Motivating a Reluctant Writer

When it comes to writing any type of assignment I am usually met with extreme resistance. Especially by our 9 year old daughter. She is dealing with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalcula. Add on top of that ADHD and being far sighted....yeah....sitting down to write a long assignment is going to go over like a lead balloon. 

I have found that the best way to motivate her to write isn't to assign copy work or research papers. It is to instead assign creative writing work. She is such an imaginative little girl who loves making "books" for her sisters. Why not harness that interest and use it for her school work?

You can find a million free writing prompts on pinterest for creative writing work. This is normally my go to point for creative writing prompts. We however were blessed to receive a free digital copy of Welcome to Mooville: Adventures in Writing  a few months ago. It has been sitting on my hard drive waiting for an "empty" month.

 I decided to try it out last month and was very pleased! The author breaks the work down into bite sized portions per lesson. Each lesson then feeds into the next until in the end you have the complete story written. Perfect for the reluctant and distracted writer!

We alternate our creative writing with our grammar worksheets. This means we complete 2 creative writing days per week. With this time frame they spent just over a month working on their stories. After you spend 5 weeks working on a story you want some recognition! We decided to "publish" their stories in grand fashion. The squealing from our 9yr old was quite dramatic! To say she was thrilled would be an understatement!

This was extremely simple to "publish". I found some old folders in my stash, dug out the page protectors and the tape and we got to work. The girls completed the cover sheet for their "books" and taped it to the front of their folders.

Then they slid their completed pages into their page protectors and put them into their folders. We used the folders with the little metal tabs meant for 3 hole punched papers (what are those folders called anyways?). Our 9 yr old felt everyone needed to know some information about her main character before they started reading her story.

The girls had a wonderful time working on the illustrations for their books.

SO. MUCH. SQUEALING!

 

Lastly she added her farm map. I mean you have to know where you are going right?

                                                

She is so thrilled with her "published" story that we will definitely have to  stock up on folders and page protectors in the future! Just don't tell her how much writing, grammar, spelling, and fine motor work she accomplished. She may never forgive me!