Creative Writing Ideas
Homeschool Kids Activities, Prompts And Tips

Creative writing ideas and activities are just the antidote you need if you're faced with a reluctant writer and homeschooling families are uniquely placed to help you with tips, advice and reassurance to prove your child will succeed.

4,000 homeschooling families come up with the very best creative writing ideas to tempt your child. There's plenty of advice out there, but none so potent as real-life help from homeschooling families who can show you what works - and what doesn't.

The Handbook contains lots of unusual ideas to encourage a reluctant writer like:

• write a book of stupid things to do
• lots of imaginative story writing ideas
• an alien adventure where you can't speak or you will be detected by aliens
• a seasonal theme writing station
• how to write your Life in a Box

You will also find invaluable reassurance that even if your child can't write well just now (or hates it, as some children do!), they will get there in the end.

N.B. Part 3 of the The Courageous Homeschooling Handbook also covers teaching reading and math as well as help with dyslexia, autism and anxiety.

Please note that the book links on this page are affiliate links so if you buy I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

In this video, you'll see I share some of my homeschooling secrets and show you some ideas I used to tempt my son to write.

N.B. This video had 2,007 views on Facebook and reached 5,884 people

You'll also see that I urge you to try not to panic!  Writing does come in the end.

You can find the right activities and prompts to tempt your kids to succeed where school often fails.

You can help by using homeschool creative writing activities and prompts to get your child wanting to write.

Once they've got there, everything else will follow.

Creative Writing Ideas For Kids

One of the best creative writing ideas I've found is to encourage your kids to start writing stories.

Once you've planted the seed and writing becomes something your kids want to do all the other English skills will follow.

Here are some of the creative writing prompts free homeschool story worksheets that we've made specially for you:

You'll see lots of story ideas for all ages. Invent your own Animal Ark story, meet an alien and tell us How To Keep Dinosaurs!

Creative Writing Tips

"Today's rules," he says, "Are a misunderstanding of language. Grammar, punctuation and spelling are guidelines about how we frame our language...but they're not supposed to tie us up in knots."

So I think we can all agree that the most important thing is to get your child wanting to write. Here's some tips:

• Don't fuss over spelling and grammar; the most important thing is that your kids feel pleased with what they've done. Leave perfection for another day; the best way for you to help with English is to realize there's plenty of time to learn once they've decided they want to.
• Keep creative writing activities short.
• Find more homeschool creative writing tips here, and you'll see one of my best tips is to follow the 'little and often' approach.
• With boys particularly, organized facts and lists seem to go down well.

• You'll find lots of free resources, ideas and suggestions to help with handwriting for kids put together from my homeschooling exam forum and suggestions from my facebook fans.
  

TOP TEN Creative Writing Ideas

"We got this Storywalk kit from our local library. It's of one of our favorite books called Ugly Vegetables.

(Please note that the book links on this page are affiliate links so if you buy I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.)

My 2 year old son loved playing with the real veggies and dug up his garden and "walked the story" many times!

It inspired tons of free play and some healthy snacking and he and his big sister were still busy playing chefs making veggie soup until just before bed last night."

~ Jaime, Courageous Homeschooling Facebook group

• Try some exciting creative writing activities. We show you some ideas to spark your child's imagination, starting with My Life In A Box.
  
• See what your kids choose: poems, songs, their worst summer holiday - whatever they think of, you should find the perfect prompts for all sorts of creative writing!

• Invent a letter code and send it to your kids friends. This is still popular with our children William and Catherine in our homeschool.
  
• Tips: You can even use it as a way to help teaching homeschool math by adding in a number code too!
• Nikki shows you how this works in her homeschool; as soon as I saw her idea I knew it was one of those creative writing ideas guaranteed to make writing fun!
  

• Journaling. Keep a homeschool book where you write all your thoughts and feelings - great for getting creative with English activities!
  
• Catherine's is marked: 'Top Seacret' - I'm not allowed to see it so I can't correct the spelling!
  

• Lapbooks. A great way to encourage creative writing ideas for kids up to High School if you pick the right topic.
• Two which might inspire are our homeschool dinosaur lapbook and life in the Rainforest. 

• Lists of Facts. This is a winner with my son William; anything from specifications of planets to the homeschool parts list he needed when he was learning how to build a robot.
  
• It can get very creative if you include fantasy planets!

• Get your child to write a story in speech bubbles. It is no co-incidence that cartoon books like Asterix are so popular!
• Tips: Very useful to help encourage English activities because you only need write short sentences at a time.

• Younger children can make their own set of TOP TRUMPS and teach themselves math and writing at the same time!
  
• You can see how in our page on homeschool Math Activities. All you need do is pick a topic like Birds or Fish, choose your TOP TEN favorites and then rank them out of ten.
•  Tips: Choosing categories as prompts like killer rating and TOP TEN DISASTERS always seem to go down well with kids!

• Daily Diary.
  
• Tips: This can sometimes become a little boring if it only consists of facts, as you'll see if you look at Catherine's diary entry in our homeschool scheduling, so see how it goes.

• Favorite recipes.
  
• This may not seem very creative, but actually it helps a lot with English spelling and vocabulary, and if you have a kid who loves to cook, as William does, it's a great way to build on an interest in food.

• Storybird.
• Try out this great site where your child can choose their own pictures to illustrate a story and put together a beautiful book.  
• Great way to encourage your child to put pen to paper!
  

Kids Writing Blog

A good motivation to help with English is if your kids writing will be read by their friends!

Tips: We had a lot of success with a homeschool book review kids blog; it doesn't matter how short the review - it's exciting to see it up on the web!

One of the very good writing prompts would be if your kids would like to keep their own blog or contribute to a website.

Free Audio Books

It certainly helps to get the creative juices flowing when you're inspired by other people's books!

You can download free full length audio books to listen to.

Make A Paper Bag Book

My friend Lisa Vaught came up with a brilliant suggestion about making a paper bag book.  You can see all the instructions here.

It's a really original, nice project and even includes a puppet theater!

Help With English

Child dyslexia can be a worry, especially if you are homeschooling.

Get reassurance that teaching children with dyslexia is often easier at home, with recommendations for the best websites, how to recognize the signs and symptoms and homeschooling stories of success.

Final Tips: Teaching writing can be a test of patience!

Take a deep breath and try not to push; writing will come in time. It's really helpful to hear from homeschooling families what ideas have worked. The Courageous Homeschooling Handbbook has even more suggestions and real-life tips and advice on writing help from 4,000 homeschoolers.

It also gives the vital reassurance you need that your child will succeed.

N.B. The Handbook is not solely about teaching writing but also has help with reading, math as well as challenges like autism and anxiety.

Please note that the book links on this page are affiliate links so if you buy I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Try out the brilliant creative writing ideas suggested by homeschooling families and help your child get inspired.

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