Is Your Child Bored? Have Him Write a Book!

Children love projects. There is nothing like seeing the look on a child's face who has finished working on one. The sense of pride that they feel is amazing. If you read my earlier article "Stamp Power" you will have read how my students became eager to do work so they could get their stamps and visually see their progress. As a parent you can use the "see the progress I'm making method" at home with your child. The "see the progress I'm making method" is a long term way of holding child interest and instilling the values of ownership. A great way to achieve this as well helping kids be creative and gain important writing skills is to encourage them to write a book.

Many times the mind of child is much more creative than that of an adult. Children are usually a lot less in inhibited creatively than grown ups. To exploit this creativity to their benefit have your child draw pictures for each page of text of their book. The length of the book is entirely up to the child. Remember to let your child know that the only rules for writing the book is that they write and draw one page per day. This will prevent your child from not finishing the project or losing interest. To spice up the incentive for your child to create the book, make a deal with them such as gaining a prize for the work's completion. Your child will see this as a win-win situation because what they are doing is fun and they are making their parents proud of them.

The advantages of writing a book are multi-fold. Writing well is an important skill to have. Children who write on a regular basis are usually better able to express themselves and have larger vocabularies. Writing a book will also help instill in your child the value of ownership. As an adult, you and I understand the meaning of ownership. For example, we don't go scratch a car on the street or buy the most expensive bottled water on the market because we understand the value of owning money. The same can be said for a child. Since they don't have the capacity to work for money the way adults do, the only way for them to experience the value of ownership is for them to create something or do some household chore for their allowance. Who knows maybe having your child write a book will be a springboard to a career in writing!

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