite Read Alouds
- Canadian History Through Read Alouds
- An Eclectic Collection of Biography Resources
- Building Resilience in Children Through Literature
Family read aloud times and reading together can lead to many opportunities for your children to ask questions and learn. You might like to keep a list of the books your family has read so that you can remember and see how much you and your children have learned by reading together.
Creative Writing Group
Start or join a creative writing group or class with other homeschoolers or at your library. This can make learning about creative writing more engaging and fun by listening to others explain and share their thoughts on stories, plays, poems, and other writings. During the class, one suggestion would be for children to read their writing out loud and gain confidence in speaking.
Family Writing Time
As a family, you might like to decide and work on a creative writing project together. Below are some examples of writing projects that your family might like to try.
- Writing a play
- Writing your family’s history
- Writing a collection of short stories on a topic or theme such as favorite family vacations or traditions
- Writing lyrics for songs or hymns
- Writing a manual with step-by-step instructions and explanations on how to make something or do a task
Once your family has decided what to write, then you can set timelines for when different parts of the project should be completed by. If your family would like to publish a creative writing project, read The Canadian Schoolhouse’s article on Publishing a Book Online and Other Options.
Another option for family writing time is to practice writing letters. While your children write a letter to a family member or friend, you might be writing a letter for your business. By spending time writing together, children will learn that writing is a life-long skill and applicable to many areas of life. If your child would like to write a letter to a friend, check with other parents to see if there would be interest in your children being pen pals. Not only would it encourage practicing creative writing, but it would also be something to look forward to receiving in the mail.
Skills Learned and Developed
By including creative writing as part of your homeschool, your children will learn many skills in addition to writing.
- Critical thinking skills
- Listening and understanding
- Research skills
- Reading skills
- Writing and editing skills
- Discussing different topics and themes
You will notice that the skills your children will learn in creative writing will be applied in other subjects and areas of interest.
With the above tips on creative writing you can make writing a fun and interesting part of your homeschooling as you customize to individual preferences. Enjoy the time of learning together with your children.
This article has been written by homeschooling staff writers of The Canadian Schoolhouse (TCS). Enjoy more of our content from TCS contributors and staff writers by visiting our Front Door page that has content on our monthly theme and links to all our content sections.
"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).