I’m sure it’s no secret to you that children develop at different rates. One child possesses remarkable fine-motor skills, yet she struggles to speak a coherent sentence. Another talks circles around his siblings, but his handwriting leaves much to be desired.

This disparity is often more obvious during the primary years, when most children are either emerging writers with little or no ability to write or beginning writers who are developing early writing skills.

Let Go of Expectations . . . and Stress

Because fine-motor skills vary from child to child, don’t be distressed if your youngster has a hard time holding a pencil correctly, writing on a line, forming letters and words, or demonstrating neat penmanship.

These early elementary years—typically kindergarten through third grade—produce a great deal of growth in most children, but if your little one doesn’t seem to be following the pack, take a deep breath and accept that it’s okay.

Meanwhile, make sure your writing time is spent together, and that you build instruction from your child’s own efforts rather than from artificial expectations. For example, if he’s great at telling stories, but cries buckets if you make him write anything down himself, let him dictate to you as you write his words.

My youngest child definitely had his own timetable. He had the hardest time with any writing-related activity, so most of our “writing” time happened orally, with me doing the writing as he narrated. The good news is that with much mommy patience and perseverence, he eventually did “get” it.

Embrace Repetition and Routine

Have you ever noticed that your littles never tire of reading the same book or singing the same songs over and over and over again? It’s one of the main ways children absorb information, and the sooner we accept that, the more likely learning will take place.

Repetition, routine, and consistency play a major part in nurturing young writers. Since primary-age children thrive in this environment, you may have to sideline your own fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants tendencies as you devote yourself to keeping a schedule, building bit by bit on their emerging skills, and nurturing your young writers in the way they learn best. Someday you may be able to let spontaneity reign once again, but until then, routine is your friend!

Focus on Age-Appropriate K-2 Writing Skills

Too often, parents neglect teaching children how to think about and plan a story. They just assign it. Instead, give your young children tools to experience success as they develop the ability to write by teaching them to brainstorm; plan a beginning, middle, and end; and then write or dictate the story.

Typical Progression

Take care not to jump into advanced writing too soon. Instead, watch for and encourage this progression in your youngsters:

1. Writing a letter, word, or group of words on their project according to their ability.
2. Writing a complete sentence.
3. Understanding the concept of a paragraph.

How Much and How Often?

• At this age, it’s enough to devote 3 days a week to the writing process.
• Spend 15-30 minutes max per day on writing activities, depending on age and attention span.
• Expect your child to write 5- to 7-sentence stories. A more articulate child may show interest and inclination to write longer pieces—and that’s great. Just don’t force it. Make sure your children crawl before they walk!

Be an Involved Parent

Children cannot learn to write on their own. A parent who participates one-on-one with her child inspires success! To effectively develop basic writing skills, your child needs some important things from you:

• Your presence
• Your example
• Your encouragement
• Your daily guidance

Teaching your young child to love words and writing—or even the idea of writing—comes from purposeful instruction in a fairly structured environment. Your child may not absorb everything you say and do. He may not exhibit the skills your friends’ kids exhibit. And he may alternately drive you crazy and break your heart with his moans, groans, and tears.

Just remember that this is springtime for your little one, where you’ll see both subtle growth and explosions of learning. Take your time to nurture with patient care, and your budding writer will bloom and blossom in time.

Helping your 3rd-5th grader with writing
Helping your 5th-8th grader with writing
Helping your high schooler with writing

Copyright 2010 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

 .  .  .  .  .

WriteShop Primary is the perfect way to gently introduce writing skills to young children using repetition, routine, pre-writing games and activities, crafts, and storybooks. Perfect for most children in grades K-3. For help choosing a starting level, visit this link.

Editing does not need to be a negative or intimidating experience for your K-3rd grader. When children learn at a young age the value of gentle correction and self-improvement, they will come to see editing as a natural part of the writing process.

Determining Your Goal

Your main goal is to help your child learn to look for ways to improve her story or short report. The amount of editing will increase as writing skills progress and the child matures.

Don’t overwhelm your first grader with too many expectations. But by the time she’s in third grade, she should learn to self-edit for story details, organization, and simple mechanics, and should be able to use tools to help edit spelling as well.

Helping Your Young Child Edit and Revise

At this age and stage, keep editing and revising as simple and non-threatening as possible. Sit together with your child and read her story together. Then help her take the first steps to learn how to self-edit her own work.

Just remember: Start small! If your child is still in kindergarten, you’ll only want her to revise the simplest and smallest of errors (Did we begin each sentence with a capital letter? Is there a period at the end of every sentence? Does our story have a beginning, a middle, and an end?) As she grows in both age and skill, you can begin adding more editing elements to your short list.

Most second- and third-graders can begin including any or all of the following as you edit and revise together.

1. Search for the good.

• Give your child a highlighter pen. Encourage her to look over the story by herself and highlight a difficult word she spelled correctly.
• Next, ask her to look over the story by herself and highlight a sentence she wrote correctly by starting it with a capital letter and using the correct punctuation. Praise her for a job well done.

2. Discuss the details of the story together.

• Identify the main character and setting.
• Ask your child if she would like to add more details about each one.
• Discuss ideas for improvement.

3. Talk about the story.

• If the story includes a problem, does your child write the beginning, middle, and end in such a way that the problem is solved?
• If so, does the problem get solved with a satisfactory solution?
• If not, discuss ideas for improvement.

4. Circle any misspelled words together, but only if the child is at least in first grade.

• Look up each word in a children’s dictionary; or
• Create a spelling word wall containing her most frequently misspelled words. She can refer to it as she writes and edits.

5. Help your child revise her writing.

• Write the corrections in between the lines on the paper.
• Your child may rewrite her corrections on a new paper if she chooses.

What If She Resists?

Do the editing on a different day. This removes the child from the freshness of her writing and she will feel a little less emotionally attached to the story and its flaws.

Make a photocopy of the child’s story. She’ll be more willing to mark her paper if she knows she the original will remain untouched.

Type her story. Another way to help a reluctant editor is to type her story for her (always double-spaced), leaving all mistakes intact. Again, the more removed the marked-up version is from the child’s original, the less emotion she’ll attach to it, which means the more willing she’ll be to make corrections.

Try a checklist. You can do these editing exercises orally, of course, but if your child balks, she may need to use a typed checklist and work by herself.

Once your editing time is over and the child has made simple changes to her story, have her “publish” it in a fun way, such as attaching it to a paper kite, turning it into a scroll, or making a giant comic strip—knowing that she’s publishing her very best work to proudly share with others.

Copyright 2010 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

No matter the curriculum, whether math, penmanship, or writing, picking the best starting level for your child can challenge the most seasoned homeschooler—especially when said child doesn’t exactly fit a grade-specific mold.

WriteShop Primary is no exception—you may need more help picking a starting level than the placement chart offers. The following lists identify specific skills within a range of ages, making it easier for you to choose the very best place to begin the program.

Start with Book A if your 5- to 7-year-old is not yet able to:

• Identify beginning, middle, and end in a story.
• Complete predictable sentence starters.
• Identify and use punctuation marks at the end of a sentence.
• Begin a sentence with a capital letter.
• Choose an appropriate title.
• Think of simple ways to improve a story.
• Read and write color words.
• Recognize words that rhyme.

NOTE: Reading and writing skills are NOT required for Book A students. All work may be done orally.

WriteShop Primary Book A (print version)
WriteShop Primary Book A (e-book version)

Start with Book B if your 6- to 8-year-old is not yet able to:

• Identify or use paragraph form and indentation.
• Use graphic organizers to plan a story.
• Include a beginning, middle, and end in his story.
• Figure out how to add more details to a story.
• Organize a story to include a problem and its solution.
• Choose story endings.
• Write or dictate a friendly letter.
• Write or dictate about something that has happened to him.
• Retell nursery rhymes and fairy tales in his own words.
• Identify the parts of a friendly letter.
• Identify words that rhyme.
• Use standard spelling tools such as a dictionary.

WriteShop Primary Book B (print version)
WriteShop Primary Book B (e-book version)

Start with Book C if your 7- to 9-year-old is not yet able to:

• Plan the main ingredients of a story before beginning to write.
• Ask who, what, when, where, and why? in order to add story details.
• Organize story details.
• Write entries in a personal journal.
• Use descriptive words in his writing.
• Write a short nonfiction article.
• Summarize the contents of familiar books.
• Collect research facts about a specific topic.
• Write a simple, short report with introduction, body, and closing.
• Use standard spelling.
• Check his own work for correct spelling and punctuation.

WriteShop Primary Book C (print version)
WriteShop Primary Book C (e-book version)

Most children are natural-born storytellers. They may not have much love for pencil and paper, but it’s not unusual for them to talk your ear off as they share about their day or weave a make-believe story about a blue bird named Monkey George who flew off to buy Band-Aids because he hurt his foot.

Your littles are learning—learning to use their ever-expanding vocabulary, hold pencils properly, and write letters, words, and simple sentences. They’re figuring out that there’s a relationship between spoken and written words.

Whether you choose to use an actual writing curriculum for kindergarten, first, or second grade, or just forge ahead on your own, there are simple activities you can do to foster a love of words and writing in your younger children. Here are three fun ones to get you started!

Write Little Notes

I still remember those sticky, wrinkled, crayon-scribbled notes my children used to write:  Deer mom I louv you so so much! 

To their delight, sometimes I’d stick a note under a pillow or in a pocket for them to find in return. Kids love getting those notes! Write them on index cards, scraps of notebook paper. or hearts cut from colored card stock. The medium doesn’t matter! Roll up flimsy notes and tie them with a piece of string or yarn and hide them in a pajama drawer. Slip sturdy flat ones under a door, into a coat pocket or library book, or under a dinner plate. 

Your children will feel so loved to fnd each special mini-letter! Piggyback on their enthusiasm by encouraging them to write little notes of their own and hide them for others to find. They’ll love it!

Narrate a Wordless Picture Book

Using a wordless picture book, your child can make up a story either orally or in writing to accompany the illustrations. If she can’t write well, let her tell her story as you write it down for her. Try some of these to get her started:

• Good Night, Gorilla 
• Noah’s Ark (Picture Yearling Book) 
• Pancakes for Breakfast 
• Frog on His Own (Boy, Dog, Frog) 

Use Story Starters

Not all children enjoy making up stories, but if they have the basic story elements in place—such as character, setting, and some sort of storyline or plot—they’ll often take right off. World of Animals and World of People StoryBuilders are perfect for this! The printable cards make great writing prompts and set kids off on a story-writing adventure with humorous or inspiring ideas like these:

• A disobedient dinosaur finds a secret tunnel under the bed
• A spunky spider plans a surprise in the grandfather clock
• Disaster strikes while a clever inventor is at the library

Again, make a point of letting pre-writers or children with limited patience or vocabulary dictate to you while you write their words. You’ll get so much more from them if they don’t have to labor over the paper. Older or more skilled writers can tackle the writing on their own. You can even share the pencil and take turns writing parts of the story in round-robin fashion.

Above all, this early elementary age is the time to keep writing fun for your child—and these three simple suggestions will help you do just that.

Reading and writing are intertwined—and reading picture books with simple story lines can contribute to helping your K-3rd grader become a better writer.

Every story has certain key elements: character, setting, problem, solution, beginning, middle, end. But how can you help your child remember these elements and translate them to her writing?

Try tossing some pepperoni!

I’m not talking about a food fight, but a fun game you can play with two or more players. Here’s how.

Toss the Pepperoni

Prepare the Game

Make the game board: Decorate a large piece of poster board with paint or markers to look like a giant pizza. Cut out the round pizza.

Make the game pieces: Prepare “pepperoni slices” as game pieces to toss onto the pizza. For each player, cut out seven 4-inch circles from sturdy cardboard. To keep the pepperoni pieces separate, use a different color cardboard for each player. (Alternatively, each player can color one side of his game pieces or mark them with a sticker. )Label each set of pieces with the following words, one word per piece: character, setting, problem, solution, beginning, middle, end.

Read a Picture Book

Choose a picture book to read to your child. Make sure there’s a storyline, not merely words or phrases. When finished:

1. See if your child can identify the main character of the story.
2. Ask her to describe the story’s setting—when and where the events took place.
3. Ask her to identify the problem and solution.
4. Discuss the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story.

Play the Game

Play a game together with your child to help her remember the important parts of the picture book you just read: character, setting, problem, solution, beginning, middle, and end.

1. Place the giant pizza game board on the floor. Use a jump rope or piece of yarn to mark a line where players must stand when attempting to toss their game pieces onto the pizza.
2. Take turns tossing game pieces like Frisbees. Before tossing a ”pepperoni,” the player must read the word on the circle and give an example from the picture book that corresponds with the word. For instance, before your child tosses her game piece that is labeled “character,” she must name one of the characters in the story.
3. The player with the most pepperoni slices on the pizza at the end wins the game.

 .  .  .  .  .

“Toss the Pepperoni” is just one of the many fun and creative activities WriteShop Primary uses to reinforce simple writing skills at the primary level. This game appears in Book B.

Publish Your Child’s Stories 

One of the most encouraging and rewarding experiences for a young author is to see her work published. As a second and third grader, I remember how much I loved to find my own little stories and poems published in our school’s newsletter.

WriteShop Primary gives your student the opportunity to publish her writing project as a book or other art form that she can share with others. She might make a story kite to fly around the house as she “reads” it to Daddy; create a paper-plate face book; or turn her story into an accordian-folded train. (Visit our website for more info about WriteShop Primary, our delightful parent-guided writing program for K-3rd graders. It’s filled with fun, engaging activities to promote a love for writing!)

Make a Story Pocket 

Featured in Book A, story pockets make wonderful publishing tools, and they’re perfect for storing and displaying a child’s early stories and drawings. Here’s how to make one.

Advance Prep

Short Pocket: Use one paper plate. Cut it in half. Place both pieces face to face and staple together around the curved edges. The top straight edges remain open to form a pocket.

Tall Pocket: Use two paper plates. Leave one plate whole. Cut the second plate in two, discarding one of the halves. Staple the half plate to the full-size plate to create a tall pocket with a high back.

Directions

1. Allow time for the child to use crayons, markers, paint, or stickers to decorate the paper plate so it matches the theme of the story.
2. Fold the story and store it inside the pocket.
3. (Optional) Have your child draw a picture of each object in the story on cardboard, poster board, or tagboard. Cut out the tagboard pieces and store them in the pocket along with the story.
4. Encourage your child to read her story to family members or a friend, pulling out the corresponding pieces from the pocket and placing them on the table as she shares.
5. These pockets also make great holders for holiday greeting cards!

. . . . .

Copyright © 2008 Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

Here’s a fun activity to do with your primary-age children (K-3rd) to introduce the concept of nouns.

What are nouns?

Talk about nouns with your kids and discuss the three main noun categories.

Common nouns name people, places and things. Unless they begin a sentence, common nouns are not capitalized. Examples: man, toy, cereal, coffee shop, country

Proper nouns name specific things, and must be capitalized at all times. Examples: President Bush, Legos, Cheerios. Starbucks, United States

Collective nouns (also called group nouns) describe a set or group of people, animals or things. Examples: army, family, audience, flock (of sheep), bunch (of flowers), school (of fish), team (of baseball players)

Note: Making a noun plural does not make it a collective noun. The word cows is a plural noun / the word herd (of cows) is a collective noun.

Make a noun mini-book

1. Fold a 9” x 12” sheet of construction paper in half.
2. On the first page, add a title: “My Book of Nouns.” Below the title, help your child write a definition of common noun, proper noun, and collective noun.
3. Title the inside left page “Some Common Nouns,” the inside right page “Some Proper Nouns,” and the back page “Some Collective Nouns.”
4. Once your child has labeled her mini-book, give her a few old magazines or catalogs. Ask her to cut out five pictures for each category, glue them in place on the appropriate page, and label the picture with its name.

Copyright © 2008 Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng

IT’S NEVER too early to introduce your young children to the joy of writing.

Even during the early elementary years (K-3), there’s so much you can do to model and encourage pre-writing and writing skills, such as reading aloud from quality picture books or asking your child to tell you about a picture he drew while you write down his words.

Early Writing Skills

Bear in mind that children develop at different rates. Fine-motor skills, like other stages of development, vary from child to child. Some budding writers, especially boys, will struggle with writing on a line, copying and forming letters, and putting their words and thoughts on paper. These skills and more come with time and patience.

The development of a young child’s writing is best achieved through:

• Plenty of time spent on writing activities.
• Many opportunities to write during the school day.
• Focused instruction that builds from your child’s efforts.

Your Child Needs YOU

Clearly, young children cannot learn to write on their own. Even if you create an atmosphere rich with educational materials—picture books, lined paper, colored markers, crayons, and an alphabet chart—it’s not enough. To effectively develop basic writing skills, your child needs YOU—along with your example, encouragement, and daily guidance.

This season in your child’s educational development is an opportune time to teach and model writing within a warm, safe environment. As you teach your primary-aged child to write, you’ll find that repetition, routine, and consistency play a vital role in teaching basic skills. There’s no way around it—your involvement with your child during writing sessions is key to his success!

Consider WriteShop Primary

If your child is in kindergarten, first, or second grade and you need some help guiding her writing along, consider WriteShop Primary Book A. It encourages and reinforces this special parent-child partnership young learners depend on.

The beauty of WriteShop Primary is its adaptablity to meet your needs. If your child is older, yet behind in her writing, you can utilize many components of the program but not use the activities that have a “younger” feel. You can challenge your older child to write more each step of the way, according to her ability, especially taking advantage of the “Flying Higher” suggestions and optional activities at the end of each lesson.

And for beginning students, WriteShop Primary can be used as more of a “pre-writing” launch pad. You can use the discussion starters and activites to introduce your very young child to the wonderful and exciting world of writing. Your younger children will delight in the crafts and illustrations, and you can prompt them to tell you the stories and writing projects that you then write down for them until they are ready to start writing letters and words (and eventually sentences) on their own.

Order Book A

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng

Through July 20, we’re including a WriteShop Primary Activity Set Worksheet Pack ($4.95 value) for FREE to everyone who pre-orders WriteShop Primary Book A!

There’s one 2-sided worksheet for every lesson in Book A, along with evaluation charts to help you track your child’s progress.

The copyright give permission to reproduce worksheets and charts for single-family use, or you may purchase extra workpacks for additional children.

Book A is nearing its ship date!

WriteShop Primary is the delightful new program for children in K-3 grades. Book A, the first in the series, targets kindergarten and first-grade students, but you can also use it with second graders who have limited or no writing experience. Books will begin shipping very soon!

See a sample lesson

Our website is now filled with all sorts of information about WriteShop Primary. Begin at the WriteShop Primary Home Page and visit the other links from there. You can find:

• Placement chart
• Scope and sequence
• Book A sample lesson
• Examples of various projects and activites
• Picture book topics

Pre-order here

Hurry over to the store to pre-order your new book. You’ll love this gentle, effective method for introducing writing skills to your little ones! Books will ship in mid-July.

Interest in WriteShop Primary continues to mount!

At last weekend’s FPEA conference in Orlando, nearly 100 people signed up to receive e-mail notification of WriteShop Primary’s release dates! We’re excited to bring out a product that will meet many of your needs for a gentle early-elementary writing curriculum.

WriteShop Primary Book A’s release is getting closer, so let me catch you up a bit!

• We’re now calling Book A a K/1-level book, but it’s really ideal for pre- or beginning writers in kindergarten, first, or second grades.
• We feel quite official now that we have ISBN numbers for our books!
• After introducing our prototype at several conventions, we’ve made a few simple changes, including a font change to improve readability.
• The Activity Set Worksheet Pack for Book A is finished. There’s a worksheet to support and reinforce skills taught in each lesson. Here’s a little peek at the worksheet for Lesson 8. Continue reading →