Children who are not challenged during the holidays can experience summer setback. This article offers interesting, fun ways for children from grades 1 – 6 to continue to write all summer long. Go beyond story starters and offer children some interesting ways to maintain their writing skills.
Creative Writing in the Summer
The summer is a great time to combine creativity and writing. Journals, scrapbooks and calendars are fun projects for children during the summer. Pull out the art supplies and allow a couple of days to decorate the book or calendar. Then the child has a beautiful canvas for her writing.
Try an interactive journal. This is where two friends (or a parent and child) take turns writing to each other. This is especially helpful for children who never know what to write. A parent might start the journal entry by asking what activities the child is looking forward to this summer.
Using Technology for Writing Activities
Storybird – This is a great website where children can be authors and write e-books. The site is free but requires registration. Children write stories based on beautiful artwork available on the website. E-books can then be publicly or privately shared online.
Emails – Find a friend or relative who will be a reliable penpal and return letters quickly. This is a great opportunity to get to know a distant cousin or aunt. Email correspondence gives writing a purpose and won't seem like a chore. A child may need adult help at the beginning of the summer with the initial contact letter. Send out three or four, to increase the chance that at least one of the penpals will continue to correspond all summer long. Alternatively, the medium could be postcards instead of emails.
Word Activities and Games
Summer writing doesn't have to involve writing long stories or reports. Writing and games involving single words can be just as valuable. It will increase vocabulary and spelling skills. Whenever parents need to write things down during the summer, they should consider having the child take the pen. It may require some time and patience initially but the benefits are valuable.
- Lists – Have children make the grocery, packing or cleaning lists. Encourage kids to make a Things to do list for themselves every week. Don't correct every single spelling word. Pick only one or two common words on each list and point out the errors. Kids will be turned off if every list is followed by a spelling lecture. Keep it fun and don't worry, the spelling will improve.
- Scrabble or Upwards – Word games increase a child's word knowledge and spelling skills. Set aside a regular Scrabble night. For younger children, Upwards is great. Feel free to customize the rules to suit the child's spelling level. On the first night, allow them to use all the tiles to spell anything. Upwards is great for playing with word families. Spell sit and ask the child to change the word by changing only one letter. See how many times the original word can be changed, one letter at a time.
- Word Searches – Children love doing Word Searches. With the website, Puzzlemaker, kids can make different puzzles for themselves or their friends. This free site is great for puzzlemaking. Adults might want to make puzzles that will target particular types of words. Some suggestions are homonyms or words with prefixes and suffixes.
Although it is important to maintain writing skills throughout the summer, writing does not have to be boring. Summer writing can be fun and easy; play word games, use the computer and have children write whenever there is an everyday opportunity.
For more ideas to keep kids engaged during the summer read:
Journal Writing Ideas for Kids –Summer or Classroom Prompts
Kids' Reading Ideas for Summer Vacation
Kid's Educational Summer Activities - Keep Children Engaged
Best, Fun Free Educational Websites.
Linda Wongkee - Linda is an online and print author. She writes about travel and education, her two passions!!
