Summer Boredom Buster Series: Writing the Book of their Dreams

This one might take all summer long. Its a challenge.

Instead of boring writing prompts and set writing assignments, a summer book projects lets your child explore their favorite genre, or create one of their own. Mystery Ninja Fantasy? Sure why not? Talking Cat meets Future Robo Cop? Okay then, let it be written.

Whether your child loves to write or hates it, I have some tips and tricks to make writing fun, and get your child to the finish line (a finished book) by the end of summer.

Your kid hates to write? Dig deeper, what about writing do they hate? Is it the act of writing. Writer’s block? Can’t sit still, easily distracted? Your child is just passionate about something else? I have tips and tricks that could help.

This project isn’t about making a child do something. Its about setting your child’s imagination free. I just wanted you to see that our kids are complex people and sometimes we have to meet them where they are. Set your own expectations aside and work with your child to decide just what kind of book this will be.

TIPS and Tricks

• Suggest the absurd: Get their creativity flowing through laughter. Great for the kid with writer’s block. Just because you suggested it, doesn’t mean they can’t run with it.
• Be a willing secretary: My youngest daughter hates the physical act of writing. So how did she accomplish writing a book? I typed it up for her. She dictated the story to me.
• Be a sounding board: Try to stay encouraging. If your unsure how an idea will work or play out, ask questions to make your child think. Try not to fix problems, keep it their story.
• Just keep writing: Not everything will work, but writing anything is better than writing nothing. Take a rabbit hole and write some backstory for your character’s.
• Write with them: Let your child suggest a writing prompt and both of you write for 10 minutes and them critique each other’s work.
• Scope and Sequence: Let your child define the scope of the project, the what type, how long, etc, in addition to the genre. If your child wants to write a book of poetry, that works, a picture book, great, a novel, even a comic, let them own the project.
• Fiction or Nonfiction? Let it be what your child wants. If your child is only interested in anything legos, space, basketball… let them write about their passion.
• Suggest illustrations: or photo’s. If your like me, and your typing it up for your child, sometimes you and your child just aren’t in tune with the ‘when’ aspect of that. If I was in the middle of my own writing, I suggested my daughter draw some of the things she was thinking of.
• Dictate to a phone or tablet: This often helps those reluctant writers. We use speech to type and my daughter sends it to me via messenger. Then when I can work with her we start with what she has already sent me. I’ll type and read out loud and she’ll correct things as we go, or get inspired to take it a whole different direction.

Book now available!

How to Write a Book: homeschool edition is available in my store, on Amazon, and Barnes and Nobles along with many other online retailers.

Resources

• Sign up for my newsletter below and get a PDF with a link to a free Canva template perfect for making a 5×5 book on your home printer!
• NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program-This is for the avid reader/writer.
• Interior Templates for Chapter Books can be found here. I recommend downloading the 8.5×11 size so you can print the book yourself or easily print at your local printer.

Want More Boredom Busters?

Check out my series page Boredom Busters Series for quick links.