Rapid evolution is sweeping the planet, pushing us faster and farther than ever before. Communication is now nearly as instant as thought. It is those who weild the sharpest skills to clearly communicate who will be the ones to mine the most from the future’s rewards.
This isn’t handed down. Skilled communication isn’t innate, it is taught. Unfortunately, oftentimes it isn’t taught well enough. I look at the world around me and sigh; I am unwilling to fail my children by providing them poor preparation for an old world quickly sinking deep in the tar of extinction. I expect my children to live a limitless life, and am quite certain that it is verbal currency that will pave their way.
Many of today’s schools are simply not meeting the needs of our youngest writers. Children require consistent modeling, ample time to write, a prompt or topic, and honest feedback and appropriate response. For optimum results, they also need exposure to a wide range of genres, text, poetry and prose.
Ask yourself the following questions. Do you know where your child is in the writing process?
- Are they an emergent writer? Do they carry a basic awareness of sights and sounds?
- Are they a developing writer? Have they begun to insert stylized sentences into their writing while able to make strong connections to real world ideas as well as their own internal emotions?
- Are they an independent writer? Have they already internalized the writing process? Can they exhibit fluency by using rich vocabulary and a fundamental understanding of mechanics?
Knowing where your child right now will help you determine where they need to go.
My wife Cindy has been teaching now for twenty years. Her specialties are reading, writing, and early childhood development. The two of us have been discussing building an online school forever.  An outstanding institution however, must be built brick by brick or plank by plank. The new virtual world isn’t any different. After numerous months of planning, our first wing of the school is nearing completion.
Our Writing Roots Writer’s Workshop will not be running in full until September, but we will be accepting a pilot group of young writers at the beginning of this summer. Spots are provided on a first come first serve basis and space is limited.
Please sign up for the newsletter below if you are interested. Whether your child is in public school, private school, or home school – this newsletter is for you. It is free and will offer regular tips for teaching your child to be a better writer, along with information on our upcoming pilot program.
Hope to see you there.
Sean Platt is a ghostwriter and dad who believes children write the future.
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Sign me up! Moreover, I’d love to have you come on the show and talk about the importance of writing!
Whitney Hoffman
The LD Podcast
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Sign me up! Moreover, I’d love to have you come on the show and talk about the importance of writing!
Whitney Hoffman
The LD Podcast
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I think I just realized the link never posted! My goodness. You can get it at writerdad.com. Let me know the details of the show. It sounds interesting!
Thanks!
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I think I just realized the link never posted! My goodness. You can get it at writerdad.com. Let me know the details of the show. It sounds interesting!
Thanks!
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While I do agree that children need a more expanded forum to write and develop their writing skills, there is one thing I would like to add that I feel is lacking in schools today. That is vocabulary. I have two girls in high school and what surprises me is their lack of vocabulary. Now I will admit that a lot of this is due to them walking around with their heads in the clouds, but a lot has to do with schools not putting as much emphasis on teaching more than basic words. My son in 4th grade has a bigger vocabulary than my daughters. He wants to learn new words. I cannot think of any examples of some word that my girls are not aware of but they are not uncommon words. I remember when I was a kid in school and even now, in college, there was a lot of emphasis put on vocabulary. Hopefully, the schools in your area are not failing the students as I believe they are doing here. Obviously, where writing is concerned, we need to learn to crawl before we walk. At this time, I don’t think schools are teaching our kids to crawl. What do you think?
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While I do agree that children need a more expanded forum to write and develop their writing skills, there is one thing I would like to add that I feel is lacking in schools today. That is vocabulary. I have two girls in high school and what surprises me is their lack of vocabulary. Now I will admit that a lot of this is due to them walking around with their heads in the clouds, but a lot has to do with schools not putting as much emphasis on teaching more than basic words. My son in 4th grade has a bigger vocabulary than my daughters. He wants to learn new words. I cannot think of any examples of some word that my girls are not aware of but they are not uncommon words. I remember when I was a kid in school and even now, in college, there was a lot of emphasis put on vocabulary. Hopefully, the schools in your area are not failing the students as I believe they are doing here. Obviously, where writing is concerned, we need to learn to crawl before we walk. At this time, I don’t think schools are teaching our kids to crawl. What do you think?
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I couldn’t agree more. I find it staggering how little children are given these days in regard to the basic building blocks such as vocabulary and critical thinking. The world is moving rapidly, but we’re simply not keeping pace. It’s sad, really.
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I couldn’t agree more. I find it staggering how little children are given these days in regard to the basic building blocks such as vocabulary and critical thinking. The world is moving rapidly, but we’re simply not keeping pace. It’s sad, really.