Dressing up the basics is the first step to making writing fun. Allowing them to illustrate their writing encouraged them to take pride in their writing. They could make it look good and it was also great fun. With the graphics from The Writing Center and later the simple desktop publishing of EasyBook, the children enjoyed putting their stories and poems together with art. Even though that program brought a whole set of technical glitches, it became a great motivator.
Computers motivate children to write .
If the computer makes them want to do it, if it's fun, they're hooked. I had kids working during lunch routinely. I even had two come in on a flood day to finish their stories in order to meet a deadline for the computer-generated writing contest. One of these girls won second prize in the state. Children with learning disabilities , once they learned how to use the spell-check, really benefited from computers.