It' ll spark creativity in their writing. And make sure your children read, because that tends to make them better writers, said Robin Christopher, a literature teacher at Rancho Bernardo High School. Good writing calls for brainstorming and multiple drafts. Before writing a report or essay, encourage your child to perform a pre-writing exercise to cement ideas on paper, said Leslie Harden, principal of Park Dale Lane School in Encinitas. The most conventional form is the outline, she said.
Some writing demands more creative pre-writing exercises.
When writing stories, for example, Harden suggested story maps. Create a stair-step chart on a piece of paper. Start at the bottom and have your child write the first incident, then the subsequent incidents on each ascending step. Next comes the first draft. Even kindergartners writing one sentence should redo it to include punctuation.