A common trend indicates that kids perform better when parents take an active role in their assignments, homework, and general academic work. This involvement demonstrates that what they are doing is critical to their parents. So, while you don’t have to spend hours sitting with your child writing assignments, you can depict your support through teaching them good study skills and organization, encouraging kids to manage study time, and helping them through challenging problems.
Here are some essential ten tips to make writing assignments a positive experience for you and your child.
Discuss With Your Child What Their Assignment Is About.
Ask your child what the assignment is about and the teacher’s expectations. Ensure you get all the assignment details to know the proper support to give them. Some of the assignments are easy and require little intervention, while others are complicated, meaning that your child will need your help.
Be a Coach Over a Player
No matter how challenging an assignment is, do not be tempted to write it for your child. Instead, coach your child by offering them guidance, encouragement, and criticism from the sidelines.
Go Through Your Child’s Assignment.
If you are not around when your child is completing their writing assignments, ensure you go through their work once you get home. Let them know that you aim to help them do better rather than judge them.
Provide a Positive Feedback
When giving your child feedback, start with positive feedback, highlighting all the right things they have done. For instance, you can praise them for properly structuring paragraphs and developing good ideas. Later, suggest ways to improve their areas of challenges without focusing too much on their mistakes.
Be a Role Model
Let your child see you write at home by constantly giving instructions or living messages through writing. This way, they will also develop a culture of writing.
Encourage Them to Write More Than Just Their Homework.
Besides writing their assignments and homework, encourage them to keep journals or write short stories. Also, encourage them to write topics of their choice. By so doing, they will develop a love for writing.
Brainstorm Together!
Brainstorming is quite helpful when beginning a writing process. First, discuss the main ideas and the primary points you like the reader to walk away from understanding. You can also ask them to write an outline of their writing before helping them to fill in more points.
Please Encourage Your Child to Read Aloud Their Drafts.
After completing the writing, please encourage your child to read aloud their draft. By doing so, they may encounter errors they might have missed out on earlier or notice places where they need to add more content.
Encourage Revision
Let your child know that writing is a process that involves more than a single draft. Besides writing the main topic or ideas, please encourage your child to write a second draft to improve their grammar, structure, punctuations, spelling, and continent organization.
Breakdown Projects Into Smaller Pieces
Help your child to break down large projects into smaller chunks. You can also assist them in organizing their writing to be completed over a period of time. After breaking the assignment or project into smaller pieces, offer your child some suggestions and feedback to improve the writing.
A RELATED QUESTION.
How Can I Improve My Child’s Writing Skills?
• Encourage regular reading to strengthen and better their writing skills.
• Engage in activities and games that encourage writing.
• Let your child use different writing materials other than pencil or pen, such as finger painting and chalk.
• Please encourage your child to express their ideas and thoughts through journaling.
• Invest time in your child’s writing through being available to help them with grammar, proofreading, or spelling.
• Show interest in their writing by genuinely praising their work.
• Create a daily routine of writing through setting time daily to write.
Take Away:
Building your child’s writing skills is vital since writing improves their ability to communicate effectively and express their mind efficiently. In addition, the ability of your child to share their ideas, thoughts, feelings, opinions, stories, and information through writing is also an essential ingredient to their overall life experiences.
At Kids on the Yard, we teach students to convey ideas effectively, concisely, and with proper grammar and usage conventions. We are equipped to build your child’s foundational writing skills, improve grammar, prepare for essays, tests, and keep up with homework assignments.
