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2 Fun Writing Games for Your Kids

Teaching kids can be tough and a bit challenging for anyone without a background in early childhood education. Your patience will be taken to the limits with all the repetition that you’ll be doing. However, don’t stress, there is a place and time for specific learning. Writing games are less formal, fun, creative and just perfect for learning how to write. These games are meant to inspire kids to develop their writing skills; they provide the perfect practice experience. Some of these writing games are new while others have been around for a while. We have identified 2 writing games that are going to be fun not just for your kid but also you. It’s more fun and enjoyable for them when you do it together.

  1. Consequence

An old but interesting game, Consequence is a writing or drawing game that can be played by both adults and kids alike. The game involves each player contributing words or sentences which finally culminates to a story. If it’s drawing, a final picture. The end drawing or story is often hilarious, probably what has made the game retain its charms over the years.

What You Need to Play Consequence:

  • Group of people (3 or more, however, 2 can still play)
  • Pen
  • Paper
  • Eraser

How to Play

  1. All players sit in a circle, each with a blank paper and pen
  2. At the top of the paper, all players will write an adjective, fold the paper well such that the person sitting next to you doesn’t see what’s written.
  3. Once folded, pass the paper to your next neighbor. You can all decide to pass onto the person on the right or left, but it must be uniform. If left, all of you must pass onto the person on the left. If right, the same.
  4. Without seeing what the left-hand neighbor wrote (we are passing the paper to the right), write the name of a man. Fold the paper and pass it on, the same way as before.
  5. Repeat the same process as above ensuring that the paper will finally have the following:
  • An Adjective
  • Male character
  • Met (add a female character)
  • Where they met
  • What the man said
  • She (Female character) said
  • He did
  • She did
  • The consequence

The above list can vary, you can have what he gave her and vice versa, after the consequence you can conclude with what the world has to say. There are a number of variations to the game. Just modify the play to suit you best.

Drawing

It’s not always that your kids will enjoy playing the writing game. You can add a twist by playing the consequence drawing game.

  1. Just as in writing, the player sits in a circle each with a pen and paper.
  2. Every person will draw the head of a human or animal, fold the paper and pass it on to the next.
  3. The next person must draw from the shoulders to the stomach, fold the paper and pass it on.
  4. Finally, the next person will draw from the legs downwards.

While playing consequence, it is important that the paper is well folded such that the next person can’t peek to see what’s written or drawn. Ensure that all players pass the folded paper in the same direction, that is, you can all either pass it to the left or right but not both.

The final drawing or story will leave you laughing your head off! This is an excellent way your kids can start learning how to write essays from scratch. Have fun playing consequence!

  1. Easel Stories: Fill in the Blanks

A concept developed in the 1950s, Mad Libs, is a word replacement game. The term “Mad Lib” has gone to be used to make reference to any fill in and funny story. This is a game that your kids will definitely enjoy playing, and the fun part is that you can join in. Quite a number of adults have attributed part of their understanding of parts of speech and love for language to this word game. Though it doesn’t involve much writing, it will help your kids learn the various parts of speech.

What You Require To Play The Game:

  • Mad Libs Books
  • Or get the Mad Libs iPad App
  • Or Mad Libs online: Mad Takes, It’s a Mad Libs World and Word Blanks. If you are playing online, it’s important to ensure that you take measures to keep your kids safe. The online world has a lot of predators.

How to Play The Game

It’s not a complicated game, all that’s required is for one to add the different parts of speech into an already existing short story. The keywords on each page of the short story are usually replaced with blanks. Under each blank, the type of word to be inserted will be specified. The word can be a:

  • Verb
  • Noun
  • Adjective
  • Lexical
  • Adverb, or
  • Interjection

You can ask your kids to supply words to help fill in the blanks, without them knowing the context of the word after you’re done read out aloud the completed story. It often ends up being a surreal, funny and often nonsensical story.

Preparing Your Own Mad Libs

Writing your own Mad Libs isn’t as complex either. As long as it’s strictly not for commercial use, you can use song lyrics, excerpts from movie or TV scripts, a paragraph from your kids’ favorite storybooks among others. However, you can prepare Mad Libs from scratch by writing short texts and finally identifying words to pull out. You can make customized Mad Libs for every occasion, a birthday party, Christmas and so on. They are just perfect for the many get-togethers.

Conclusion

Writing skills take time to develop. The best of writers didn’t just get to where they are by luck; it takes years of practice and a solid foundation. A solid foundation in writing implies learning the basics of the language, grammar, spelling, constructing sentences, and the different parts of speech among others. The best way to develop quality writing skills is to start at a very young age, and parents have a responsibility of helping their kids. Teaching your young kids writing skills may seem complicated, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Writing games are available for your children, and you can play with them!

We have identified 2 writing games that we believe will go a long way in helping your kids develop writing skills, in a fun and creative way. Consequence and Mad Lib, are among the oldest writing games available that up to date have the same appeal for both children and adults alike. They still have the charm they had when they were first introduced. The consequence can be both a writing and drawing game. Mad Lib, on the other hand, has evolved over the years, and they even have an iPad app. These games make it possible for your kids to develop essay writing skills including how to write a book report when the time comes.

Don’t limit yourself though. There are so many games available, and I believe that as a parent, there was a game that you played as a kid or have played with your kids that you saw was effective. Share with us!



This post first appeared on Kids Email, please read the originial post: here

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2 Fun Writing Games for Your Kids

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