Encouraging writing at home

I learnt something over the last few weeks. Five year old children actually love to read and write. So what do they love to write about?

A notice on the cereal box: "Tis Seryal is onle for Anjaly and Sophia"

A daily letter diary. A friend of mine had read about it in a blog and pointed me to it. I filed it away as a todo thing, but since Anjali was next to me as I read through the post, I explained to her the idea.

the next day was the birthday of one of her friends in school and she received this notebook in her goody bag.

When I came home, she wrote her first letter in the notebook. I was surprised that she was so enthusiastic about it.

I write longer letters to her, in what she calls "big people writing" and Anjali writes sometimes long and sometimes short letters back. We have been keeping it going for a week now. I usually dont correct the spelling when it is a sneaky literacy activity.

Sometimes, I print out intentional learning activities that involve reading - like this color by numbers printable for Anjali

And one for Sophia

But most of the time the real writing comes through play and pretend play. That is when the kids jump into the activity with a lot of enthusiasm.