Mumsnet users share their top tips for encouraging their children to write, with Premier League

[EllieMumsnet]

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Writing, be it in a diary, a poem, a short story or even a letter can be a great way to help children explore their creativity whilst inspiring them to write more. With that being said the Premier League would like to know your top tips for encouraging you DC to write more and explore their creative side.

Here’s what the Premier League have to say: “Our Premier League Primary Stars education programme uses the appeal of football to inspire kids to learn, be active and develop important life skills. More than 15,000 primary schools use the free teaching resources for maths, English, PSHE and PE and take advantage of incentives and competitions available for their school. However, sometimes young writers need a little extra boost and that’s why we are proud to bring back our Writing Stars poetry competition, which last year inspired more than 25,000 children to write a poem. This year’s competition theme is diversity and, with the support of a fantastic judging panel including singer Olly Murs, former footballer Rio Ferdinand, Children’s Laureate Lauren Child and poet Joseph Coelho, we are encouraging children to pick up a pen and explore what it means to be beautifully different and wonderfully the same. To read some of the poems already submitted by celebrities, please click here.”

Do you find that reading to your children frequently helps develop their imagination and also inspires them to write stories too? How about encouraging your children to keep a diary to write their everyday experiences in? Do you make sure that your DC write thank you letters after their birthday and Christmas in order to help them practice writing? Do you go on days out that will help them explore the things around them and develop their imagination?

Whatever your top tips are, share them on the thread below and you will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

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Reading to them since they were 4 months old has helped. As they started to read and write themselves, I encourage imaginative play by dressing up, reading poetry and anything that helps fuel their minds.

My child was very imaginative and loved reading and discussion...we could never shut him up! However writing was a different matter and he found it a chore.
We always encouraged him to reply with thank you notes after Christmas and birthdays and we always sent postcards to grandparents when we were on holiday. Making it more fun with a variety of tools, felt pens, brushes,his finger, whiteboards etc did help but with demands made at school I did not push it too much at home.

ive always asked lots of questions, so they have to elaborate on things . Make reading and writing fun and interesting too

We read a lot together

I don’t have to ask my daughter to write, she is currently in year 1 and loves making her own stories. After she’s written her story we sit down and read it together and praise her for doing such a good job

My eldest son had terrible handwriting which effected his willingness to write so we used to go for long woodland walks and make up a story together as we walked along exploring several genres that most appealed to him. It turns out he was very creative, given the chance.

When older children lose confidence it can be useful to think of a topic and ask them to write on it for five minutes without worrying about spelling or perfection. The only rule is that you must keep writing even if it is not very good and try not to be critical as you write. This often unblocks things and sometimes brings up some pretty good work.

Make sure there is a full box of pens felt tips and crayons and art and craft things on the table

My children always take a pad and pen or pencil into the car when we go on journeys and they write lists of what they see then put them all in a story. It is really funny listening to their stories!

Regular reading is the best way to encourage children's imagination and creativity. I'm a Librarian and probably biased but it's true! I buy my children nice notebooks and encourage them to write all sorts of things - stories, poems, songs, letters etc. I think it's also important to show an interest in what they have written :)

I’ve never thought about getting her to write a diary but my daughter is very creative with her toys. She loves reading and writing so it would make sense to get her to write down some of the weird and wonderful things she comes up with when playing

Reading to them and having lots of books in the house.

Start by encouraging kids to write silly stories when they're young, write out the beginning with them asking them to fill in the blanks. like: There once was a Purple named who lived in a yellow and farmed . Write it up, illustrate the pages and add it to the bed time story library.

read lots with them! The more you read together the more it inspires their imaginations.

Read to them a lot, especially when younger. Provide a small library of interesting and age-appropriate books. Encourage them to read at every opportunity.

We read bedtime stories every night and they enjoy role-playing so ofter when they want to sit down and draw or write they will chose to make their own comic books or short stories which we then read at bedtime.

My little girl is still very small but we have bought her an Aquadoodle for Christmas!

I've always bought my daughters lovely notebooks and new stationery for Christmas, and this encourages them to be creative. It also helps when it comes to revision time!

I encourage them to be themselves which helps with this area.

We play games, write, draw, do apps on tablet, anything to spur the Imagination on!

I've encouraged my children to write their own stories, as well as using their imagination it really helps their writing skills.

I get them to create play scenes with their toys and then create a story around that.

if its raining and their seem bored i turn off the TV and get them to write a story for me and the winner gets their fav takeout

I home ed my four kids, and we do most of our learning outside through play and events.
Sometimes they want to put on plays, but the best times they have is with other home ed kids from our area, and we all go up the woods, we have a BBQ no matter the weather, and the kids all pretend they are lost in the Jungle, (we parents are the animals and have to end up chasing them lol) they climb trees, get filthy, but have so much fun, then we will go home and they will write about what they did that day in their diaries...they positively glow for days after our 'jungle trips', even my older teens love to come up and get involved.
I just love seeing my kids enjoying every single day.

Fountain pens, high quality notebooks and encouraging them to develop their own style and signature.

We just read together lots, listen to audiobooks together and read a poem every day. I don't encourage them to write particularly, but they write their own poetry and stories and other things whenever the mood takes them. I think hearing lots read aloud is the key to having something to say. We home educate so I just let them do things at their own pace as they want, though we do work on handwriting skills as part of their 'education'.