09/24/2026
How to Help Your Child Become a Better Writer: Part 2
Writing is an important skill for high school and college success. How do we foster growth of writing skills throughout a child's elementary years? In addition to the ideas mentioned in the first post on this topic, I would like to add two more suggestions that can be easily implemented into daily life.
3. Do you remember that game you may have played years ago where you would take turns with a friend looking at clouds in the sky and talking about what they looked like? Maybe you saw a cloud that looked like a dog riding a bicycle, or one that looked like a rocket ship. Games of this sort engage a child's creative mind and encourage the use of comparative descriptions, essentially metaphors and similes. Metaphors and similes, describing something by comparing it to something else, are wonderful tools for writers to use when seeking to describe a person, a place, or an experience. Good writers know how to use these types of figurative language effectively in their writing, and a fun game that many of us grew up playing can help develop this skill.
4. Encourage the reading and memorization of poetry. Exposure to poetic expression of the sort found in well-written poetry encourages creative thinking and expression in your child. Children learn to "do" by imitating others, so have your child add a verse to a well-known poem, imitating the style of and expressing ideas similar to what the author has written. Whether reading and imitating the story-poems of Dr. Seuss or memorizing well-loved classics from Robert Frost, poetry can help your child develop creative expression skills that will serve him or her in good stead both now and in the future.
Rather than throwing up your hands in despair and declaring, "I don't know how to teach my child to write," utilize one or more of these simple ideas to help your child develop the ability to think and to express himself creatively!
