Empower

I recently picked up Into Writing: The Primary Teacher’s Guide to Writing Workshop at my local teaching store. In it author Megan S. Sloan takes teachers through her process of teaching writing to children grades 1-3. While Sloan is a classroom teacher and encounters situations that I, as a homeschool mom, don’t encounter, I’ve been excited to learn from her. She is obviously a passionate teacher who puts her all into her students. I’m only a few chapters into the book, but I thought I’d share what I’m learning.

Writing is obviously an important part of life. Even if you aren’t a professional, writing is simply the ability to express oneself on paper. And in today’s world, writing is becoming more common and more important. Emails and blogs have replaced phone calls as the preferred method of communication for many people. People are spending more and more time on social sites like Facebook writing about the every jot and tittle of their lives.

Personally, I love to write. I love the sense of accomplishment I have when I finish a project, but I’m deeply aware that the process of becoming a writer is a never-ending journey. It’s one part inspiration, one part dedication, and while some people may have a natural gift for it, the ability to write is really like a muscle that becomes toner the more it’s used.

But even though I believe writing to be important and I love to do it, I’m at a loss for how to teach it in a natural and encouraging way to my daughter. I’m not inclined to buy a formal writing curriculum. Most of those make me cringe. The thought of someone sitting me down at a desk and ordering me to write “about a tree,” or “your favorite holiday” or “a descriptive sentence,” leaves me cold. And I don’t want to do that to my children.

That’s where Sloan reminded me of a simple concept: Modeling. Sadly, I have yet to share my love of writing with my children. Even though I tell them, “I’m writing,” I haven’t stopped to show them what I’m doing. By contrast, Sloan explains how she shares her life—all the normal, mundane and even humorous experiences—with her students and how these experiences develop into stories for her and the kids.

“My stories are of great interest to my students, even though there is nothing extraordinary about them,” she says. “We have real conversations about life. They begin to share more of their lives each day.”

Sloan opens a dialogue with her students. She shares her life; they share theirs. I now realize that I need to do the same. And as we do, I hope we will begin a journey of crafting interesting stories where I teach the finer points of good writing—how to write a strong lead, how to close a story, how to add description, how to edit useless words and more. All of this will hopefully happen as I slow down, model my own love of writing and listen as they talk about their interests and observations. And as we do this, I hope we’ll do more than create great stories and strong technique. I hope we’ll develop our relationships, ones that grow and mature as they grow and mature.

This year as you begin teaching your children how to write and improve their composition, I hope you’ll join me and share your own love of writing with them. Let them peak at your emails, read aloud from your favorite book (and talk about why you love it), share some of your nice stationary so they can write their friends and grandparents, or find them a pen pal (perhaps the daughter or son of a long-distant friend). Let them see good writing in action. Let this be the basis for their development.

If you have a way that you like to model writing to your children, please share it with me. I’m looking for creative ideas!