Congratulations to EMILY! You’re the winner of a $25 WriteShop gift certificate!

Blog visitors could earn up to eleven chances in the drawing by leaving comments at our 10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing series. Emily’s name was drawn from among 110 comments (her comment, #53,  appeared here). Way to go, Emily!

If you missed this encouraging, informative series, why not begin here with this introductory article: 10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing? Then, you can read about each individual stumbling block in the following posts:

1. Lack of confidence
2. Lack of skills and tools
3. Lack of motivation
4. Limited writing vocabulary
5. Perfectionism and self-criticism
6. Laziness
7. Procrastination
8. Worry about criticism from mom or dad
9. Wondering what’s the point
10. Learning difficulties that interfere with the writing process

I hope you’ve been enjoying our series on 10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing. Are you starting to identify the hurdles that may be standing between your child and the blank page? If so, I pray you’re also finding hope!

Because of the Christmas-to-New-Year’s holiday, I’m taking the week off from article writing. But if you check back Monday (Jan. 4), the next post in the series will be ready for you.

Win a $25 Gift Certificate

Meanwhile, you can visit (or revisit!) Stumbling Blocks 1-8. Don’t forget that leaving a comment at any Stumbling Blocks article enters you into a drawing for a $25 WriteShop gift certificate. You can earn up to eleven chances in the drawing by commenting on all eleven articles. There’s still time to comment on any previous post, starting here!

1. Lack of confidence
2. Lack of skills and tools
3. Lack of motivation
4. Limited writing vocabulary
5. Perfectionism and self-criticism
6. Laziness
7. Procrastination
8. Worry about parental criticism

Happy writing,
Kim

In our series on 10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing, last week we looked at the problem of laziness. But laziness has a close cousin in the obstacle we’ll explore today: procrastination.

Stumbling Block #7

Problem: The procrastinator waits till the last minute to write her paper.

Solution: Break up assignments over time and provide accountability for your student.

The Pressure of Procrastination

If it weren’t for the last minute, I wouldn’t get anything done.  ~Author Unknown

When we feel overwhelmed, we tend to put off distasteful tasks—or those that seem big and scary—such as cleaning the garage or preparing for a big party. Claiming we work best under pressure, we shop, bake, clean, and decorate in a last-minute frenzy. As time rushes forward and the deadline looms, we sweep piles of laundry and schoolwork into drawers and closets, abandon the balloons and streamers, and purchase a hastily chosen gift card because we never got around to buying a present.

“Procrastinators generally don’t do well under pressure,” says Joseph Ferrari, associate professor of psychology at Chicago’s DePaul University. The idea that time pressure improves performance is a myth. In truth, procrastination can result in:

• Health and sleep problems.
• Anxiety and panic as tasks pile up.
• Poor performance and inefficiency.
• Guilt.

As William James aptly put it, “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”

Five Steps Toward Overcoming Procrastination

The best way to get something done is to begin.  ~Author Unknown

Putting off a writing assignment till the last minute can lead to a rushed and sloppy paper hastily written just before it’s due. It may also leave your child feeling too pressured or anxious to do a good job. As with the lazy student, the procrastinator needs a strategy. Try these suggestions to help your child make wiser use of her time. 

1. Work on adopting a “do it first” attitude.

Tackling unpleasant or disagreeable tasks earlier in the day—when your student is fresh and alert—often means greater progress in shorter time. 

2. Establish a deadline for the writing project.

When you don’t give a cut-off date, you imply that your child can put the task off indefinitely. Set a date and stick to it.

3. Divide the assignment into smaller chunks.

While a deadline is important, it doesn’t ensure that your student will pace herself. So in addition to assigning a distant due date for the whole composition or report, give more frequent due dates for parts of the project. For a short composition, assign brainstorming, rough draft, self-editing, second draft, parent editing, and a final draft. For a report or term paper, you’ll also want to see topic ideas, note cards, outlines, etc.

The writing process, by its very nature, is a series of steps. However, the procrastinator is prone to completely skip steps (or else cram several steps into one last-ditch writing session). Assignments spread over several days or weeks—with mini due dates scheduled along the way—help train her to spread out her work and not save it all till the last minute. A schedule or plan that outlines each step makes the best defense against procrastination.

4. Don’t neglect to follow up.

Your student needs to allow drafts to rest between writing sessions. But since she tends to wait till the last minute, she typically leaves no time for revising or refining. Make sure that you hold her accountable along the way with checklists and deadlines, and check her work regularly to keep her on task.

As the parent and teacher, you’re responsible to ensure that your child is doing the work and sticking to her deadlines. We homeschoolers can get lax about this. If you say “I’ll check over your work later,” but fail to do so, you continue to perpetuate the problem of procrastination. By not checking up on your student or asking to see her assignments, you unfortunately model the very behavior you seek to correct.

5. Set up task-appropriate rewards.

Come up with ways to reward your student’s steps of progress. Completing her brainstorming on time or writing her rough draft may earn her some computer or TV time. Finishing a task ahead of the due date could merit even more time to spend with her friends, read for pleasure, or work on her hobbies.

Do you ever feel like YOU are your child’s main stumbling block? If so, you won’t want to miss next week’s article, which addresses parental criticism. Check it out and soak up the encouragement!

Share a comment: Does your child procrastinate? What is one new thing you can do toward changing his or her behavior?

Leaving a comment at any Stumbling Blocks article enters you into a drawing for a $25 WriteShop gift certificate. You can earn up to eleven chances in the drawing by commenting on all eleven articles!

2009 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

. . . . .

WriteShop  provides schedules and checklists that give direction to a procrastinator. Parent supervision is also a key element of the program. Train your little ones early using WriteShop Primary. For older students, choosing WriteShop I and II will help you equip and inspire successful writers!

Welcome back to our series on 10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing. Each week, you’ll gain more and more ideas for helping your reluctant or struggling writer leap over those hurdles that make writing challenging. If you’re new to the series, Stumbling Block #4 took a look at how limited writing vocabulary can hinder your student. Today we’ll explore:

Stumbling Block #5

Problem: Perfectionism and self-criticism often lead to writer’s block.

Solution: (1) Prime the pump with more writing and (2) write an unpolished rough draft.

The Curse of Writer’s Block

Writer’s block. The phrase itself is enough to banish every creative thought from your child’s head. When he’s in a stare-down with a blank page—and the page is winning—it’s easy to believe he’s the only one who ever wrestles with getting a thought on paper.

It should comfort him to know that everyone suffers from writer’s block at some point. Even famed novelist Ernest Hemingway admitted that the most frightening thing he’d ever encountered was a blank sheet of paper!

Though many stumbling blocks litter the road to writing success, perfectionism—personal pressure to “get it right the first time”—is the mother of them all, and the key contributor to writer’s block.

Face it. Most children—yours included—loathe the writing process. They want to write a paper once at best, and they want you to love it. There’s no room in their world for the nuisance of proofreading, editing, or revising. For many of these kids, then, the first draft has to be perfect in their eyes.

Of course, the irony is that they’re imperfect individuals who believe that whatever they put on paper will never be good enough. So they don’t write at all. “People have writer’s block not because they can’t write, but because they despair of writing eloquently,” says author Anna Quindlen.

Writing Tips for the Perfectionist

1. Write, write, write

As counterintuitive as it sounds, the more you write . . . well, the more you write! It’s very much like priming a pump: it takes water to produce water. So how can you encourage your child to flex his writing muscles? One way is through a simple exercise called free writing. Author, homeschooler, and writing teacher Dianne Dachyshyn uses free writing to ease the grip of writer’s block:

“The first time you ask children to do this, they will stare incredulously and grumble. They will be hard pressed to meet the time requirement of three minutes. However, after a regular discipline of free writing, they will begin to enjoy this time and it is amazing what they can produce. I often have to force them to stop at the end of ten minutes.”

To learn Dianne’s simple method, read the entire article here.

2. “Don’t get it right, just get it written.” –James Thurber

Believe it or not, one of the best solutions for a perfectionist is writing a rough draft. Writing, after all, is a debugging process. First, your child writes something sloppy. This is the practice draft—the imperfect, flawed rough draft. Later, he goes back and fine tunes it. That’s why I love to call the rough draft a “sloppy copy”! Starting sloppy deals a blow to the blank page as the student puts forth ideas and gets into the writing flow. As author and poet Margaret Atwood so aptly put it: “If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”

3. Learn to let go

Enjoying the process—any process—is one of the toughest hurdles for a perfectionist! I’m not going to say it’s easy, but it is achievable—bit by bit—as he learns to let go of the things that weigh him down.

Let go of pressure. Writing can be fixed. James Michener once said, “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” Even if you’re a famous author, early drafts just won’t measure up. This should come as welcome news to your young perfectionist! As sorely tempted as he may be to crumple up his efforts and keep starting over, encourage him to  just get it written. Later, like every other author of great or small renown, he can work on revising until he’s satisfied. After all, writing is a process, not a one-time event!

Let go of precision. Creativity is a messy ordeal. Why does your student think it’s fine to make a mess when painting or working with wood or clay, but not when writing? The creative process isn’t always neat, tidy, and measured, and it’s certainly not perfect. Assure him it’s okay if his thoughts spill out in a bit of a jumble, and it’s to be expected that he or his teacher will add marks to the paper during editing. Cleanup begins during the revising process.

Let go of perfection. Finish the draft. Though it’s tempting for your student to try to correct everything as he goes, have him finish his rough draft without wrestling with every word, phase, and sentence. That’s what revising is for! And don’t forget to show your enthusiasm and approval when he finishes his assignment. Success breeds more success, and when your child feels successful, he’ll be much less reluctant next time!

Sometimes your kids are perfectionists, true? And this can indeed hold them back from doing their best by seizing them with fear . . . but not always. Sometimes, well . . . they’re just plain lazy! That brings us to Stumbling Block #6: Laziness, which is the topic of next week’s article in the Stumbling Blocks series.

Share a comment: How does your child exhibit perfectionism where his or her writing is concerned?

Leaving a comment at any Stumbling Blocks article enters you into a drawing for a $25 WriteShop gift certificate. Increase your chances of winning by commenting on all eleven articles! 2009© Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

. . . . .

WriteShop builds the steps of the writing process into each level of the program, helping your perfectionists recognize the purpose and value of writing and revising. Train your little ones early using WriteShop Primary. For older students, choosing WriteShop I and II will help you equip and inspire successful writers!

For the past several weeks, we’ve been looking at writing issues that plague students and their parents. Writing isn’t a one-size-fits-all subject, but certainly there are overarching principles that apply to many students and situations.

In this series, 10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing, I’ve been focusing on the most common writing hurdles that tend to trip up your children and offering simple and practical suggestions you can use right away. Let’s see what today’s topic has in store for us!

 Stumbling Block #4

Problem: Limited writing vocabulary that inhibits ideas and contributes to weak stories, essays, and reports.

Solution: Teach your student to develop and hone vocabulary by using a thesaurus and word banks.

A student who has a growing supply of words at her disposal learns to express herself just as she intends—using the right word at the right time. Not only that, she allows the reader to grasp subtle shades of description and meaning.

On the other hand, a limited vocabulary can cripple a child’s attempts to produce an interesting piece of writing. If he can’t express himself concretely, his stories or essays end up riddled with oft-repeated words and ho-hum vocabulary. From the comments I’ve read in previous “Stumbling Blocks” posts, this might very well be your child!

Here’s some welcome news—this problem has a relatively simple solution! Let’s take a look at some practical ways to boost your student’s writing vocabulary.

1. Start with a Good Thesaurus

A thesaurus helps your student find fresh new words to replace tired or overused ones. It’s a necessary tool for every writer and should not be considered an option.

Our all-time favorite thesaurus—and the one our students used when we taught WriteShop classes—is The Synonym Finder. (My own dog-eared copy is now splitting at the seams!) Comprehensive yet easy to use, The Synonym Finder puts every other thesaurus to shame. As one mom put it:

“It’s HUGE. We got rid of all the other ones we had in the house (we got tired of not finding the words we were looking for)! A GREAT resource…. We highly recommend it.” –Patty K.

It’s so much fun to watch your kids begin to use new words. There’s nothing like seeing dazzling, jubilant, and thunderous begin to replace vague words like bright, happy, and loud. And your children will find that as their word choices expand, writing becomes more fun!

2. Choose Shorter Words

Teaching kids to use a thesaurus has its drawbacks, especially when they get carried away with the joy of discovering new words. In these enthusiastic moments, they sometimes end up with unwieldy words that weigh down their writing.

There will always be exceptions, but as a rule, long words are often more formal—even stuffy. On the other hand, short words tend to have force and directness. And as language gets more direct, clarity improves. It’s interesting to note that short, familiar words—typically words with fewer syllables—are more easily understood than their longer counterparts. For example:

• grit vs. indomitability 
• biased vs. opinionated 
• sharp vs. perceptive 
• forlorn vs. dispirited
• clutter vs. disarrangement 

This doesn’t mean students should never use longer words! On the contrary, it’s great to see their vocabulary blossom. But eagerness to discover new words can result in sentences strung together by too much cumbersome vocabulary. Bottom line: Teach, model, and encourage your children to use more challenging words, but wisely!

3. Use Word Banks

Another excellent source of new vocabulary, word banks provide specific lists of words by category or topic, such as holidays or seasons. When a student is tempted to reuse a familiar word because he can’t think of any others, a word list can remind him of alternative words he already knows but can’t quite reel in from the edges of his mind. It can also provide a wealth of words that will spark ideas in a reluctant writer’s mind. That’s why we’ve include word lists in our WriteShop student books—lists such as textures, colors, and emotions.

So…now that you’ve got some ideas for bolstering vocabulary, get yourself a Synonym Finder, gather a few word banks, and start having fun with words!

Don’t miss next week’s Stumbling Block: Perfectionism. It’s a major hurdle for writers of all ages!

2009 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

. . . . .

When looking for a writing curriculum, seek out a program that purposefully teaches children to make stronger word choices. WriteShop Primary helps K-3rd graders develop a meaningful writing vocabulary. For older students, you’ll find that WriteShop I and II include 17 exhaustive word banks that help equip and inspire successful writers!

Last week we talked about skills and tools a student can use to make his writing more interesting. As we continue this series on 10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing, today’s focus turns to a very common writing issue.

Stumbling Block #3

Problem: Lack of motivation.

Solution: Provide a wide variety of writing experiences as well as flexibility of topic choices.

Offer a Varied Writing Diet

Uninteresting or irrelevant topics often produce unmotivated students. One solution? Give your child greater options. Don’t limit him to one kind of writing, like essays or factual reports. Instead, vary his writing diet so he feels more motivated to write!

• Offer experiences with descriptive, informative, and narrative writing. Let him describe people, places, foods, and objects.
• To dabble in expository writing, encourage him to explain a process, write short reports or biographies, or write news articles.
• Teach him to write narratives from varying points of view or in a different voice or tense.

Allow Freedom to Choose Topics

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, try give your less-than-motivated student a bit more flexibility of topic choices. Nothing stifles creativity like saying, “You MUST write about this.”

I’m not saying your student should run the show. After all, you’re still the teacher! But if you’re teaching a particular kind of writing, such as describing a place, you can give freedom of choice—anything from a baseball stadium to a tea room, from a mountain wilderness to a busy street corner—while remaining within the lesson’s framework. It’s the best of both worlds when you establish some parameters but offer freedom too. When your child feels more “ownership” of the subject matter, you’ll find he’s much more likely to invest himself in the writing.

Tie Writing to Other Subjects

Also, incorporate writing across the curriculum whenever possible. Instead of teaching writing as a separate subject, writing across the curriculum lets you dovetail writing instruction with your study of history, literature, art, music . . . the opportunities are endless.

Write with Delight

And consider delight-directed learning, which allows your student to explore a favorite topic—hobby, sport, historical period, whatever his passion—and write about it in many ways:

• Using vivid description
• Explaining a process (“how-to” composition)
• Writing stories and narratives
• Writing essays and reports
• Developing news articles

The beauty of delight-directed learning? Each writing project focuses on a different aspect of your child’s topic of interest, whether it’s Legos, gardening, horses, or antique guns. You may grow tired of reading essays, stories, and reports about Tiger Woods, choosing a golf club, the history of golf, and “My First Hole in One,” but if it means your student is writing . . . well, rejoice!

To see if limited writing vocabulary is an issue for your student, check out Stumbling Block #4.

2009 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

. . . . .

If your writing curriculum limits your student’s writing experiences or stifles topic choices, you might want to take a look at WriteShop I for your 6th – 10th grader. Each lesson provides the framework for a particular kind of writing but gives the student options to pick his own topic.

Golf ball photo courtesy of Stock.Xchng.

Welcome back to our series on 10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing! Last week we looked at ways to increase your student’s confidence. What’s today’s hurdle?

Stumbling Block #2

Problem: Lack of skills and tools to make writing fresh and interesting.

Solution: Introduce pre-writing exercises, brainstorming worksheets, and checklists.

Whether you’re sewing, gardening, working with wood, or fixing an engine, you can’t do the job properly without certain skills and tools. The same can be said for writing—and I’m not just talking about paper, pens, and a laptop. Let’s look at some practical principles you can apply to begin equipping your children for success!

Pre-writing Activities

One of the easiest ways to build writing skills is to have some fun! Pre-writing exercises and writing games act as enjoyable warm-ups to get creative juices flowing, build vocabulary, and strengthen sentence development. Games you make up, like sentence-building or concrete writing games, make perfect pre-writing exercises. And don’t discount the value of purchased word games. Scattergories and Apples to Apples come to mind as two great writing warm-up games our family loves to play. Along with old friends like Scrabble and Boggle, they make ideal family Christmas gifts. Your kids will have no idea they’re learning!

Brainstorming Worksheets

Before your student writes the first word of her composition, she’ll improve her chances for success by brainstorming. Like pre-writing, brainstorming is a skill that stimulates thinking in general. However, it also acts as a springboard for writing about a particular subject. When a student brainstorms:

• It gets her ideas flowing so she has something to say.
• It helps her overcome writer’s block.
• It prepares her for writing as she develops a plan and gains direction.
• It helps her organize her thoughts.

To further promote thinking skills, you’ll want to teach a variety of brainstorming techniques. Whatever the topic, suggest a brainstorming method—mind map, list, or outline, for instance—that’s best for the kind of composition your student is writing. For example:

• She might brainstorm for a how-to composition by listing the steps of the process.
• If she’s writing a descriptive paragraph, she should carefully study the subject for interesting details and record her observations.
• For a narrative, she’ll want to sequence the events.
• A Venn diagram is especially useful for compare/contrast essay.

There are many ways to brainstorm, but worksheets and graphic organizers are tools that often smooth the way for reluctant writers. If you are using a program like WriteShop I or II, you’ll find brainstorming worksheets already prepared for each writing assignment (see an example here). Alternatively, a quick Google search will yield a variety of brainstorming tools available on the web.

But brainstorming isn’t just for your junior high or high schooler! You can begin teaching this skill in kindergarten, either on your own or with a helpful curriculum like WriteShop Primary. Starting your children when they’re young can help prevent the debilitating case of writer’s block that often plagues older students.

Checklists

A good checklist serves as a guide to help your student identify her own errors in content, style, and mechanics so she can improve and enliven her writing. For instance, if the checklist reminds her to use synonyms instead of repeating main words, she’ll be forced to find more interesting words. This simple tool can help her hone a valuable skill she’ll use all her life. (In a few weeks I’ll be talking about checklists in greater detail when we take a look at Stumbling Block #6: Laziness.) 

Other Skills and Tools

In addition to checklists and brainstorming sheets, there are other tools that help breathe new life into writing. For example, skill-building exercises can give a student instruction and practice in new writing skills like choosing titles, writing topic sentences, citing sources, or using sentence variations.

I’m sure grammar is part of your language arts curriculum, but how it can revive writing may be a complete mystery to you. I’d like to suggest that when you require your student to use newly learned grammar concepts in her compositions, the grammar actually makes more sense. So rather than teach grammar in a vacuum, teach it as it applies to writing. That’s where the rubber meets the road!

Writing isn’t an exact science, but you can certainly apply proven principles to promote stronger writers in your home. It’s my prayer that you’ll begin to notice a difference in both attitude and output as you put some of these tips into practice.

Next week we’ll look at Stumbling Block #3: Lack of motivation. You won’t want to miss that one!

2009 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

. . . . .

Do you wish your writing curriculum offered more pre-writing activities and brainstorming ideas? Then take a look at WriteShop I for your 6th – 10th grader. You’ll love the writing games and brainstorming worksheets that equip and inspire successful writers!  

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.

As promised, today begins our series on 10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing. Each Monday for the next 10 weeks, I’ll offer solutions to common problems that can hinder your student’s writing. Ready? Let’s jump in!

Stumbing Block #1

Problem: Students lack confidence due to poor guidelines and unclear directions or expectations.

Solution: Provide boundaries and direction.

In his book Dare to Discipline, Dr. James Dobson reports the findings of an interesting study done on school children during the early days of the progressive-education movement. Apparently, an enthusiastic theorist decided to take down the chain-link fence that surrounded the school grounds. He thought the children, who clearly enjoyed exploring the enclosed yard, would feel even more freedom of movement without that visible barrier surrounding them.

But here’s the curious thing: When the fence was removed, the boys and girls huddled together near the center of the play yard. Not only did they not wander away, they didn’t even venture to the edge of the grounds.

This little experiment served to reinforce a simple truth: There’s security for children in defined boundaries.

Establish Boundaries

What does this have to do with writing? Well, giving your student a blank page and saying, “Write about whatever you want!” is no different from plunking these kids down in the middle of an unfenced playground.

Instead, position him for success by setting boundaries for the composition. One idea is to limit its length. This helps your struggling 12-year-old son relax a bit. (”Hey, Buddy, you only have to write five to seven sentences.”) He will be less likely to freeze up if he knows the lesson parameters.

But it also helps your wordy, rabbit-trailing 15-year-old daughter write more concisely. By limiting her to one paragraph of five to seven sentences, you’re training her to choose her words more wisely, thus avoiding tangents.

So as you can see, the same idea will work to the advantage of both kinds of writers: you’re offering the writing-phobic child safe boundaries while establishing clear limits for your rambler.

Provide Topic Options

Giving your child a specific writing topic further adds to his security. Remember not to assume that if a child has freedom to write about anything he wants, his little pen will skip across the paper like an eager lamb! As I said earlier, this tactic usually backfires. At best, that kind of freedom frustrates some struggling writers, while sending others into a nosedive of absolute terror!

I promise you—it’s much better to offer concrete topics they can choose from. Instead of saying “write about a food,” suggest they use their five senses to describe a taco, cinnamon roll, pizza, or ice cream sundae. You’re still giving choices but within the confines of a safe perimeter.

Give Clear Directions

And finally, provide step-by-step instructions to build confidence. It’s not enough to tell kids to write; they need to learn how to write. Giving open-ended or fuzzily worded assignments will only contribute their frustration. Instead, whether you create your own writing assignments or use a prepared curriculum like WriteShop, make sure your child knows exactly what’s expected of him.

Example A: Poor instructions:

Describe an object. (Or, pick an object and write about it.)

Example B: Clear instructions:

1. Choose an object that you can hold in your hand. Do not pick a food, an animal, or a person.
2. Carefully observe your object. Brainstorm about it, listing everything you can about its features. Consider appearance, color, size, shape, texture, smell, and sound.
3. Look closely for details, including imperfections and flaws.
4. Write a 5- to 7-sentence paragraph describing your object. (Do not explain what the object is used for, and do not tell a story about it.)

Derek was an 8th grader whose first composition for our writing class consisted of two pitiful sentences. But within weeks, with clear limits and guidelines such as these, his confidence blossomed and he became one of the strongest writers in the class. For your child as well, clarifying your instructions may be all that’s needed!

Bottom line? With a few easy-to-implement solutions, you will help your student feel more sure of himself. The result? He’ll perform better when he knows just what you—or the writing assignment—expects of him.

Next week we’ll look at Stumbling Block #2: Lack of skills and tools to make writing fresh and interesting.

. . . . .

Are you frustrated with your writing curriculum because it doesn’t provide enough boundaries for the composition or offer detailed student instructions? Then consider award-winning WriteShop I for your 6th – 10th grader. You’ll love the step-by-step instructions, topic suggestions, and structure that inspire successful writers!

Sigh. Once again, it’s “writing time” at your house.

During the past hour, your reluctant writer’s paper has become riddled with scribbles and smears. And e-v-e-r-y time he erases with frustrated vigor, a tiny hole appears in the middle of that gray smudge. As the hole grows larger, his mind freezes up and closes in. Then the laments begin:

• What do I write about?
• Where do I start?
• How long does it have to be?
• I’ll never think of something.
• “I HATE WRITING!”

There’s so much frustration behind those blinked-back tears. And you know what? It’s not just kids who experience it—YOU struggle too.

Why Is It So Hard to Teach Writing?

Teaching writing is one of the biggest hurdles homeschooling families face. First, parents can feel insecure, inadequate, and under-equipped. For many of you, teaching writing ranks right up there with a trip to the dentist. Although we know the importance of passing on this skill to our students, so many excuses stand in our way!

• How can I teach if I never really learned to write?
• I don’t write—I’m just a math-science person.
• What if I don’t know how to grade a paper?
• Writing comes easily to me—but I don’t have clue how to teach my kids.

Second, children are often paralyzed by writer’s block, fear, and perfectionism. Most students want to write a paper once and declare it done. They hope we’ll rave over it and accept it as a finished product. The smallest hint of suggestion from Mom sets off howls of protest: Why can’t I leave it this way? You never like anything I write!

Blank paper, reluctant child, and insecure parent—combine these three ingredients together and I pretty much guarantee that your hopes for teaching writing will fail.

Let’s face it. It’s easy to keep pushing writing to the back burner with intentions of getting to it “someday.” And for many, “someday” has come and gone, and now you have:

• a high schooler who can’t write;
• a panicked mom burdened by guilt;
• and the infernal blank page that taunts you both.

10 Stumbling Blocks to Writing 

We need to 1) recognize some of the most common stumbling blocks that stand in the way of your child’s success, and 2) determine how your writing program can help. Take heart! These stumbling blocks are neither so heavy that they can’t be moved, nor so tall that they can’t be scaled.

Here are the ten stumbling blocks we’ll be looking at:

1. Lack of confidence
2. Lack of skills and tools
3. Lack of motivation
4. Limited writing vocabulary
5. Perfectionism and self-criticism
6. Laziness
7. Procrastination
8. Worry about criticism from mom or dad
9. Wondering what’s the point
10. Learning difficulties that interfere with the writing process

Over the next few months, I’ll talk about each of these in greater detail and give you some ideas of how to help your student overcome them. Most of my suggestions will be aimed at older students (5th or 6th grade through high school). Still, parents of younger children will find tips and suggestions that you can apply now. By doing so, you can begin to ward off some of these problems early on, setting your children up for greater writing success in the future.

Come back next week as we take a look at the first of these ten stumbling blocks and talk about ways you can help your student overcome each one in order to become a stronger writer.

Please share your thoughts: What’s your child’s biggest stumbling block?

(Leaving a comment at any “Stumbling Blocks” article enters you into our January drawing for a $25 WriteShop gift certificate. Increase your chances of winning by commenting here and again at each of the 10 upcoming articles, beginning with Stumbling Block #1 – Lack of Confidence.)

2009 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.

It should have been so easy.

After all, you weren’t asking for much—just a story or something. To simplify things, you didn’t even care how long it should be. Or what topic he picked. Given a lot of freedom, you reasoned, he wouldn’t feel so squished or frustrated…and the words would just flow.

So what went wrong?

Your plan backfired miserably, and now your son hunches tearfully over a mountain of wadded pages, each one a smudged and wrinkled reminder of what he already believes about himself: I can’t write!

If it’s any comfort, you’re not alone. This scene plays out at kitchen tables and makeshift schoolrooms around the country, where dejected students scrunch up papers, break pencils, bang keyboards, and cry buckets—and disheartened moms throw up their hands in frustration.

Maybe it helps to know that homeschoolers everywhere share the same lament: Why is writing so hard to teach?

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