Be a role model
Let your children see you write - anything from recipes, to letters,
to messages and shopping lists. Encourage the family to write as
well - email or letters to friends, cards and thankyou notes etc.
Have children
use writing as a functional task - like the above,
but they do the work. To illustrate this point, here's a
little story.
I once took my niece to get some take away
food and she and the family wanted McDonalds. So I said she
had to make a list of what everyone wanted. When I
checked the list, she had spelt Quarter Pounder as Quoter Bounder.
I told her I was going to ask for a Quoter Bounder (pronounced
exactly as she had spelt it) if she didn't fix it by the time I got
around to ordering. I've never seen a child so motivated to
fix a simple spelling mistake!! :) It also reinforced to
her the importance of using conventional spelling when other people
had to read her work.
Display writing
at home
Lists of things to do, letters and postcards on the fridge door,
birthday cards etc. You could make a kitchen notice-board to display
these things.
Praise writing
that is brought home from school
Talk about it and encourage your child to bring work home. Be
an interested listener and reader, and focus on what the writing is
about rather than the spelling, grammar and so on.
Give presents
that encourage writing
Pens, pencils, diaries, a lamp for the desk, paper, note pads and
even dictionaries are all things that can works towards encouraging
children to write.
Some of this information has been sourced from
the book "Parents, Teachers, Partners" by Barry Dwyer.
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