Kids Creative Writing Activities:

Ideas, Tips and Prompts For Children

Picking the right ideas to inspire kids creative writing activities makes all the difference.

We've tried lots of homeschool prompts and suggestions because I am convinced that if you can get children wanting to write, everything else will follow.

You can find a whole variety of inspirational tips and activities in our page on creative writing ideas, where I reveal the first topic that really caught fire in our homeschool - TOP TEN DISASTERS!

You'll also see activities like making a letter code and journaling, along with ideas like lapbooks, making a homeschool bubble story and writing a kids blog.

I've also put details about a long distance course which leads towards an IGCSE English Language and Literature exam in our page on a recommended homeschool writing curriculum.

But I'd like to show you some homeschool activities and prompts which can help even the most reluctant writer.

My Life In A Box

My Life In A Box is one of those brilliant homeschool creative writing activities which you can easily adapt to different kids ages and interests. It's also good for children because the activities involve lots of other exciting ideas and prompts - like collecting objects - which don't appear to have anything to do with writing!

Sneaking writing in by the back door is one of the best homeschool tips for encouraging kids to start.

There's something magical about collecting all the essentials of a life in a shoe box. It makes kids really use their imagination - which is the basis of all creative writing.

Now your kids could choose anyone they are interested in, and a great way to start is:

My Life In A Box

What an opportunity for all sorts of kids creative writing prompts! Here are some homeschool ideas that might spring to mind:

• Write a poem about yourself
• Collect seashells
• Make a copy of your birth certificate and put in some baby photos
• Write about a fun / exciting time you had, your pets and favorite things
• Print off a photo of your favorite animal
• Write about your worst summer holiday

A Life In A Box

But of course you can get just as creative by choosing anyone to live in your box! How about a famous person?

Creative Writing Tips

That might sound difficult, so I'm going to show how we did it in our homeschool so you can adapt our ideas and see that a shoe box really does force you to think creatively.

You'll see that our homeschool creative writing tips are all based around one vital factor: interest. Once you've used the right prompts to get your kids excited and engaged, who knows where you'll get to.

Avatar was the source of enormous inspiration to William and Catherine, and the 3-D glasses and optical illusion might be all the clues you need to guess that special effects was a big part of James Cameron's life.

The toy truck is there to show that James Cameron started as a miniature model maker.

This is a wedding ring with a x 5 symbol to show that James Cameron has been married five times.

Creative writing tips: the best way to inspire is to keep things fun!

(You'll also see from our gold braid ring that creative writing activities can also be fun if they include some easy crafts for kids.)

You can see the final result of our homeschool Life in a Box at the top of the page. (If you're wondering why George W. Bush has a red cross through him, you may know that James Cameron isn't a Bush supporter.)

Now you're all set up to fire off lots of creative writing activities and prompts:

It'll all depend on the age of your kids, but you could imagine life in your own Pandora. Think of those virperwolves, banshees and direhorses - what animals would you meet? What sort of language will your Na'vi speak? What about ideas like being a passenger on the Titanic?

(By the way, A Life In A Box is only one way to be creative with a shoe box. See how you can turn a box into a kids homeschool ocean diorama.)

Creative Writing Prompts For Children

Obviously, there are many ways to encourage creative writing activities.

You can find a lots of inspirational tips and activities in our page on creative writing prompts, including:

• Cartoons
• Scrapbooks
• Ideas for fantasy Maps
• Animations
• Pen Pals and Pet Pals
• Film scripts

But I know it's hard. Nothing worked with William in our homeschool until he was about 9, and the trouble with creative writing is that you can't force it. If kids aren't interested, you'll get nowhere and might even put them off altogether.

Creative Writing Ideas

The best way is to have lots of prompts up your sleeve so that you can find some homeschool creative writing activities which spark your child's imagination.

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