How to Teach Writing at Home

Part of my How to Teach English at Home series.

Let’s dive into how to teach writing at home, in the context of teaching English.

In this article, we will look at how to teach writing as a form of communication (not handwriting - see the separate article for this). 

Writing genres to teach at home

Writing often works best when it is linked to something else that you are learning about. Don’t forget that there are many different genres of writing to try out; you don’t need to stick to story writing each time. Here are some different genres that you might want to explore:

Steps to follow when completing a writing task

When teaching writing, it’s really important to focus on a few key points at a time. You should try to follow these steps when writing for a specific genre:

1. Explore the genre

Read different examples of this type of text that already exist. If you want to write in a journalistic style, explore a newspaper. If you want to write a poem, read several poems on the same theme and notice how each poet uses different language and structure. If you want to write an information report, explore a children's non-fiction book or website and identify headings, subheadings, diagrams and facts.

2. Plan your writing (get ideas written down in note form)

Look at how that particular genre is structured and identify the different parts. This will form the structure for your plan. Following this, fill out a plan following the same structure. When filling out a plan, get your ideas written down in note form (don’t waste time writing full sentences). Planning and note-taking are important skills in themselves, so take time to complete this step properly. 

3. Write a first draft

Follow the plan to write out the first draft of the text. Remember that at this point, the writing is still at the ‘planning and ideas’ stage, so emphasise that spelling is NOT important for this first draft; the most important thing is to follow the plan and write the text. Get all your ideas written down; your pen should not stop moving at this stage!

4. Reread your own work

This important step is so often skipped. Get your child to reread their work back to themselves, out loud. They’ll often be able to spot their own errors and self-correct.

5. Correct the work together

Now, get them to read their work out loud to you. Does it all make sense? Are there spelling mistakes of common words? Don’t correct every single mistake if there are many, as this is demotivating - choose 3-5 words to focus on and correct those.

6. Celebrate the work!

This can be done in many different ways: they could write up a ‘best copy’ in their best handwriting, then illustrate the page. They could type up their work on the computer and add images, practising some digital skills. They could voice-record or video themselves reading their work and share it with family and friends. You could file a copy in a learning portfolio. The choices are endless!

Ensuring progress in writing

When working on writing, it is important to have 1 or 2 key areas of focus that you are currently learning about in English. Review that area with your child and come up with a few examples together. Then remind them they must include that focus area in their writing.

By focusing upon one area at a time, it really gives your child the chance to use that new learning in context. You can of course also remind them of previous areas they have learned and encourage them to include examples of those too!

Age-appropriate examples

• Your 6-year-old child has recently learned about adjectives. Ask them to write at least 6 sentences, using an adjective in each sentence.
• Your 8-year-old child has recently learned about complex sentences. Ask them to write at least half a page, including at least 4 complex sentences in their writing.
• Your 10-year-old child has recently learned about using semi-colons, colons or dashes to mark boundaries between independent clauses. Ask them to write a page, including at least 4 examples of this type of punctuation.

Marking your child’s writing

It is really important to take time to read and mark any writing together. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but showing your child the importance of rereading and correcting is a key skill for continued progress in writing. 

Here is how to do it:

1. Remind your child of what the learning focus areas were

Talk about the criteria, for example, to use capital letters and full stops correctly.

2. Get your child to reread their work out loud

See if they can spot and self-correct any errors. Do not interrupt at this point; they need to try to spot errors that naturally occur by themselves in the first instance.

3. You read their work and underline any key errors

This could be relating to the criteria (e.g. underline a small letter if it should be a capital; underline the space after the last word in a sentence if there is a missing full stop; underline a common word spelt incorrectly - especially if you have already learned this word in a previous task).

Depending on their age, aim to underline about 5 errors to be corrected. If there are more than this, do not worry! Underlining every single mistake is demoralising, and underlining mistakes that you have not learned yet is not focusing on the particular criteria for the task (for example, if they have tried to use a tricky word but spelt it incorrectly, then that is something you can look at another time).

The most important thing is that in the first instance, you do not tell them why you have underlined that particular part - they should be able to work out what the error is and to self-correct.

4. Self-correct the errors by themselves

A little gentle prompting like, “What was the focus for this piece of writing? Using full stops correctly?” can help if they are stuck.

5. Help to correct any further errors together

Go over their corrections together. Celebrate self-corrections and the completion of the task!

The aim is to get into a little routine where your child is as independent as possible when correcting their work, with minimal input from you; just a little guiding and gently prompting to keep them in the right direction.

Daily writing ideas

Children progress best in writing, as with reading, if they do little and often rather than a large writing task once a week. Try to aim to write every day, even if it is just for 5-10 minutes. You can also aim to do a bigger writing task once a week as well.

Here are some ideas for 5-minute tasks that you could try daily:

• one sentence challenge
• finish the story
• caption a photo
• describe an object
• question of the day
• weather report
• animal fact
• two truths and a lie
• gratitude sentence

Reluctant writers

Sometimes getting started with writing is the hardest part! Try to get your child involved in choosing the topics of writing so that they have better motivation to complete the work.

Here are some topics or styles that might interest reluctant writers - that might feel more than engaging ‘writing a story’!

• speech bubbles
• storyboard
• Minecraft guide
• Pokémon fact file
• football match report
• Top 10 lists
• joke book
• treasure maps
• menus
• labels
• postcards
• quiz questions

Keeping the writing going

Another big challenge is that your child might happily choose a topic, get started, but then stop after 5 minutes and say that they don’t know what to write. 

Here are some prompts that you can give them to help keep the ideas flowing:

• talk before writing
• draw first
• make a mind map
• use photos as inspiration
• write about real experiences
• write about current interests
• start with sentence stems
• ask "Who? Where? What happened? Why?"
• write together for the first few sentences

Final thoughts

Writing can become such a joy in a homeschooling household and it can be deeply rewarding to see your child’s unique style and voice developing. It really is a skill that needs to be built, slowly and consistently over time, so make sure you plan for regular, short writing opportunities. Focus on building confidence before accuracy - it should be a pleasure, not a chore and mistakes should be seen as part of the learning process.

Writing works best when it has real purpose and wherever possible, allow your child to choose what to write or the style in which they want to write. Finally, remember to celebrate the whole process, not just the finished product! Our goal, ultimately, when teaching our children to write, is that they become confident communicators, one step at a time. 

Some useful links

The Literacy Shed 

A website that offers free access to a wide range of high-quality films and animations that you can use to inspire reading and writing lessons. Lots of choice and each film/animation has a mini guide and prompt ideas. 

Once Upon a Picture

A beautifully curated collection of picture prompts. Each picture has specific prompts, questions and guides. 

Word For Life

A wide selection of writing activities (among many other useful English resources). Some really interesting guides and prompts, such as ‘Write a letter from an endangered animal’, ‘Make your own comic strip’ and ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine writing challenge’. 

National Geographic Kids

A free website, full of child-friendly non-fiction writing. It is an excellent starting point for research before writing information texts. 

Related reading

Learning how to teach writing at home is an important part of homeschooling, but it is only one piece of providing a well-rounded education. Understanding how writing fits into the wider homeschooling journey can help you support your child's learning with confidence.

For a complete overview, you can explore the full guide here: The Complete Guide to Homeschooling