As a mum i often find myself worrying if i am doing enough to encourage my boys to love reading and writing. Notice there i say 'to love' NOT 'to do'. This i find is the key. If you can find a way to encourage them to fall in love with reading and writing then they will want to do it for themselves. You won't need to force them to do it.
In a time when it is so very easy to stick them in front of the TV or a computer (which of course i do sometimes, i'm not perfect!) i do however try to make time for a variety of activities after school and at weekends. Keeping to a routine isn't easy for us so instead we have a list of different things we could do and we choose which suits us depending on how we all feel.
Writing short stories has become a popular choice for my boys, they love to invent characters, to take them on fun filled journeys and to try and make me laugh with cheeky descriptive words and silly characters getting up to mischief.
You may not think they look very happy here in these photos but they are, these are their concentration faces. They are working hard on short stories to share with me. When they are writing their stories i often hear them chuckle to themselves.
The stories they came up with were wonderful and they had great fun telling them giving each character different voices. They keep their stories in their own little writing books and will often go back and read their old stories to themselves.
My top tips for encouraging children to enjoy reading and writing:
1. Give them their own little book and pen to keep.
2. Write short stories with them, get involved and share your short story with them first.
3. Don't fuss about spelling and handwriting when first starting, encourage the process of writing first then help improve their spelling and handwriting once they already enjoy the activity.
4. Never force them to do the activity, make sure they are not over tired.
5. Have drinks and snacks to enjoy together whilst writing and reading. Fruit platters & popcorn are one of our favorites.
You may not think they look very happy here in these photos but they are, these are their concentration faces. They are working hard on short stories to share with me. When they are writing their stories i often hear them chuckle to themselves.
The stories they came up with were wonderful and they had great fun telling them giving each character different voices. They keep their stories in their own little writing books and will often go back and read their old stories to themselves.
My top tips for encouraging children to enjoy reading and writing:
1. Give them their own little book and pen to keep.
2. Write short stories with them, get involved and share your short story with them first.
3. Don't fuss about spelling and handwriting when first starting, encourage the process of writing first then help improve their spelling and handwriting once they already enjoy the activity.
4. Never force them to do the activity, make sure they are not over tired.
5. Have drinks and snacks to enjoy together whilst writing and reading. Fruit platters & popcorn are one of our favorites.
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