INCULCATING THE HABIT OF WRITING IN CHILDREN

Category: Education

Writing is the simplest and yet the most charming way of self expression. Once the practice of weaving words becomes a habit in childhood, it is sure to follow into the adult years and be of tremendous assistance along the journey of self discovery. There is a Spanish Proverb which goes “Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.” We bring to you four ways to encourage your child to weave webs of words and continue the practice till writing comes as naturally to him or her as would a habit. 1. Make Lists While trying to inculcate a new habit, it is wise to start small. Instead of making expectations of voluminous paragraphs from children, ask them to make lists. Encourage them to make lists of movies they’ve seen, book they’ve read, places they’ve visited or want to watch, read or visit. Enlisting all that they have done will help children remember and learn from past experiences, and listing all that they want to do will keep them enthusiastic about following through with their plans. 2. Collective Writing Daily writing doesn’t always have to be personal and secret. It doesn’t always have to be verbose to express emotions. Hang an easel pad in the common room of the house and have each member of the family scribble words, sentences, jokes etc. on it every day. At the end of each week, encourage the children to write a summary of the week using everyone’s scribbling. 3. Share and Praise Praise the writing of children often to encourage them to continue expressing themselves through written words. Display their work somewhere where it gets attention and recognition. Compliments are a crucial incentive to continue with a good habit. 4. Make a Daily Log of Moments Motivate children to write a couple of sentences every day about the moments in their day which they felt were important like maybe it was someone’s birthday that day and the class sang happy birthday for them or maybe someone hurt himself or herself while playing and was comforted by friends. Continued practice of this form of writing will soon develop into the routine of diary writing and the entries will organically start to become longer and richer in content and emotion. Not only can the habit of writing be therapeutic, it can also help enrich the language skills of children. So let daily writing be your child’s New Year Resolution!