Welcome 2024! We’re giving ourselves a deadline and committing to connecting with you each week.
We don’t speak often enough about the power of the DEADLINE and how it can help kids to write more. It’s working for us on this blog, and likely this is how it works in your writing life too!
Admit it. You can work on a piece of writing forever and never call it done. It is the deadline that pushes it to the finish line.
- You finish the speech because you have to give it on Saturday.
- You write the note to your grandmother because today is her birthday.
- You finish you holiday card because the Shutterfly sale ends at midnight.
One goal you might consider for the new year is offer your kids more deadlines to finish pieces of writing.
(Now before we go too far with that, we have to add that not everything they write needs to go to the finish line. In fact, it is better if it doesn’t. The ideal is that they are writing lots of pieces and choose a favorite from a plethora of work to submit to the deadline!)
One way that works for us is offer kids deadlines once a month, or if that feels too heavy, try every OTHER month.
What could this deadline be? It could be as simple as a deadline for hanging a piece on “the fridge of fame.” It could be more involving such as submitting to a library writing contest. It could be putting a cover on a story and having it ready for Grandma and Grandpa when they come to dinner. As long as there is an audience involved, it will work GREAT.
As you know, finishing up a piece of writing for an audience gives a next level experience. Suddenly, you need an ending. Suddenly spelling matters. Suddenly, there is more interest in a good title. Suddenly you want to make sure periods are included.
Deadlines allow this to happen!
A fun suggestion for kicking off the new year: What if you give your writers a deadline sometime between now and February 29th? (Did you know we’re in a leaper? That’s a fun deadline,right?) Think of a name of your family publishing company (Best Writers Inc? Write Away Publishing?) and help them choose one piece of writing to take to the finish line.
Celebrate this piece and let your children experience the satisfaction that comes from completing and having others READ their work.
It’s one of the most motivating things we can do for writers! We love you and are cheering for lots of great writing experiences of your family in 2024!
WE MADE THIS FOR YOU:
Here’s the structure you need for deadlines! With this printable WRITER’S TOOLBOX STARTER SET, your kids will feel like LEGIT WRITERS and you will have a structure to work from that you can print out again and again.
There’s an editing checklist, ideas for publishing, and a place to keep track of finished pieces. PLUS there is a place to log personal spelling words and even a works in progress page to help them remember pieces they may choose to revisit again.
You can get this separately OR it is included as one of the bonuses when you purchase our 10 Box Writing Curriculum Set.
Just print and keep in a binder next to your child’s notebook. It’s a great way to set up writing for 2024!
