Any good pointers for me to get my son into writing?

[smilesandsun]

Hi,

My son 6 is just not into writing and is struggling to come up with readable sentences etc. I'm not concerned that it is beyond his ability I more think its motivation and practice. He is always in such a rush to get things done (normal i think) and would rather scribble something that even he can't read than take a few minutes and get it done properly. I really can't relate to this and am at a loss on how to tackle it.

I'm thinking that this might be a common problem and am wondering if you have any advice to offer?

thx.

Sorry, not much advice to offer but marking my place on the thread.

My DS is 5 and after the initial sulking, will sit down and write, sometimes even enjoying it. However, it is not easy to read at all. I know that his teacher does not even bother trying - just puts a smiley face on, which I find really discouraging as surely a reading diary is about establishing communication and she is effectively halting that process by doing that.

I was really pis sed off yesterday when DH stood over us and commented that the writing was all over the place and amounted to a load of nothing - we have been working on it for ages and I know how wrong he is. I know that the letters are being formed correctly somewhere in all the jumble, even though some are the right size whilst others occupy the entire page.

bumping for you smiles. I wanted to start a post about this too.

My DS is 7 and in Year 2 at a good prep. He is doing well in all areas especially Maths but he needs motivation in his literacy work. His reading is great but he needs a motivation in writing unaided stories and in comprehension work.

maybe it is a male thing! my DS has loads of story ideas in his head but I suspect he is lazy to write them down.

my DD is only 4, due to start Reception in Sept but already she is a good story teller and attempts to write as well. The girls seem to embrace school early

Seem to be a lot of threads on boys and writing at the moment! My 5 year old [year 1] seems to find writing a chore and reading fun. He grips the pencil quite tightly I think and says he has an aching hand after a sentence or two. Apart from his 'homework project' which is a story, I am not pushing writing at all as I have a feeling it will eventually just 'click' like reading did. He will offer to do shopping lists [so he can add cup cakes and crisps etc!} but not a lot more. I do notice others write more than him, but equally others write less. Not being nosey mum but 'forced' to notice at the oh so fun 'home work fayre' once a term.
Mine creative with his stories verbally but does big presis when translating to paper!

My mum got ds pad that sounds like what you have squidgy12. Got it from a cheap shop called 'The Works' I think. Using it for ds homework story. His aching hand usually recovers to do his picture. He would like to do picture first but I am not falling for that one!

Agree the Works has the drawing/lined pads. Also make sure he is wiritng ona forgiving surface, preferably sloped slightly. Can you get him to write poems as they don't have to be in full sentences or make cartoons/comics.

I have 5 & 4yr Ds's both anti-writing too, so am watching this with interest. They will only really try and show any kind of interest if they make a card and write in it, so we had lots of valentines cards, will do Easter cards soon and even Royal wedding ones if it gets them doing it Lol.

When my ds was a similar age, he reacted better to small pieces of paper as it was easier to fill it with writing hence made him more confident. Post it notes are a great example and have the added bonus that they can be attached to things. He happily wrote little notes like "Please knock before you come in."

I also had to be creative and do things like print out a picture of a Ben10 scene with speech bubbles attached to all characters and ask him to write a sentence for each.

crazygracieuk, thanks for the ideas! I have been trying the pad form John Lewis with the picture and writing space for a year, it worked for a while but no longer.

I think that the idea of small pieces of paper could be good, and the speech bubbles idea is super! I'm giving it a go.

You can get post it notes in the shape of speech bubbles. (Instant comics!!)

I think I got mine from Staples.

I have also used treasure hunt type games with DS1 where he has to write clues for us to follow around the house.

My ds (5 and a half) is in year one. A fantastic reader but doesn't like writing practice at all. However, he is a mad keen Chelsea football fan so I made him a book from folded up paper and got him to write down all of Chelsea's results and fixtures for the season from the Internet over the course of a week. Not a murmur of protest! Now he will practice writing sentences as long as they are about football or what Frank Lampard did that day. Not much help for writing imaginative stories as yet, but at least it has got him started and his writing is now much neater and more legible.

Love this thread ds only 4.5 but goes to montessori nursery where they said his letter formation wasn't great. I have started doing a page out of an early learning workbook. He seemed to enjoy it yesterday. We will see how he feels after a 8.30-5.30 day at nursery about doing it.

Good luck and thx for ideas everyone

I like the treasure hunt idea and the football one too! I am hoping that some fresh angles will make a breakthrough (please)...

ds1 is in reception and is an avid writer. The flip side is post it notes all over the house, many with illegible words and sentences but many with real writing. I second the post-it note idea :)