Fun Ways to Quickly Improve Kids’ Writing Skills

Many young children don’t like to write. If your child is in 1^st or 2^nd grade and still doesn’t write well, you have to find ways to get them to write more to improve their writing skills. As a child's writing speed and spelling ability improves, they'll become less resistant. Some kids need a lot of help to reach that point.

Some parents force their kids to sit down everyday and do some writing. This can be frustrating for both parent and child. You don’t have to make the process of improving writing skills a chore for your kids. There are many easy ways to make writing fun. These tips will improve both handwriting and spelling skills. Hopefully your child will be writing more and enjoying it too.

Buy your child a special notebook for making lists. Take it wherever you go and have your child write lists of things they find. For example, you could go on a nature walk and have your child write a list of objects in nature, such as rock, tree, berries, rabbit, and so on. Help them spell any words they don't know. You can also take it to the park, the store, the airport or anywhere else you go. Kids enjoy finding new things to add to their list.

When your child’s writing skills improve and they can write more quickly move onto writing short sentences. For example, I see a tree, the airplane is big, or the boy is flying a kite. Help your child sound out words that are spelled phonetically. Tell them how to spell words that must be learned by sight.

Buy your child a journal and have them record one thing they did during the day. Start off with just one sentence. As their writing skills improve, increase to two and three sentence entries.

Try to make journal writing more fun by brainstorming what to write about. Start a discussion about various things they did that day and what they could say about them. Many kids enjoy the decision making process that goes into writing a journal entry. It may help to have them draw a picture of what they want to write about first and then have them write a sentence to go with it.

Don’t buy greetings cards for loved ones. Have your child make them instead. They can do their own drawings and write their own greetings. This can include birthday cards and invitations, Christmas cards, congratulations on the birth of a baby, congratulations for a high school or college graduation, Valentines cards, etc.

Buy special art supplies that are only to be taken out for these kinds of projects. You can get glitter pens, markers, foam stickers, wiggle eye stickers and other fun art materials. Your child should write the greeting before they start the art portion. They may have no interest in writing once the fun part is done.

Whenever you have a party or any kind of get together at your home have your child create a menu for the guests. They can write a list of all the food that will be served. You can also have them create a welcome sign to put on the front door. It could say something like “Welcome to our home! We hope you have a great time.”

Have your child write short letters or poems to send to loved ones for special occasions. Have them write thank you notes after receiving gifts.

Keep in mind that improving writing skills is based on improving motor skills and strengthening the hand muscles needed for writing. So, you can improve kids' writing skills with activities that aren't directly writing related. Have your child draw and color. Get them dot-to-dot, maze and simple puzzle books. Allow them to manipulate small items (although make sure to keep an eye on them because small items are choking hazards). Pegs boards and small lego blocks are great for this.