Getting homeschool students to write can be a difficult task, but it doesn’t have to be. Getting started is usually the hardest part. Here are some ideas that can encourage your child to write and maybe even enjoy writing:

1. Make an album – find some old or new pictures and have your child paste them onto a page and write a caption or description for each picture so they don’t forget who the person is or what they did when looking at it for years . later. Sometimes pictures of babies or young children can make your child want to write about what she did even more.

2. Write letters: Your children can draw pictures and/or write letters to friends or family. If they are very reluctant, you can write a letter and let the child add a sentence or two or a picture. These cards can also be for imaginary figures like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

3. Retell a Popular Story: Use your child’s favorite fairy tale and ask him or her to retell the story from a different perspective. If they like Little Red Riding Hood, ask them to tell the story from the wolf’s point of view.

4. Make lists (lots of them!) – When you’re in the car, ask a child to write out their shopping list as you dictate it to you. When you go on vacation, ask your child to make a list of what he needs to bring. Make Birthday lists, Christmas lists, favorite book lists, lists of what you want to do this summer, and many more.

5. Take turns telling a story. Ask each person in the group to write a paragraph of a story. One person can start and then pass it on to the next person to add another paragraph until they have gone around the group a few times or until they feel their story is finished. This could provide hilarious entertainment.

6. Take turns writing a poem: Along the same lines, you can adapt the example above to write poetry. Each person writes a line of a poem and you keep going through it until you feel your poem is complete.

Homeschool students can enjoy writing. You may need to be a little more creative with some students than others. Learning to express their ideas can help them tremendously, especially when they become teenagers and then adults.