Writing is important

Everyday life is full of writing from things as simple as a birthday invitation and a ‘to do’ list through to sitting exams or writing a report for work.

Children in primary school spend a lot of time learning to write. As parents/carers there are many ways you can help them at home.

This booklet sets out simple things you can do in your daily life to encourage your child’s writing ability. You don’t have to be a good writer yourself and you’ll probably find you can have some fun together. Many people say these ideas actually help build better family relationships.

This booklet has ideas for helping your child with:

• vocabulary and new words
• spelling
• punctuation
• grammar
• different types of writing.

Also in this booklet you will find a handy list of ways you can support your child with school projects and research.
Towards the end of the booklet there are some fun games and activities to share.
 

Early writing stages

Children in Kindergarten to Year 3 generally go through the following stages as they learn to write: role play writer, experimental writer and early writer. If you have any queries about your own child’s writing progress, speak with your teacher or principal.

Role play writer: Your child role plays the act of writing, trying out ways to represent writing on paper. Role play writers experiment by forming scribbles, letter-like symbols and random strings of letters. They often use letters from their own name. As a role play writer your child may ‘read’ their writing to you but anyone else will not be able to make sense of it.

Experimental writer: At this stage your child knows that speech can be written down, however they may not always read their writing the same way every time. They ‘have a go’ at writing texts they are familiar with such as letters, recipes and lists. Your child may write words using one, two or three letters, for example PRT (party). Experimental writers know that there is a reason for writing and can tell you who they are writing to and why. For example, I am writing a letter to Granny to say thank you for my birthday card.

Early writer: Early writers write a small range of texts such as stories, greeting cards and reports. In this stage your child chooses information to put in their writing according to the purpose and the audience. They write simple sentences using correct punctuation and know how to spell some words they use often. When writing unknown words, early writers often select letters on the basis of sound, for example becos (because).

Ideas for when your child starts Kindergarten

When your child first starts Kindergarten they will experiment by writing scribbles or strings of letters.

Ways to support your child:

• Have blank paper, crayons, pencils and other writing materials handy so children can write whenever they feel like it.
• When you write, give your child a blank copy to write on too such as cards and forms.
• Show your child how to hold the pencil correctly.
• Take photos when you go out and use them to make a book about what you did, for example a trip to the zoo. Plan what to write with your child and talk about the letters you use.
• Keep a diary with your child. Have them draw a picture or glue in tickets, dockets and photos to remind them of the day. Point to the words as you are reading the day’s entry to your child.
• Talk about the letter you use to begin a word. For example, I need to write ‘sausages’ on my list. It sounds like Simon’s name at the beginning because they both start with ‘s’.
• Get your child to join in when you read to them by asking them to:
  • turn the pages
  • hold the book
  • read the parts they remember.
• Place labels around the home. Write sentences so your child makes the link between what we say and what we read and write. For example, Puzzles are in here.

As your child progresses through Pre-primary and Year 1

Your child knows that speech can be written down. They know there is a reason for writing and they will ‘have a go’ at writing.

Help your child by trying some of these ideas.

• Talk aloud when you write something, then ask your child to ‘read’ it back to you.
• Talk about the way different writing is organised, for example Recipes have a list.
• Talk about letters, sounds, words and interesting bits in the writing. For example, say This is the letter ‘m’. This is the word ‘happy’.
• Let your child keep their own diary. Ask them to tell you what they want you to write in the diary. Read aloud as you write. As they progress, ask them to write words they know.
• Ask your child to act out or retell stories they have heard.
• Set up a home message board and write a message each day, for example Tomorrow we will go to the zoo with Dad. Let your child write messages sometimes. Read the message several times throughout the day to show them that the words and the message stay the same.
• Display on the fridge or wall your child’s attempts at writing.
• When reading to your child, ask them (in a fun way) to find words in the story that begin with the same letter as their name.

Building confidence in Years 2 and 3

As your child progresses try these ideas together. 

• Praise your child when they ‘have a go’ at spelling new words. This encourages them to use interesting words instead of just the ones they already know how to spell/write
• Let your child keep a diary, including pictures. If they are not keen on writing ask them questions and they write their answers. For example:
• You write What did we do today?
• Your child writes We went to the zoo.
• You write Which animals did you see at the zoo?
• Your child writes I saw monkeys and crocodiles.
• Before your child begins writing you can help by asking some of these questions.
  1. Why are you writing this?
  2. Who are you writing for?
  3. What does he/she need to know about this topic?
  4. What is the best way to get your message across, for example, in a letter or poem?
• Ask your child how they work out the spelling of new words.

Help your child develop vocabulary and learn a range of words

It is important to give your child the chance to learn new words and use them in writing. Here are some ways to help. 

• Ask your child to retell the day’s events on the way home or at the dinner table.
• Introduce words to describe the shape, colour and movement of toys as you both play with them.
• Help your child recognise words that are meaningful to them, for example the name of their street, town, school, pet and friends.
• Point out important words in the writing and explain words your child may not know.
• Write as your child dictates. This shows them the link between how words are spoken and written.
• Model standard speech by repeating things in the right form, For example
  Child: I wonned the race
  You: Yes, you won the race.
  Child: I’m the bestest runner.
  You: Yes, you are the best runner.

• Read books to your child and discuss new words as you read.
• Keep a diary with your child and read it regularly with them. Read aloud what has been written. Talk about the choices you and your child make as you write. For example, I want to use a really good word to describe the dinosaur bones: how does ‘extraordinary’ sound?
• Do crosswords together.
• Play games like Scrabble or Boggle.

Supporting spelling

It is important to encourage your child to ‘have-a-go’ at spelling even if they are wrong. Correct spelling will develop over time. 

Help your child ‘have a go’ by trying some of these tips:

• Focus on the first letter and all the sounds in a word, for example, APL (apple).
• • e magnetic letters on the fridge to make words.
• • lk to your child as you write, explaining why you are doing it. For example, I am writing your name on your lunchbox so that everyone knows who it belongs to. As you write the letters say the sound each letter represents, for example P-A-M.
• Once your child knows the names of the letters, help them to understand that
• letters make different sounds. For example, the letter ‘g’ makes the sound /g/ as in ‘girl’ but in the word ‘giraffe’ it makes the sound /j/.
• Write out words for your child rather than just spelling them aloud to help them remember what the word looks like.
• Help your child learn the spelling of some tricky words such as their, there and they’re. Use a plastic placemat and a temporary marker to write words they use often but can’t remember how to spell. Ask your child’s teacher for some words. Your child can use this as a learning mat and a reference when they are writing. You can rub off words your child has learnt and add new ones. The learnt words can be written on the back of the placemat as a reminder of all the words they already know how to spell.
• Help your child try different ways to work out the spelling of an unknown word:
  • Break words into parts, for example be+cause = because.
  • Use common letter patterns, for example ee, ea, ie.
  • Think about the base word, for example happy – unhappy, happily.
  • Look for words within words, for example friEND.

Learning to spell new words

Here is a way to learn new words that children may find helpful:

Look-Say-Cover-Visualise-Write-Check
Look at the word and then say the word. Cover the word and ask your child to close their eyes and see if they can visualise it in their mind. Then write the word from memory. Check against the original spelling of the word.

Learning about writing

Talk with your child about the different parts of a book or the way writing is created. As adults we know this so well we often forget that we ever learnt it.

Choose one or two points to discuss with your child each time you read together.

For young children:
— A book has a front, a back and a cover.
— A book has a right way up.
— We read books from front to back.
— Pages are turned to reveal the next part of the book.
— The left hand page is read before the right hand page.
— A page is read from left to right and top to bottom.
— Print is different from pictures.
— Talk about first and last. These can be applied to pages in a book, words on a page and letters in a word.

As children progress:
— Use correct terminology such as ‘letter’, ‘sound’, ‘word’ and ‘sentence’ to describe different things.
— Discuss how words consist of letters.
— Point out that words have a space on either side.
— Discuss how numbers and letters are different.
— Talk about how letters have two forms: capital letters and lower case letters, for example ‘M’ and ‘m’.
— Discuss the use of punctuation such as capital letters, full stops and question marks.

Help your child recognise words and letters that are significant to them, for example their name, names of brothers and sisters, road signs, favourite toys.

When reading information texts with your child, such as a book about trains, talk about the features of that text such as headings, captions and photographs. Discuss how this is different from fiction (story) books.
 

Punctuation and grammar

As students learn to write, they often can’t focus on everything they have to do at the same time. For example, they might be so focused on what they want to say in their writing that they forget all about the punctuation.

If your child asks you to help check their writing, focus on one thing at a time. For example, focus on punctuation or grammar but not both.

When your child is checking their work, ask them to read it out aloud.
If your child has written their text on the computer, get them to use the grammar checker. Point out that not all computer-generated suggestions are suitable and that your child has to decide whether to use the suggestion or keep what they had written.

When reading books with your child, talk about the punctuation and grammar that the author uses. For example, See here where the author has used a comma before the character speaks and then used speech marks before and after what the character says.

School projects

You can help your child with school research and projects by guiding, advising and talking things through. Remember, if you feel tempted to do the research yourself, ask yourself Will this help my child learn?

Here are some ways you can help and these tips are also relevant when helping older children.

• Discuss what sort of information your child needs to complete their research.
• Encourage your child to write down questions about the topic.
• Ask questions that make your child think about the topic further.
• Help your child find useful information by taking them to the library, giving them access to the internet and reference books at home.
• If appropriate, let your child seek information by writing letters, making telephone calls or visiting places.
• Help your child sort and group information into categories.
• Help your child take notes.
  • Short notes: Jot down key words and phrases with the reference material open.
  • Long notes: Close the references and use the short notes to write their own sentences.
• Talk about the best way to display the research work, for example poster, booklet, model, presentation.
• Spend time with your child while they are using the computer by giving tips or help when needed.
• If your child can’t manage their time very well, help them write goals about what to do by a certain date.
• Provide a quiet space for your child to do their projects without distractions.
• Organise other family members so they are not doing ‘exciting’ things while your child is working on a project.
• Talk about project topics with family and friends, and discuss other viewpoints and opinions.
• Discuss whether the information your child has found is relevant and, if so, how it will be used.
• Help your child with technical work such as photography and construction.
• Help with the finishing touches so the project looks well presented.

Games and activities

Games are a fun and easy way to support writing.

Where’s Teddy?
Use a toy, such as a teddy, and find a hiding place. Say, Teddy is hiding somewhere that starts with the /b/ sound. Where could that be? Let your child go and look to see if Teddy is in the place guessed.

A trip to the moon
Begin by saying We’re going on a trip to the moon. You can come if you bring
‘something’. The ‘something’ will depend on the category you choose, for example something that starts with ‘S’, something that rhymes with the word ‘van’ or for older children something that has two parts (two syllables) like ‘rocket’ and ‘today’. Have your child take turns to say I will bring a … Continue the game for a certain time or until more choices cannot be added.

Number plate ditty: Use car number plates to makes up silly sentences, for example 6VFE: Six Very Friendly Elephants.

Snap and clap
Use your hands to make a snap, snap, clap rhythm and then say a word. Ask your child to continue with a word that rhymes. For example:
snap, snap, clap (you say) light
snap, snap, clap (your child says) right
snap, snap, clap (you say) might. Continue until you run out of words.

Hunting for words
Challenge your child to go ‘hunting’ for words, things and pictures at home that have something in common. For example, words starting with ‘tr’, ending with ‘ing’ or rhyming with ‘lake’. Your child may enjoy this sort of challenge and may like to take their discoveries to school to share with the teacher.

Word game: Play the game where you leave out certain words from the conversation and ask your child to think of replacement words.

Change a word: Write a word and then make a new word by changing just one letter at a time. For example, tap - map - mat - met - set - sit - bit - bin - win - won - son.

Write notes: Write a note to your child and put it into their lunchbox.

Treasure hunt: Write clues or get your child to write clues for someone else to hunt for the ‘treasure’.

Word sleuth: Make up a word sleuth with your child to give to a friend. Start with a small grid and write in your words, one letter per square, going straight across or up and down. Once you have enough words in the grid, fill in the rest of the squares with other random letters. Make sure you write the words to find at the side of the grid. As your child improves you can make bigger grids, use more words and place them diagonally as well.

Name items that are taken to school (lunchbox, raincoat, etc).

Write party invitations for friends to attend.

Write a progressive story: You start a story (Once upon a time) and your child writes the next bit (there lived a fat cat). You then write the next bit (who was the laziest cat in the whole world). Take turns to build a story.

Write an acrostic poem about MUM, DAD, GRAN and so on. An acrostic poem has the key word written down the left side of the page, a letter on each line. Then a word starting with that letter is written on the same line. For example:
M – mum
U – understands
M – me

You can use more than one word for each letter if you like. For example:
G – Grandpa likes to
R – read a lot
A – and he reads to me
N – nearly every day
D – during the holidays
P – particularly
A – at bedtime

Snap
Make up a set of cards where pairs of cards have the same letter on them or, for older children, words which rhyme (mat/cat). Deal out all the cards and players take turns to place one card from their hand face up on the table in a pile in the middle. When an upturned card matches the one on top of the central pile, that player places their hand
on the central pile, says SNAP! and gives the category for the Snap (same letter or sound). The player then takes all of the cards to add to their hand. Play continues until one player has all the cards.

Concentration
Use the cards for Snap or make another set that could include pictures of things that start with same letter (box/balloon, cat/computer) or, for older children, words that rhyme (moon/spoon) or start with the same sound (ship/shop). Spread all cards face down on the table. Taking turns, each player turns up two cards (one at a time), trying to match the pairs. If there is a match the player says what that is (the things rhyme), keeps the cards and has another turn. If there is no match the cards are turned over again. The game continues until all the cards are matched. The winner is the player with the most matched pairs.

Write a poem or verse for a family birthday card.
 

What if my child struggles with writing?

If you think your child is having problems learning to write, speak with the teacher. Teachers can explain how your child’s writing is developing and work with you to support their progress. They can also let you know if you need to speak with other experts about your concerns.

What if my child speaks another language or dialect?

Your child will need time to get to know all the sounds of the English language and to write them correctly. This may take some time and you can help your child write by recognising a word by its shape as they continue to learn the sounds and letters of English.

Your child may be able to spell, read and write in their home language. These home language skills should be valued. Build upon them to help your child in their second language. Children who are able to read and write in their home language usually learn to read and write in English faster than those learning to read, write and spell for the first time.

Writing in your first language or dialect gives you the chance to work with your child without putting pressure on yourself to use English if you are not confident with it.

Simple tips to keep in mind

Here are some basic tips to keep in mind.

• Writing and reading go together.
• Read aloud to your child often. Point to some of the words as you read them.
• Let your child see you (or someone else) writing. Talk about what you are writing and why. For example, I am writing an email to my friend to ask her to meet me for lunch.
• Point out letters and words that are part of daily life such as words on packaging, traffic signs and advertising. For example, say This sign says stop. It starts with the same letter as your name, Sophia. As your child progresses, ask them to find letters or words they know.
• Show your child how reading is used in the home every day. I am going to make pancakes so let’s read the recipe and work out what ingredients we need. Talk through the recipe as you gather the ingredients and follow the procedure.
• Read books that use writing in different ways such as stories that are written like letters, poetry books, information books, cookbooks and telephone books.
• Show your child lots of different writing, such as websites, brochures, newspapers and comics.
• Give your child lots of chances to write such as on a family message board, greeting card, shopping or ‘things to do’ list, menu for the week or jobs for family members.
• Encourage and praise your child’s efforts in writing.
• Ask for help from your child when you are writing. For example, say I am going to write the word ‘computer’. What letter do you think computer might start with?