7 ways parents can get their kids excited about writing

Whether you’re writing an email or a novel, it’s vital these days to understand the craft of telling a story and telling it well. For kids, writing well helps not only at school but with many off-the-page skills, from confidence to creative problem solving.

What children may not understand is that writing can also be fun. Educators say there are many things parents can do at home to get kids excited about writing.

Here are seven: themselves or ones they find. Amy Rosenbluth, cofounder and executive director of Lake Erie Ink, an Ohio-based youth writing center, said her organization’s comic-making camps are among its most popular.

“When you’re writing a comic, you’re learning all the elements of writing a short story, or really writing anything,” she explained. “We teach them storyboarding. They start out with character development, then setting, conflict, all the same elements, but you get to draw your character first before you add the words.” laugh in a condescending way even if it feels a little bit off — hold all that in.”

That helps kids feel heard and excited about their work, which will lead to more writing.

Rosenbluth, of Lake Erie Ink, urges parents not to focus on spelling and grammar when their children are working on creative writing.

“Spelling and writing don’t have a lot in common,” she said. “Writing is thinking. It’s creating.”

This doesn’t mean you can’t go back and work on the mechanics later, she stressed, but they shouldn’t be the starting point.