What better time to practice writing? In addition to being an important skill for self-expression and communication, and essential to success in school and life, writing can be a good way to process what’s happening, record your ideas, reduce stress, and have fun! Make writing a part of your child’s daily routine. You can even write and illustrate stories together and make them into your own books to read!

Here are a few ideas to get their creative juices flowing:

• Write about your best day ever (real or imagined)
• Write about what you do when you’re bored
• Where would you go if you could go anywhere right now? What would you do there?
• Write a memory of a time you went somewhere. What happened?
• What would you change if you could? Describe what that world would be like.
• Write about someone who does something bad for a good reason.
• Write a story that ends with “And I’ll never go back there again.”
• Imagine you get a mysterious package. What’s in it?
• What would you do with a million dollars?
• If you could have a superpower, what would it be? What would you do with it?
• If you could have any pet (real or imaginary), what would it be?
• If you had a time machine, what time would you visit? Why?

Scholastic Story Starters also has a fun prompt generator to stir up more ideas. For older/more advanced writers, Vermont’s Young Writers Project has weekly prompts and publishes student work online.

You and your family can also play fun writing games together, like “writey drawey,” where one person writes a sentence, the next person illustrates it then folds the paper so the following person can only see the drawing, then they write a sentence to go along with it and the next person illustrates it, and so on. You can even submit your “writey drawey” stories here.

You can also make up stories together and have your kids illustrate them.

Writing is an easy way to keep your kids learning, pass the time, and have fun together. If your child wants to share their work, you can host readings where each family member shares something they’ve written. You can also make their work into books using construction paper, twine or thread, or staples. Then you can read them together!

What fun writing ideas are you and your family doing?