Creative Ways To Get Your Kids Writing Creatively

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Creative writing is a great skill for children to obtain and carries over into adulthood. Learning how to write creatively is beneficial for kids who have an interest in working in a creative field or for those who simply enjoy expressing their thoughts, feelings, and ideas using writing as their vehicle of choice. In order to get your kids to begin writing creatively, getting creative yourself is essential.

Provide Idea Journals

Give each of your children an idea journal to carry with them when attending school, visiting friends, or taking time away from tech and traditional activities. In order to encourage more involvement with the idea journal you provide, allow your children to decorate, color, and create covers for their journals in a unique and individual way.

Set a time aside each day for your kids to jot down ideas, inspirational thoughts, or doodles that they want to share with the entire family. Openly share and discuss idea journal entries (unless your child prefers to keep them private) to promote conversation and discussion. Offer magazines and print images of relevant items your child wishes to include in their idea journal to create a full and lively book for them to read and reflect on in the future.

Join a Reading Program

Enroll your kids in a summer reading program when they are out of school or in need of additional extracurricular activities. Reading programs provide children with access to thousands of books while also encouraging them to complete the books they have chosen with rewards and incentives. Keep track of the books your children read each week and ask questions about the plot, characters, and story arcs involved. Create a dialogue with your kids surrounding the books they read to get their imagination going while encouraging new creative ideas, thoughts, and opinions. Offer rewards such as prizes or additional in-house incentives to keep your children reading throughout the year.

Watch Inspirational Videos

Watch inspirational videos that pertain to creative writing and storytelling with your children. Discuss the content of the videos you watch together and ask your children their favorite methods of writing and why. Show videos of top authors your kids enjoy reading to spark inspiration and to keep them interested in the world of reading and writing.

Tell Stories

Storytelling is one of the best ways to get the creative juices flowing in both children and adults. Learning how to tell stories is essential for children who are interested in writing creatively. Create a time each week to share stories whether they are scary, silly, or dramatic. Ask questions about the characters in the stories your children tell and what lessons there are to learn from each individual story. Offer praise to your child when they complete a story from start to finish and provide encouragement to your child if they are struggling with a plot point. Share different paths and ideas for each story arc or plot point to stir up creativity and ideas in your child’s mind.

Brainstorm Together

Spend time with your children brainstorming ideas, thoughts, and new storylines. Allow each of your children to provide input when telling stories or sharing ideas of your own. Share in the excitement your children have when telling you new ideas or thoughts on projects they plan to write. Create lists of ideas, plots, and characters together with idea journals you have already provided. Bouncing ideas off of one another encourages out of the box thinking and more creativity when writing or developing stories in the mind.

Read Stories Aloud

Reading stories aloud with your children is another way to encourage creative reading and writing simultaneously. Ask your kids to participate in reading their own creative stories to help with improving their abilities to tell stories and share dialogue. Read your children’s favorite books and expand with new authors each week to broaden their horizons when thinking creatively or coming up with exciting, unique, and relevant stories that are interesting to them.

Artistic Hobbies and Activities

Discovering creative ideas is not limited to simply writing or reading. Get creative with your children by painting, working with clay, or indulging in another hobby that requires abstract thinking and the process of discovery. Creative hobbies and activities help to keep the minds of children active while providing them with more opportunities once they begin writing on their own.

With the right creative methods, provide your children with the ability to discover an entirely new world when putting their thoughts on paper.

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For The Layman: How To Write Your First Poem

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Poetry is so many things. It’s a source of self expression, an opportunity to say something wonderful and an exercise in precise word control. If you’ve never written a poem before, the very idea of writing one can seem quite scary. However, you’ll quickly realize that writing a poem is a terrific way to reveal your thoughts to everyone else. Writing a poem is a highly specific form of writing. Every single word has to count. When you write a poem, you’ll find that you’re free to do all sorts of things including use wild metaphors, experiment with word forms and get very personal. You’ll also realize that writing a poem can open doors and make easier to write a second poem and another poem after that one. When you tap into your inner creative person, you’ll find a whole new source of satisfaction.

Finding a Type

One of the most amazing things about poems is that there are so many forms of poetry. From limericks to sonnets and haikus, poetic forms are varied and fascinating. It helps to think about your message when you want to write the poem. If you’re aiming for humor, limericks are a traditional way to convey it. If you like to stick to poems that require careful structure and attention to detail, a sonnet might be the form that suits you best. Many poetic forms do not use rhymes while others require them. It’s a good idea to look up some examples of the kind of poem you have in mind. Read them aloud and get a feel for how the writer conveys their thoughts. This will help you decide what works best for your own planned poem.

Your Planned Theme

Most poems have a theme and an overall idea. Your should as well. Think about what inspires you the most. If you love nature, think about specific experiences and what you like about them. Perhaps you love being outside on a snowy day or walking through the changing leaves in early autumn. Now is the time to think about the details that will make your poem come alive. Think about word choices such as the kind of colors you saw and the way you felt as you saw the world around you.

Start Writing

Once you’ve decided on a vision for your poem, you can begin to write it. Many writers sit down and let the words flow. It’s a good idea to review the rules of the type of poem you want to write. This way, you’ll write a real haiku and not one that just looks like a haiku but isn’t. It’s a good idea to set aside a specific time frame to write. A late afternoon day when you’ll feeling alert or early on a Sunday morning work for many people.

A Final Draft

After the initial draft, it’s a good idea to think looking at it more closely. Read it out loud. Check for any grammatical errors as well as spots that may not quite rhyme or may be awkward. A second draft makes it easier to see where the polished poem will come from and how you’re going to get there. You might decide to rewrite the poem entirely or realize that you’re happy with the end result.

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