English

Writing

Help your child understand that writing is both useful and enjoyable by letting her see you write yourself - you don't need to be a Booker Prize winning author; you just need to write lists (e.g., shopping lists), letters, birthday cards and so on.

You can also help your child:

  • plan their work;
  • decide if a piece of writing could be improved;
  • proof read her work (that is, check for spelling and grammatical mistakes).
But remember to let the child work things out for themselves; it's quite possible to kill a child's interest in writing by insisting on "perfection" too early on.

Stories

You can use stories to encourage your children to read and write in many ways:
  • Tell your children stories, and let them tell you stories too. Later, you can write them down - your child might like to draw pictures to go with them. Later still, your child can do the writing herself, or perhaps make up a new ending for an old story.

  • Make up the beginning of a story, but stop at a cliffhanger. Let your child work out what happens next.

  • Tell a story in pictures without any words at all.

  • Find an interesting picture (eg in a magazine) and tell a story to go with it.
Poems

With young children, poetry is as much about playing with words for the fun of it as it is about expressing an emotion or describing a scene or piece of action.

  • Read poetry aloud to your child.

  • Don't forget that nursery rhymes are just poems for the very young!

  • Play with words - with rhythm, rhyme and first sounds.

  • Find words that sound like the action they describe (eg miaow, screech, thump) and make poems using them.

  • Make up nonsense words - can you make a poem just using them? If you can, can your child explain what she thinks is going on in it?

  • Later on, introduce your child to different kinds of poems. Can he write a limerick? What about a haiku?

Factual Writing

A grasp of factual writing will be useful across the curriculum as your child gets older. Many of the skills of factual writing also come under the general heading of Study Skills.
  • Let your child see you use writing in every day situations - such as writing lists, making notes, writing letters, even sending e-mail if you have a computer. Encourage your child to do the same (even if he can't yet write - "pretend writing" is an important pre-writing activity).

  • Help your child use writing in his everyday activities - such as making shopping lists, sending notes to friends, or taking messages when he answers the phone.

  • When your child looks something up in an information book, help her to make notes. Help her to understand the difference between this kind of writing, which is purely for her own use, and the kind of writing which other people are going to see (for instance, in note-taking you don't always write in complete sentences).

  • Help your child make written plans for stories and essays - help him to decide whether there is a proper beginning, middle and end, for example.
Phonics Crib Sheet

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