Writing with Wendy offers parents and other family members, as well as teachers, suggestions and exercises for helping children 3-7 years develop pre-writing and writing skills that will make writing a comfortable activity, to be enjoyed, not avoided. Writing with Wendy is all about engaging children in writing activities and creating a foundation that children can build on when the need to write for school and for personal use.
Writing with Wendy is built on the premise that writing begins with storytelling. If you can tell a story, you can write a story. Since parents are the first story tellers, mostly through reading to their children, they have much to share with their children about storytelling and eventually writing .
The suggestions offered in Writing with Wendy give parents and other caregivers simple activities to do with their child(ren) that stimulate storytelling skills. The activities focus on developing a child’s observational and descriptive skills both of which are important to good storytelling and writing. Most of the activities give children opportunities for recognition and make them comfortable with sharing their storytelling and writing with others.
While there is a message for parents and teachers about the site and how to use it, there is also a message from Wendy for children visiting the site with their parents. Wendy is the “Can Do” Kid who likes to write. To her writing is fun. In her message she talks to the children visiting the site about writing and why it is important.
The site is divided into four sections: Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade. Each section includes suggestions for helping children develop storytelling skills and using those skills for writing stories. There are 3 activities in each section to jump start the process. Each week a new activity will be added to each section.
The 1st and 2nd grade sections also include an overview of what writing skills children will be expected to develop and use successfully in these early grades.
As Wendy puts it, “Just think of writing as storytelling on a page. Then writing will be interesting and fun!
To Access Writing with Wendy go to http://candostreet.com/writing_with_wendy/