How can I get my son to write more?

Ms Dorothy,
My son _________ has to write personal narratives every day in school, but he has a hard time coming up with topics to write about. I want to help stimulate his creativity and help him develop his skills as a writer. Where do you get good ideas for just getting him started?
- Mom of a 3rd grader

Writing about yourself, and your real life is important in elementary school because it helps children to develop the ability to write about things they really know well. They can add details from their own experience to stories about themselves.

I'm not convinced that turning this into writing a personal narrative every day is necessarily the best way to support developing writers.

If your son needs to write every day about his own life, perhaps having a collection of items that will remind and inspire him will help. Check my post about show and tell for a way to make that possible in the classroom.

Story writing that is more imaginative can be a lot of fun for 3rd graders too.

Keep a collection of words, pictures, or objects that represent things from stories he loves. Put them into different categories for characters, problems, settings, and events and let him mix and match to come up with the ideas for a new story.

The most important thing to remember is that the best writers are those who read a lot. So if you want your son to become a great writer, make sure he is reading whenever possible!