Summer Writing Ideas

As you know, it is important that your child keeps reading and you keep reading to him or her over the summer. Anything they are interested in is great—don’t worry about if the books they gravitate to are the perfect “level.”

Children’s literacy skills in general benefit (and avoid regression) if children also do some writing over the summer. They have grown so much in first grade as writers and I'd love them to keep up the habit. If your child is motivated to write on his or her own, that’s great. If not, the ideas below might help in inspiring them to do some writing during their couple of months out of school. Some of these ideas are from Chip Woods, a child development authority and author of the book Yardsticks.

• Give your kids a “shopping list” pad for their own use over the summer. Kids love to make lists, whether they are heading to the mall or the beach.
• Dictate your grocery list to your child. Then, let them check off items on the list as you shop.
• Encourage kids to write in a writing journal. They might like to keep a diary, or write fiction stories, or poetry, or informational teaching books about things they learn about this summer. 
• If there's a toy on their wish list, have them write about it with good reasons why they should have it to try to convince you.
• Email or write to grandparents and relatives. Grandparents love written communication. Or, write notes back and forth between you and your child in your house.
• Write fan mail to ball players or to music and movie stars.
• Remember post cards! If you’re traveling, have kids send them to themselves as well as to relatives. They love to get mail from themselves when they get home and they are always surprised because you usually beat the postcard home.
• Memory boxes. Have children write a letter to themselves at a given age about their summer, for example, “The Summer I was Seven.” They can put the letter in a special envelope and you can start a Summer Memory Box…a private time capsule that can be read in future years, who knows when…add pictures and drawings to taste.

*I am going to send home this list of ideas as a hard copy as well so you can keep it handy if you want. I am gifting each student a blank journal with lined writing pages in it. These are extras I've had for years that we don't need during the school year. Please encourage your child to use and enjoy them this summer!