Tuesday, March 17

Story Writing Tips for Children

When you're teaching children to write, one of the most important things for them to understand is that a story has to have a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning introduces the audience to the characters and tells a little about them. The story should then flow into the middle and the characters should be involved in a conflict. The middle should take up most of the story. Then, a solution brings the story to a close.

All of these things are what makes up a story. Children have great imaginations and can make up great stories about children their own age. They can use their experiences to make the story believeable.

If you find your child can't think of an idea for his/her story, give them a little help. You can give them a sentence to help them out. Example: The ghostly sounds were coming from the old house. Your child can use that sentence and allow their imagination to fly. That is how my grade four teacher taught us to write. However, while teaching my grandsons writing skills, I have used a different method. Give the child three words. Recently I did this for my eleven year old grandson. The words were slippery, forest and pond. He wrote a delightful story about a frog named Slippery who lived in a pond in the woods. The conflict was that a builder was going to destroy the pond in order to build condominiums. Though the story was a little juvenile for his age, he did a great job showing conflict and resolution.

If you use this latter method, try to choose words that will interest your child. For instance, if your child likes dogs, give him/her words such as puppy, mother and lost. You just may be surprised with what they come up with.

If you would like to read more about Home Schooling, please visit Tammy's blog.


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15 comments:

  1. Those are some good ideas Mary, Happy St Patrick's day to you too :-)

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  2. Happy St. Pat's day to you!
    Having an imagination is so important for children to have!
    I did little exercises last year w/ my grandson to open his imagination a bit too!No stopping hime now!! :)NG

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  3. I so remember my creative writing teacher, when I was in school long ago, telling the class a story must have a beginning, a middle, and and an end! I had a deja vu experience 'all over again' this morning.

    HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY TO YOU!! Top o' the morning!!!

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  4. Today we have two grandchildren and tomorrow we will have three more. They all love to read -- even the 6 year old -- so I am going to steal your idea and challenge them to each write a story. They have great, active imaginations and I can't wait. Thanks again Mary!

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  5. Hi Mary

    I've just been catching up on the last six entries or so. I enjoyed your Memories post, and this is a good idea for story writing.

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  6. Good Morning Mary,
    "HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY" to you and yours. Are you going cook an Irish meal today? I wont' since the girls wouldnt' eat it anyway. They don't like cabbage at all. I enjoyed the information on the writing skills. Kids do have a great imagination and they are alot smarter than we think they are also. Next time mine want to write something, I will use the latter technique to get them started on something. Our youngest daughter likes to write stories once in a great while. Take care my friend and have a great day. May GOD BLess you and yours.
    Love,
    Karen H.
    P.S> THANK YOU" for the lovely card you emailed me this morning. I do appreciate it very much.

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  7. Happy St. Patrick's Day Mary :)
    Great advice on creative writing for children.
    It's always so interesting so see what is on their minds when their imagination is challenged a bit!
    xo

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  8. Mary, thank you so much for participating! :D

    I love your writing tips...as someone who also loves to write, my girls have inherited a bit of this and love to spontaneously write stories and make little books.

    But I love the idea of giving them one sentence to use...I remember my 5th grade teacher doing that with us and I had such a great time with that assignment!

    Come over and see my little open house...and thanks again, dear Mary!
    Hugs,
    ~Tammy
    And Happy St. Patrick's Day! :D

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  9. I will try the three word tip next time.

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  10. I love the three word idea! I am currently teaching a mini co-op creative writing class in our homeschool group, and we sure are having fun! You're so right too...pick words that interest the child! :)

    Tammy

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  11. Great writing tips! And kids today have to do a lot of writing in school!

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  12. My grandson and I would do bedtime stories. I would do a sentence and then he would do a sentence. We would keep the story going until someone ended it! It was alot of fun.

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