Hands up if you have your child is a reluctant writer (I'm putting my hand up at this point). Hands up if you have difficulty inspring them just to start writing because inspiration is not there (again my hand is up). Hands up if the thought of creative writing with your child makes you want to hide under the covers and cancel school for the day just to avoid it (I think you can probably guess my hand is up again). In our house we have found a great solution for our 12 year old son Chipman.
When we first started using Storycubes we didn't write anything down. We would throw the dice and tell our stories, once Chipman was comfortable with this we started taking photo's of the cubes and I would scribe the story and then stick the photo onto the page as a reminder.
The next stage was for him to copy out what I had scribed. We took a while to get to the pen stage, letting Chipman get used to the story telling and imagination processe first. This week I will be adding challenges by looking at story structure. This week we will be looking at endings, Chipman will be challenged to try out a different ending for each story he makes up. We are using TES resources (free to sign up, everyone loves free!) for the structure ideas but you could make up your own.
Once we have worked on structure, we will be working on length. Chipman's stories are typically a paragraph long with the bare minimum detail require to get his point across. The plan is to start increasing slowly so that they are more descriptive and encourage him to use longer conversations and build more atmosphere.
We have gone from having a pen phobic writer that came out in a cold sweat or grumpy mood at the mere mention of writing a story, to one who wants to write his own book of short stories! Storycubes really have been an invaluable resource for us and I hope that my ramblings and Storycubes can be useful to your family too!
That's a great recommendation - sorry to have to ask, how old is Chipman? I'll definitely be looking into these, as I've a very reluctant pen user here too.
ReplyDeleteThey are great for taking out with you as well. Fit easily into your bag. Keeps mine entertained whilst we wait for food in a restaurant too! If you use them would love to know if they work for you :)
DeleteDoh, just spotted ages in sidebar. Ignore me, I'm tired!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun way to get into creative writing!
ReplyDeleteIt has been so much fun :)
DeleteWe love story cubes too! I'll be using some of your ideas for them in the future :-)
ReplyDeleteWould love to know how you get on :)
DeleteCame over from Jax's :) My 11 yo loves her story cubes too, but I think she's only ever used them for telling stories. I will have a go at getting her writing :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! Let me know how she gets on. Storycubes are great and we only picked them up on whim in the bookshop but have turned out to be a great purchase :)
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