Why Your Child Should Be Writing Every Day

Is your child writing as much as they should be? Writing, done with willful focus and daily diligence remains to be an essential part of educating children of all ages. Here are a few very important reasons why writing is a must:

1. Writing improves communication skills: First and foremost, writing provides a vehicle for expression and communication. It does not matter how old your child is, diligent writing practice will boost both their skill and comfort level with revealing and relating their own thoughts and feelings.

2. Writing encourages creativity and exploration: Daily writing encourages a creative flow that can help your child use their imaginations, explore possibilities, delve into problem solving, and engage in storytelling. In addition to “serious” writing assignments which are reviewed and graded, it is important to have “free” or “creative” writing time, so that your child can explore vocabulary, concepts, and writing styles that they wouldn’t risk in a formal essay or heavily graded assignment.

3. Writing is essential for self-understanding: Writing can help your child understand and make sense of their own experiences, locate contexts, and make (sometimes surprising) discoveries about their own thoughts and feelings.

Language is the tool that brings people together. Giving children the gift of expression at a young age puts them on a path of purpose, intention and engagement. Writing will give your child a sense of themselves as a person in the world and will give them a voice that they will be proud to share with the world. A study done by the U.S. Department of Education showed that writing is one of the best ways to both improve your child’s academic progress in school while also improving your child’s self-expression and self-reliance. It helps improve academic progress by helping them learn and retain new material better, and when done frequently both at home and at school it helps build confidence in their writing and communication abilities.

Writing opens up an enormous world of possibilities. No matter the age, people are consumed, enchanted, and delighted by the power of the written word. Children are especially drawn to the power of stories and words. This is a sentiment that we must encourage, nurture and allow to take root in children so that reading and writing will become a lifelong conviction. By having access to the written word, your child grows up with a sense that he has and will always have something to say that could change people’s minds. There is great power in being able to say exactly what you mean while seeing that people understand and are engaged by your words and ideas.

Write on!!!