Does writing sound like a snore? It’s time to break that mentality because we’re putting the fun in writing activities for kids. There are so many ways to engage your child with writing enjoyment. Chances are, they’ll want to go back for more once they begin. All you need is paper, a pen, and a sprinkle of imagination. Writing will take you places that you’ve never been before.
The Benefits of Writing Extend Past Fine Motor Skills
Of course, writing is a great way to practice fine motor skills, but it means even more for your child. Writing is a big deal for child development because it sets kids up for literary success. It helps kids learn to spell and improves handwriting. Writing can take you on an uncharted journey too as it enhances creativity and nurtures self-expression. If that wasn’t enough, writing has emotional regulation benefits as well, especially if your kiddo is used to writing their feelings and experiences down in a journal. Writing is a way we communicate with others and with ourselves, so you know that social benefits come along with this skill as well. Oh, and add problem-solving skills to the benefits list. In order to write, we need to be able to express our thoughts clearly with the words that we know. Writing is a life-changing skill to know and enjoy.
Fun Writing Activities To Try at Home
With writing activities that you try at home, it’s important to consider your child’s grade level and what they know already. Writing for kids can include parents and guardians as well. You can help them spell and sound out words, especially if your child is new to writing. We have writing activities to share with you, but feel free to change them up in whatever way you see fit.
Create a Story for Favorite Characters
Most children have a favorite character that they know and love. Use this to your advantage to encourage them to write a story. The prompt of this story will be “tell a never-before-told tale about your favorite character.” Provide your kiddo with enough blank pages for them to write and illustrate their story. Creative writing for kids rocks!
Stuffed Animal Lecture Hall
Pen and paper are the perfect writing tools, but your child can explore alternatives too. With a whiteboard or chalkboard, your child can teach their very own reading, writing, or story class. Give them the audience of their stuffed animals or action figures. You can be in the audience too. Whatever topic they want to teach, give them full rein as long as they are getting some fun writing time in.
Write a Letter to Something Found in Nature
We all know about writing letters to people, but why not be a little different and write a letter to something found in nature? This writing activity can help your child think about what’s really truly inspiring and magical about the world around them. Additionally, this letter exercise encourages gratitude. If your child feels stuck, encourage them to write to it as though the natural thing were a person. What would they say to it? Don’t just stop at a letter. Your child can actually give it to the natural world by burying it in the backyard or displaying the letter in a bottle outdoors on the patio or by the window.
Unicorn Writing and Character Profiles
Get a large sheet of canvas paper ready! It must be large enough to fit the demands of a unicorn, after all. With paint and a large piece of paper, use your fingers and different colored paint to create a character description for a unicorn. Your child can select a unicorn name, draw the unicorn, and fill out character profile information (that you provide) on the paper. You create the profile with some of these options here.
Personalized Restaurant Menu
What does a restaurant need? Menus, of course! How else would we know what to order? Your child is in charge of creating a menu with food names, descriptions, and illustrations of the food. You can make the dining experience more realistic by setting up a small table or two. You can be their first customer once the menu is ready to go. Maybe your child is a savvy entrepreneur and wants to have more than one restaurant. If that’s the case, they can make different types of menus!
If you’re looking for some handwriting activities, we share a few in a previous blog all about handwriting. Find it here.
Occupational Therapy and Handwriting
When kids struggle with handwriting, writing activities can be challenging to accomplish. Academics can suffer if your child cannot be understood through their writing, which can lower self-esteem. An occupational therapist can help put the confidence back into your little young writer. This professional is prepared to help your child with pen grip, letter placement, neatness, legibility, forming letters from memory, or any other action that will help take your child’s handwriting to the next level. You can count on your occupational therapist to keep sessions personalized to your child’s unique needs so that everyone can see improvement each step of the way. Your child will be more willing to take on writing tasks and challenges in no time!
Does your child have handwriting that is illegible or inconsistent in relation to their peers? Let’s chat about occupational therapy. Contact us today.
We write all of the time on our social media channels. Come see all that we have to say on Facebook and Instagram. You’ll have a fun time reading our posts and captions.