At Holden Village, Asher (16) was bitten by a chonky ground squirrel who had a taste for honey mustard dressing, left on Asher’s finger. Asher told the story with the great glee, after he learned he did not need a rabies shot. By the third or fourth go, Asher had gotten the beats down with the climactic ending of staring down the dangling rodent who gave up, dropped to the ground, and scurried off. He tells it better than I do.
Asher has always been a great storyteller, even when he was tiny. He would chatter on with his dimpled grin— occasionally throwing in an “I heard it on NPR!” for credibility—regaling us with all sorts of tales. His preschool teachers loved his creativity.
I started homeschooling our older kids the year Asher was going to be in Kindergarten; not wanting to overwhelm myself with a non-reader, we enrolled him in a half-day private program down the block. Right away there seemed to be issues.
“I hate coloring!” And “Why do I have to color everything?” Were nightly fare at the dinner table. This turned into “I don’t want to go to school!” Every morning. Honestly? I kind of agreed with Asher. He was showing no issues with fine motor skills—he was constantly building with legos, and did all the scissor assignments with no problem—so why did he have to color endless worksheets?
Half-way through the year Asher dropped out of Kindergarten. I used free Montessori resources from The Helpful Gardener Blog to teach phonics, and Singapore math books; otherwise he tagged along on whatever the big kids were learning. At the end of the year testing, my dear friend who ran an educational testing and intervention center, said “Let’s keep an eye on him for dysgraphia.”
Spoiler alert. Asher has dysgraphia and a visual motor deficit. Basically, he can do just about anything in his head but struggles to get it on paper. There are a few easy fixes—namely voice to text services, and extra time if he needs to physically write something—and aside from scratchy handwriting, Asher is a great student and a creative force.
But his story could have had a very different ending.
All too often when I talk with students in my work at the public schools, I hear “I hate writing.” When I ask why, I almost universally hear “It’s boring.”
Now as a writer, this breaks my heart. I find that what most students associate with “writing” is actually copy work, narration, handwriting practice, technical practice, or prompts. All of these activities are technically “writing”, and are important to eventually putting creative cohesive thoughts on the page, but they are not inherently creative and can be the nails on the coffin of the creative writing spirit.
Back in the “Old-days,” the ability to read was far more common than the ability to write. Vision requirements aside, reading is a mental skill. Writing not only requires a more complex set of mental abilities, but has the physical components as well.
Reading=understand phonemes create sounds+decode grammar symbols+vocabulary bank.
Non-Creative Writing=understand phonemes create sounds+understand how each letter is formed (and spaced) + vocabulary+ spelling+ syntax (the way words go together to create intended meaning )+ hand strength +pencil grip position.
Verbal communication begins the first time a baby’s cry is answered. They learn those first words to speak with purpose, “Why?” “No!” “Up.” Children will generally begin telling stories as soon as they start babbling. By four or five* kiddos can tell sequential (if not terribly interesting) narratives, which develop in complexity as they begin to understand storytelling elements like humor, tension, figurative language, irony, etc.
The act of non-creative writing doesn’t begin until years later. Children’s hands haven’t developed fully until after the age of 7 which can make all those preschool and kindergarten writing activities an exercise in whatever the opposite of self-efficacy is.
So why is this important and what does it have to do with Homeschooling and Creative Writing?
Don’t tie creative writing to writing skills until your kid is developmentally able to write or type at the speed of their creative brain.
There are plenty of ways to encourage creative writing that don’t require the act of writing.
-Voice to text. Back when Asher was newly diagnosed, we used Dragon software; now days there are tons of free versions of voice to text.
-scribes. As time allows, writing or typing for your kiddo is a great way to spend time with them doing something creative. If this is a dynamic that you struggle with, get another caregiver or sibling involved. (I have two kids who love Grandmasquatch to write stories with them)
-D&D or other Role Playing Games. Get kids into a collaborative story telling situation and let them run wild.
-Fill in the blank story telling. This isn’t just for littles! My bigger kids love to jump in when I ask “Once upon a time there was a ________”. Sure, we get a lot of nonsense but it creates an atmosphere of storytelling and isn’t screen based. For my 4 and 8 year olds I can direct character and story arcs by contributing more of the narrative.
-Hashing things out in the car. On a recent trip with Asher he asked “what would you do during a zombie apocalypse?”
My controversial answer gave rise to a three hour brainstorming session for our imaginary zombie book series. We covered as much literary theory and craft talk as I would in a semester long class and won Ashy over to the idea that love interests can be used as more than revenge fodder. While the series is unlikely to ever see paper, Asher can add another cupful of creativity to his bucket.
A few hacks that work better in blurb form:
So notice that most of my recommendations are collaborative. One of the easiest ways to stifle interest is to judge someone on a skill they haven’t mastered. When you step in as a collaborator in a creative writing endeavor, you take on some of the emotional vulnerability. Don’t force a collaboration, but be available.
Help kids understand the draft process. First drafts are similar to marble. You uncover the rock that you are going to carve later. Getting the ideas on the page is the hardest part; if you go back and change everything after the third paragraph, you are unlikely to ever get past the third paragraph. This is especially difficult for perfectionists to internalize. (I have some content on the draft process coming out in September, so keep an eye out.) Sometimes a first draft is enough; eventually you want students to make it through the entire process and have polished work.
You don’t always need to check their work. We use Blossom and Root for Language Arts Curriculum and one of the components is the “Super Secret Notebook”. This is a place for the kids to complete work that I never see. An easy way of making your own version, is to use daily writing prompts. The basic hope is that kiddos are doing daily or weekly generative writing, full stop.
Creative writing is a great way to build skills for purposeful writing. (Theoretically there is a short bridge between these two disciplines, but many curriculums make purposeful writing about as creative as going to the dentist.) Sure, by middle school kiddos should be able to write persuasive, comparative, and expository work, but early scaffolding of these skills can be as easy as asking “Which do you like better?” Or “tell me about ______?” Don’t make your 1st grader write an essay.
Finally:
Homeschool folks freak out a lot about writing.
Don’t.
Make it fun, make it collaborative.
If someone is crying take a different approach.
If there seems to be developmental or cognitive roadblocks, seek professional services.
Always preserve the relationship between you and kiddo, and kiddo and writing.
* Developmental milestones vary child to child. They depend on cognitive and physical development, environmental factors, as well as the kiddo’s personality. While it is handy to be aware of general developmental timelines from an early interventionist standpoint, they aren’t something to build a religion upon. Happy and healthy are the long term goals.
Mamasquatch the Writer 
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