Need to encourage DS1 (7) to write more.... how?

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DS1 (7) - massively bright (sorry, arrogant, but true ), but I was talking to his teacher and she mentioned that they have a slight concern over the AMOUNT he writes in class.
So, e.g. in a creative writing piece, one of the girls might write about 2 sides of the exercise book, and DS perhaps not even one side. His teacher says he also seems to change his mind and keep crossing things out.

I know he's a bit of a perfectionist, and likes to find the 'right' words etc, which may be part of it, but I need to get him to concentrate on writing more.

I don't know if it's a physical thing (e.g. children don't write as mucha s they used to, or see parents doing it(computers etc) so sometimes find it tiring. Or if it's that he can't think of what to write?

He has a very vivid imagination though, reads voraciously and talks a lot/ tells stories etc.

I sometimes think he just finds writing stuff out too slow and boring (he's said soemthing like this before to me). Problem is, in school, you need to be able to put your ideas / thoughts/ answers etc down on paper to get them recognised really, don't you?

Any teachers out there? Any similar problems? Any ideas?

FGS you cannot compare boys and girls at this age . Girls always do so much more writing . Its what they do . LOL

my dd (just turned 8) is exactly the same. I think is a lot to do with the fact it just doesn't interest her. It took me 3 hours, 7 minutes on the stair, at least 3 tantrums and a missed dance class to get dd to write half a page recently.
My parents live away, i get dd to write letters to them and my mum sends her dolls clothes she has made in return. HTH

My 6yr old son dosen't write sheets after sheet of writing. What heclikes to do sometimes is write certain football scores down as he seens them on the television. Or sometimes he just writes abit about what him and his sister has done or did recently. Maybe suggest doing a diary for maybe for a week syaing what he has done. It may at least be a starting point to get him to do more.

maybe the topics at school are not firing his imagination.

Can you (if you have time and energy for it) do a little project work with him at home? What I would do is take something he is interested in and try to find something creative (writing activity) he could do with that topic. So if he's into dinasours and you've been to the natural history museum, you then get some dinasour stickers, bung them in a book or on a poster and he writes a bit about a couple of them he knows or whatever. If it is a poster and he can then stick it up on the wall, he might feel more interested in it. Sorry it sounds a bit vague but that is how I do it.

Or say dd has been practising particular (boring) vocab at school. I'll get her to write a paragraph using some of it. So she'll write: Beavers work hard building damms. And at the same time, I write some completely wild text with the same words. We read it out to each other and she gets into hysterics over my text but then I notice the next time she writes, she puts more fantasy into it and approaches the whole thing with more enjoyment.

But then she IS a girl so the battle is half-won anyway I suppose.

Good luck with it!

DS aged 8 got a Beano Comic Maker kit for Christmas and this has inspired him to write more and design his own comics. Obviously not exactly what you're aiming for, but possibly a way to encourage your DS to put his ideas down on paper?

FWIW, I agree with wakeupandsmellthecoffee - boys at this age just don't see the point of creative writing - why take two pages when you can get your point across in a paragraph?

And as for adjectives etc...no chance!

My eldest DS (10) is the same. He has improved a little since last year - but his writing is neat and slow, or scruffy and quick. He used to complain about getting sore wrists when he had to write very much. If it's not a problem about the content or the legibility of what he is writing, just the speed, I wouldn't worry too much - after all a lot of his later school projects will be carried out on a computer. I had lovely hand-writing as a child and I went through school and uni at the time when no-one used PCs and had to write horrendously long essays in long hand - my writing is now almost illegible because I never need to use it. It's not so much of a life skill these days.

I think that a diary is a really good idea though. Might try that with DS.

With a 10 year old having a penpal might work.

You could have been describing my ds except his bent is science and maths. His teacher was and is very supportive. I told her about the yoropen which is for people who have trouble writing and she went and bought a pencil version of it for ds which has deffo helped although he still hates to write. Even when he is writing a science piece he hates it.

If it is maths he is fine but then you never write that much in maths do you. Anyway try the yoropen. I'll post a link in a min.

You can get a two pencil set in WHSmith for abut 3.99 but here are some examples here

Oh his teacher also told me loads of exercises to do to strengthen his hands- playing with playdough, picking up small things with his fingers of course we never seem to do them. He has said thought that since using the yoropen his hand does not hurt anymore so I would deffo try it. If he doesn't like it as an adult yu may like it I do.

I know my writing improved an awful lot when I started using a fountain pen in secondary school so I may introduce that for DS later on if it is still an issue.