Creative Writing, Another Way to Learn to Write

When we homeschool our children we want them to do their best.  We want them to learn to add,
subtract, multiply, and divide.  We want them to learn to read and to write.  But often when we think about teaching our children to write, we either think of writing assignments that are geared toward teaching some language arts lesson.  We think of writing as a subject that must be learned.
Now, I have always known that writing can be enjoyable, that it doesn’t have to be a chore.  After all, what I do for a living is write, I love to write!  I have noticed lately that my middle school daughter is beginning to write, and not just for assignments.  I am encouraged because my daughter has always been a reluctant writer.  In fact, she has actively refused to write.
Several months ago I got tired of banging my head against the wall that was my reluctant writer daughter.
I was frustrated as her teacher that she would not or seemingly could not write to an assignment she was given.

My response to that frustration was tell her that I didn’t care what she wrote, as long as she wrote three to five paragraphs.
To my surprise, she wrote three well-constructed paragraphs about her favorite character from a program she watches on Saturday nights.  I was definitely shocked, but who was I to argue with success?  I tried to figure out why the three paragraphs were so easy when every writing assignment prior to that had been painful.  What I figured out was that she did not like to be constrained by a specific assignment.  I should have known that.  She doesn’t like to color in coloring books for paint by number either. She would much prefer to draw something on a blank sketch pad than to colorize someone else’s idea of what the picture should look like.  The same thing applied to writing.
We still study grammar as part of her language arts education.  Instead of giving her a specific assignment to write, I simply ask her to write.  It does not matter to me if it is a journal, or a poem.  To my surprise when I gave her less writing assignments, I have seen her writing volume increase.  She currently has two “books” in the works.  I was very pleased when she turned down a favorite television program the other day, because in her words, “I’m writing right now.”  Over six hundred words later she asked if it was alright for her to take a break because she had run into a problem with her story that she needed to think through.
Because we still do grammar as part of our language arts, as well as working on spelling and vocabulary, it is possible for her to learn the lesson, and then apply it to writing in a way that is interesting to her.  By engaging her creativity we have overcome a road block to education.
I’m not saying that allowing your child to write creatively
as opposed to writing for an assignment will work in your homeschool.  Just consider that if you are homeschooling,
you are probably homeschooling, in part, to create an educational experience
that is most beneficial to your individual student.  If that is the case, and you find a way that
is not according to the traditional education plan, but it works in your
homeschool, do not hesitate to explore the opportunity.