How to Encourage Creative Writing in your Homeschool
Creative writing — do your kids love it or hate it? Either way, here are some ideas to make creative writing in your homeschool more delightful, even for reluctant writers.
My daughters are constantly creating – artwork of all kinds, short stories, picture books, digital art, crafts, songs, and whatever other creative urge strikes them. It’s amazing to see what they come up with on their own.
We love creative writing in our homeschool, but I know that’s not the case for everyone. Struggling with writing is one of the most common issues I hear from other homeschool moms.
Sometimes kids just need a little freedom to use their imaginations and do some free writing. Trying some writing prompts to get their ideas going can also help to open up new ideas.
On the other hand, some kids are just plain intimidated by that blank sheet of paper or computer screen. They need a bit of a jumpstart to get their creative writing ideas flowing. That’s totally normal, too.
Why Creative Writing Skills are Important
While creative writing is a great skill in and of itself, the process of learning creative writing will also instill in your child a variety of transferable skills, such as:
- thinking outside of the box
- resourcefulness
- problem-solving
- enhanced vocabulary
- persuasive skills
- communication skills
- organizing ideas
- and (of course) imagination
Sometimes we need to give our kids different tools for creativity. Resources that will give them some direction in their learning, but not discourage their curiosity and creativity.
So what type of homeschool language arts or creative writing curriculum can you use that will help encourage those creative writing skills?
Night Zookeeper Language Arts
Night Zookeeper is an award-winning and creative writing program online that helps improve the writing skills of 5-12+-year-olds.
The creativity begins when children create their own Night Zookeeper avatar. What kid doesn’t love to do that kind of activity online? It feels like a game, so it takes the intimidation out of the blank page and allows kids to begin using their imaginations in a fun way, right away, with no pressure.
From there, they’ll design their first magical animal for their zoo. My daughters love to do this kind of thing with digital art, so this was right up their alley.
After creating the animal, they get to name it, answer questions about it, and write their first animal report. To collect orbs (which can upgrade their animals), they’ll need to follow the directions for their report, such as including certain things like commas, adjectives, a goal word count, or other writing objectives based on their age/ability level.
Night Zookeeper comes with a thorough Parent Guide in pdf format so you know just what to expect and can help your kids walk through the process if they have any questions during the setup.
It’s a very intuitive process, especially for digital natives like our children. My daughters didn’t have any trouble figuring out how to get started. They looked forward to creating their own zoo full of unique animals.
The tasks, goals, and challenges are all geared for the age-appropriate skill range. For instance, a 6-year-old will not get the same assignments that a 10-year-old gets. This type of customization can make Night Zookeeper a great choice for your whole family of learners at different levels!
The curriculum adjusts based on their skill level, too. This means that weaker areas are shored up by reviewing concepts they might’ve missed earlier, while also getting progressively more challenging as they begin to master skills. There are learning goals for each age group that can be found in the Parent Guide.
Twice a week, children will receive episodes through the interactive Zoo TV dashboard. It’s recommended that kids check in at least twice a week to work on these assignments which help them to focus on building different specific skills.
Children will get feedback on their writing from the Night Zookeeper tutors staff. They offer encouragement and tips to help kids improve their writing. They also identify spelling or punctuation mistakes. All of this is done through messages that children can access within their account dashboard.
Parents have their own special dashboard to monitor progress and adjust settings as necessary.
Night Zookeeper has a global audience and children can have “friends” on their account. You can turn off this feature through the parent dashboard if you prefer. Friends lists are private and you have a choice to remove a friend request privately as well. If you choose to use this feature, children can leave and receive comments on their work, making it possible to work together with their peers.
I was initially concerned about privacy and safety in the online community, but it is well monitored and moderated, so no comments can be left without moderation/approval. There is also a code of conduct regarding plagiarism and behavior.
Benefits of Using Night Zookeeper
Using Night Zookeeper in your homeschool has many benefits, including:
● Improved Core Reading and Writing Skills
● Personalized feedback from a dedicated team of tutors
● Weekly lessons that incorporate interactive video elements and games to teach your children key skills.
● Publishing opportunities and weekly competitions with real-life prizes!
● FREE monthly educational printables
The biggest benefit? Night Zookeeper will inspire a love of writing!
Night Zookeeper is also portable — it can be used across PC’s, iPads, and Google Chromebooks with Safari, Firefox, and Chrome browsers. Internet Explorer is not recommended.
Night Zookeeper is a very interactive and engaging environment that takes the drudgery out of writing by gamifying it. There are word games, contests, weekly competitions with other Night Zookeeper participants, writing prompts, book reports, digital drawing space, fun quests, and feedback from peers and tutors — all within a safe online community for kids.
Try Night Zookeeper for Creative Writing
You can get 50% off an annual subscription with this link:
Night Zookeeper annual membership
It’s just $59.99 for the year for a single child subscription and $77.99 for 2-3 children. (More children can be added at customized prices.)
Not sure if you’re ready for a one year commitment yet? You can get a 7-day free trial to test it out! If you decide to continue, you’ll still get the 50% off the yearly subscription.
I highly recommend Night Zookeeper for homeschool creative writing and language arts, especially for reluctant writers who just need a little bit of encouragement and inspiration to let their imaginations go wild!
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