How to Homeschool Your Reluctant Writer

Would your child rather walk barefoot across a floor of Legos than to pick up a pencil to write? Are you tired of the battle that ensues everything you ask your child to complete some schoolwork that requires more than 3 written words? You are likely trying to homeschool your reluctant writer. But, you aren’t alone. This is something that many homeschool families face in their educational walk.

Reluctant writers are as common as reluctant readers. But, don’t fret! We have tips that will help you get through these years and encourage your children to write, and write well, without the nagging, tears, and tantrums.

Learn how to homeschool your reluctant writer with these 5 easy steps

1. Make sure it’s not a physical or developmental issue.

First, you’ll want to ensure that your child isn’t balking at writing tasks because of a physical or developmental problem, such as dysgraphia or a lack of physical hand strength.

Dysgraphia is a Specific Learning Disorder that affects a person’s ability to write by hand. Sometimes it is just a physical, motor issue; sometimes it includes a language component; but often, it just looks like messy handwriting and horrible spelling, no matter how much thorough instruction and practice the child has had. To learn more about dysgraphia and it’s symptoms, watch this video from the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

A lack of physical hand strength (or fine motor skills) can also cause your child to struggle with holding a pencil properly to write for more than a few seconds at a time. If your child is putting all of their focus onto how to write, it’s going to be difficult for them to think about what to write.

To learn more about strengthening your child’s hands and fine motor skills, hop over to Whole Child Homeschool’s article when you’ve finished this one. ((STEPHANIE: I haven’t finished this article yet, I’ll send the link over when I get it done))

2. Find an interest and use that to your advantage.

What does your child love most? Have them write about what they already know.

I have a friend whose son is really into wrestling, so she lets him write about wrestling stars and matches. And if it gets your reluctant writer to put thoughts onto paper (or screen) who cares what the topic actually is, right?

My oldest son was an extremely reluctant writer when he was younger. Now that he’s in high school, he will write essays IF it’s about something that he likes and has a lot of background knowledge about, and IF he can type it (more about that in a minute).

When my oldest son was around 8 or 9, he was really starting to be into Legos and Star Wars. So, I got him a Lego Star Wars Encyclopedia and had him write about those characters. In fact, I have a whole set of 36 Star Wars, Rogue One, and Clone Wars Character Reports for your kiddo to work on informative writing skills as well as grammar skills in a low-stress, high-interest way that holds their attention and doesn’t feel like torture. You can get your Galaxy Wars Character Reports Bundle at Homeschool Helper Online.

3. Let them type or dictate their work

Who cares how they get their thoughts onto paper, right? Unless you are working on handwriting specifically, there’s no need for them to physically put pencil to paper. Writing is an extension of language and expressing ourselves, so it’s basically just like a different form of talking.

Younger kids will happily let you write down their thoughts for them. Once they hit age 9 or 10, let them learn how to type (many kids don’t have the fine motor skills to really type before then) for their writing assignments.

Or, if typing is really a struggle or if they don’t want to dictate to you, consider letting them use a speech-to-text app like Speech Notes from Cornell.

4. Always start with brainstorming and mind mapping

Kids and let’s admit it—grownups too, often shut down when we feel overwhelmed. Does your reluctant writer just not know where or how to start? Just like getting directions from Google maps before we start on a cross-country road trip, our kids may need a map to get to the end of that writing assignment.

As a professional who helped kids with writing assignments (I was a speech-language pathologist before I became a full-time homeschool mom), I always had kids start their writing assignments with a mind map. Sometimes they are called brainstorming worksheets.

Why will this help? Many kiddos that struggle with writing (and language) think in pictures, not in words. Making their writing assignment into a kind of picture by mapping it out can really help them to organize their thoughts. You can get two different types of printable mind mapping/ brainstorming worksheets at Homeschool Helper Online (for free with the coupon code HHO4TSH)

5. Write the middle part first, then the beginning and end.

Teach your kids to write the middle part, the body of the information first. Then they can go back and write an introduction paragraph that highlights all of the topics they wrote about in the body.

The conclusion paragraph should just be a rewording of the introduction paragraph or a summary of what was talked about in the body paragraphs. That makes it much easier to think about a writing assignment, when it is in chunks, instead of a large, overwhelming task.

Remember that you are the teacher

Don’t let that curriculum guide decide how your child completes an assignment. Think outside the box to come up with ways to make writing a pleasant task that they are able to be successful at. Using modified techniques isn’t going to keep them from learning to “write properly” in fact, once they realize that it doesn’t have to be a horrible, dreaded task, they will improve.