Angel wrote recently, “How do I get my children writing?”
……………………………Getting Them Writing……………………………
This is one of the common things The Writing Course homeschool writing curriculum addresses. Usually it is a combination of issues…largely about fear related to writing correctly and if one’s writing suggests the person is bad / weak / etc.
The key is to get focused on the three stages:
1. OK
2. Get Help
3. Make Great
Normally people think that what they are writing has to be great at the very first pass. This simply never happens (one person in 100 years, maybe). You want him to write something that is OK…tell him if he writes something that is really good you’ll probably throw it away
The aim in writing is just to get the words on paper so you can begin to learn about writing as a student…like splashing around in the water in order to learn to swim.
As a practical matter…I think you can have him make a choice every day for two weeks:
1. He can write something original (even if it is just a description of a pickle jar or what a bird is doing outside in the yard).
2. He can do copy work that you pick out (pick some passage that is written well and will take about 1/2 an hour to write).
Even if he just does copy work for 2 weeks…he’ll be in a better place. Be sure and say, “It’s your choice…do you want to write copy work or an OK description of something outside today?”
Hope this helps,
P.S. If you own The Writing Course homeschool writing curriculum (I don’t keep a list in my head), then going through it again should help a lot…almost every lesson affects a child’s freedom to write lots and lots.
