Finding the Time

April 15, 2019

How do you come up with a regular chunk of time to write? 

Check out a couple of on-the-go writing habits as well as a way to create some stress-free time for your child to write regularly. 

Notebooks

Give your child a notebook so they can build a habit of writing a variety of things while you're out and about. It won't be formal writing, but they'll be writing. 

Grocery Lists

When you have a grocery list to make, dictate it to your child. They'll learn how to take dictation, and it'll help improve their spelling. Again, not formal writing, but a valuable, practical writing skill. 


Creating Stress-Free Dedicated Writing Time

If you've ever had the pressure of coming up with an idea in a set period of time, you know that it is challenging and it seems like your brain locks up, and there's no getting those ideas out, which creates stress and tension, and then they're not going to come out at all. 


When your child is learning the art of writing, they're also learning the art of thinking, and thinking takes time distraction-free time. 

Create a Buffer

If you have a regular 30-minute block where you have them do some writing, build it out into an hour. 


It could be that following snack time your child is going to write for 30 minutes. If snack time at your home is like snack time at our home, some snacks take longer to eat than others. If writing time is at 10:30 am but snack time all of a sudden bleeds into 10:45 am, now they only have 15 minutes to write. 


They need time to get organized. Your child going to get very little done, they're going to be frustrated, you're going to be frustrated, and most likely no thoughts worth capturing are going to end up on the page. 


However, if you've built in a buffer, they get their stuff together after their late snack, and now they can get focused for 30 minutes. Even if they're starting at 10:45 am, and you need to leave at 11:30 am, you've got some breathing room. 


When their timer beeps, they still have 15 minutes before the next activity. They have time to tidy up their area, or if they're right in the middle of an idea, they'll have time to finish writing down that idea before moving on to the next activity. 


Reflect

How much time have you set aside for your child to formally write down their ideas? How much time have you left for them to engage their brain and to think through their ideas so that they can write them down in a cohesive and logical manner? Have you allowed time for their brain to relax into a writing mode? 



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