Top Games You Can Play To Improve Your Child’s Writing Skills

Writing is one of the most important fundamental skills which all children need to learn.

Being able to write well will help your child to excel educationally and will open up a huge number of recreational and employment opportunities. Learning to write well can be difficult for some children and so it is important to find a learning style that suits your child’s personality and talents.

One way which many children learn well is through play as it enables them to absorb and enhance different skills while having fun. Playing different games with your child can help them to improve their writing without them even realizing that they are learning. For all the parents out there who are looking at ways to help develop their child’s writing, here are some top games you can play to improve your child’s writing skills.

1. Words with Friends

The first key to improving your child’s writing skills is to help them build their vocabulary. This can be done by reading lots of books with them but can also be done through games such as Words with Friends. These are excellent as they allow kids to compete against their friends and family to challenge themselves. One way to build their vocabulary for Words with Friends is by using word unscramblers. These take a random jumble of letters and change the letters to different anagrams. Once your child has seen how it works, they can then start to try it for themselves. Give your child a random selection of ten letters and see how many words they can make with them in two minutes. They will soon see how the new words they have learned help them to win Words with Friends, so they will be enthusiastic to do it regularly.

2. Scrabble

Scrabble is an excellent game for practicing word building and vocabulary and it is a great opportunity for your child to build on the skills they developed through word unscramble games. Scrabble works by each player getting seven different level tiles and having to make words to place on the game board in order to win. It is a lot of fun and will enable your child to learn new words without even realizing that they are learning. Play against your child as a family so that you can help them by suggesting improvements to the words they put out. For younger children, there is even a Junior Scrabble game which is easier to play.

3. Brainstorm Story Game

This is a great game for helping children to improve their creative writing. With your child, come up with five lists of six words. The first list might be six different animals, the second list, six different verbs, the third list, six different places, and so on. Once your five lists are complete, have your child roll a dice five times so that they have one word from each list.

After that, give your child some time to write a story that uses all of those words. When you are making the lists, encourage your child to think of the craziest words so that they can write a really imaginative story. For example, imagine how fun it will be for your child trying to write a short story or poem using the words crocodile, jelly, Space, boomerang, and rocketship.  

4. Taboo Writing

Taboo writing is a really fun game that encourages your child to think outside the box and create really unique writing. The way Taboo works is you give your child a word with a list of commonly associated words. For example, if their word is shark, the commonly associated words would be ocean, fins, teeth, jaws, hammerhead, and so on. Your child will then need to write a description of the word, without using any of those commonly associated terms.

5. Alphabet Sentences

Alphabet sentences are a really fun way to practice vocabulary and make some really funny sentences. Start with the letter ‘A’ and challenge your child to write a sentence using the letters from ‘A’ onwards. The more words they write, the more points they get. For example, they might come up with the sentence, “A bear can drive extremely fast.” This would give them six points. Their next sentence would then start with ‘G’. Kids come up with the craziest sentences so this game is a lot of fun!

Being able to write well is an extremely important skill and it is always best to start your child off writing as young as possible. Playing different games is ideal for helping your child to hone their skills without it being boring or feeling like homework. There are many excellent word games you can play to improve your child’s vocabulary which they can then use in different writing activities. Try out some of the suggestions on this list and your child’s writing skills will come on leaps and bounds in no time.