Ah, writing. Some of us love it. Some of us don’t. But regardless, it’s a skill we all need to improve on. Writing can help us clear our thoughts, motivate people, persuade others, bring out new ideas, clarify, give guidance and directions, offer warnings, and so much more. It’s imperative that children learn how to express themselves clearly through writing and that takes practice.

You might be thinking: I’m not a writer. How can I teach writing? But we are here to tell you: You can! Once your child has some spelling and grammar skills under their belt, then you can move onto writing. It doesn’t take a lot to begin. First start by teaching creative and descriptive writing using simple sentences. Next model how to write expository pieces and narratives. Last, a child will learn all about persuasive essays and research papers using the five-paragraph method. Here’s a list to help you determine the types of writing:

Creative Writing

Creative writing is just that–creative! It’s a way for your children to explore their imagination and put their ideas on the paper. They can do this by creating their own story, or you can give them a writing prompt to help them get started. Either way, creative writing is a fun way to teach children how to write.

Descriptive Writing

Descriptive writing is used when the child needs to describe something. It can be an event from history, their family, a book, their favorite food. It helps children explore descriptive words to add to their vocabulary. It helps children to look at a subject using all five sense. When prompting them with descriptive writing, ask them about their sense: What does it feel like? What does it smell like? You can also ask them to change their adjectives. If a child uses the word fun, ask them to think deeper. What else could mean fun? They can even look through a thesaurus to find synonamous words.

Narrative Writing

Narratives are written in first person and describe the child’s experience. Again, the child could be asked to write their own narrative, or you can give them a prompt like: What I did on my Christmas Vacation. Narratives are a good way to help teach sequence.

Expository Writing

Also known as, How-To Writing, expository writing gives children the chance to write clearly and concisely as they explain how to do something: How To Train a Dog, How To Kick a Ball, How to Use a Pencil Sharpener… This type of writing doesn’t have a lot of imagery like the above types. It gets right to the point.

Persuasive Writing

Persuasive writing is used when the child needs to persuade someone about an idea or position using writing. This could be silly things like convincing someone that Santa Claus is real, to more serious topics on getting people to recycle. Either way, a good persuasive essay will include evidence, quotes, and facts that support the writer’s position.

Research Papers

Research papers are the hardest papers for children to write because they require more work. You’ll need to teach children to come up with a topic and research it. They will then develop and outline, and organize their paper before writing a draft. They will also need to source any research used in their writing. This is a multi-step process, but a necessary one. It is best taught to upper elementary children, and broken down into segments.

Five-Paragraph Essays

An easy method in teaching children how to write longer papers. You begin with an introductory paragraph, followed by three supporting paragraphs and end with a conclusion. Five paragraph essays help children learn to organize their writing and can be used in any one of the above mentioned types of writing.

Your Homework:

What’s a homeschool blog without a little homework?

• Identify the level of writing your child is currently in.
• Pick a fun way to include writing into your daily homeschool routine. (Journaling, or using creative writing prompts is a fun way!)
• Pick a writing type from above and assign a writing project that is bigger than a quick five-minute daily writing practice. Be sure that will push your child (in a good way) and that it may take them working on it for a few weeks before completion.