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Learning to write is a key activity in your child’s development, and of course, this is something that children learn at school. However, actively encouraging this skill at home through the use of enjoyable games is a great way to stimulate interest and provide that all-important practice.
Here are six fun game ideas that you can play with your child to inculcate the love and habit of writing.
1. Letter writing
2. Keep a journal
3. Make invites
4. Write their own stories
5. Make birthday cards
6. An online blog
Writing letters is somewhat of a dying art in this day and age of electronic communication, and that is a shame, as the thrill of receiving a handwritten letter or postcard through the mailbox is an incredibly satisfying feeling for adults and children alike.
So why not encourage your child to write letters to a pen friend, which could be a cousin or a family friend who lives some distance away? In fact, it could even be your next-door neighbour, it really doesn’t matter.
What you could also do to make this fun game idea happen is by including a trip to the local post office or nearest mailbox. Don’t forget to include decorations and a stamp too.
Diary writing for kids is another art form that has somewhat run out of steam. The long journals that we used to write were fun, weren’t they? Introduce your child to the concept of journal writing through a fun game idea.
To introduce diary writing for kids, you can start by getting a beautiful diary with its own lock and key and encourage your child to pen down their innermost thoughts or anything they would like to write.
If there is an upcoming event or a birthday, why not encourage your child to make their own invites, written out by hand? Fun game ideas such as this are innovative as kids will love the idea of listing all the attendees and then writing and designing their own personal invitations.
If your child has a habit of reading and loves books from a young age, then making up and penning their own stories, with pictures to match, will be a lot of fun for them and inculcate the habit of writing.
Even getting a few sheets of paper and stapling or sticking them together to form the outline of a book should jog their imaginations and get them designing front covers.
The next step in such fun game ideas is to pen down a simple story. To start them off on their journey of story writing, you could initially help them every step of the way.
Also Read, How to Help Your Child With Writing?
Similar to the idea of designing their very own invitations cards is to design birthday or Christmas cards. A fun game idea to get your child to write simple messages and the names of their friends and relatives, this is often the best place to start with your child’s writing. This fun game idea can also awaken their creative side and habit of writing.
Also Read, 10 Fun Birthday Party Games for Children
Okay, so you might want to approach this activity with more caution and preparation, and certainly this one is for slightly older children. But if encouraging your child to write is important for you, and if it doesn’t matter whether it is handwritten or typed, then having a weekly blog could be a great way to stimulate that interest, with limited screen time.
A blog requires constant parental supervision of course, and you need to think carefully about what your child is sharing and with who, but the objective here is to encourage them to express themselves through words. There are of course a lot of online resources that could get you and your little one started off.
As you can see, not only are there loads of great ways and fun game ideas to stimulate interest in the habit of writing, it is also definitely an activity that is best performed together. Work together to make it fun and make it collaborative, and you will instil a love of writing that will stay with your child.