by Pat Lamb (Author of: Let the Children Come; Children, Come to Me; When the Stars Fall Down; Widening the Church Doors to Teach the Narrow Way; My Thinking Book; Love is…) Books are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and www.patlambchristianauthor.com
Train up a child…
Helping Children with Writing
The three r’s, reading, ‘riting’, and ‘rithmetic’, are still the most important subjects in school because everything else is based on these three things. There are innumerable complaints that children are not learning these things as they should. Help from parents is definitely needed to make sure that children learn these basics.
Parents can help their children learn to be good writers in a number of ways. “Practice makes perfect” certainly applies to writing. Practice helps with both the mechanical aspects of learning to make the letters and the mental organizing and creating of subject matter.
Very young children who have toys requiring the use of motor skills in the hands are more apt to learn to print well using sticks and circles to make the letters of the alphabet. Making dots for children in the shapes of the letters provides a guide to follow. Cursive writing is not given a great deal of emphasis in today’s educational process since it is not used as much as in the past. After all, most job applications say, “Please print,” and computers are available for composing letters and stories. Although it is nice to know cursive writing, limited time in school demands that teachers emphasize subjects that are very practical. At one time, cursive writing was necessary for taking notes in college classes, but now students can record a lecture or download necessary information on their computers.
When older children are required to write essays, a good way to tell them to organize the essay is the “five finger rule”. One finger is for the introduction where three points are named. The next finger is for a new paragraph to talk about the first item named. The next finger represents the next paragraph to talk about the second thing and the next finger represents another paragraph to talk about the third thing. The last finger is to summarize the essay by restating what was said in the first paragraph. This five paragraph essay is taught to GED students to write an essay for passing the GED test. The format works in most cases and can also be used as an outline for making a speech. It is helpful to have a child draw around his/her hand on a piece of paper and label the five fingers for the five paragraphs.
Many students have trouble in knowing what to say when they write. Questions help a child to expand thinking. Taking the time to discuss a topic with a child helps give ideas. A background of various experiences is always a big help in providing material for writing. The Internet is a gold mine of information.
Reading, writing, and speaking form what educators call the language triangle. As a child improves in any one of the three, the other two are also enhanced. Children need to do a lot of reading and a great deal of writing. Unfortunately, many inventions are harmful as well as helpful. Since the copy machine was invented, children often just fill in blanks to answer a question. Good writing should be required at home and in all classes at school, not just the communications class. If a child is allowed to get by with sloppy writing in math, science, social studies, and health classes, the one class in language is not likely to succeed in teaching good writing skills. Consistency is important. Parents would be wise to see that their children are doing plenty of writing and doing it well.