Encouraging Young Writers: Why You Should Set Aside Time to Read and Write With Kids

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Children change everything. Social habits, sleep habits, eating habits, and even writing habits are subject to complete upheaval when offspring enter the picture. The biggest change Tucker, my firstborn, made to this part of my life was in displacing my common excuses to not write. His cuteness and my exhaustion combined to be all the reason I needed to ignore a blank screen on any given day.

I write every day as part of my work in television and marketing, but the personal passion projects are far too easily ignored in favor of reading books to my children, playing with little plastic ponies, and quite honestly staring at small screens because there is too much noise and chaos in our house to focus on whatever narrative I might wish to create. However, I’m not complaining. I would trade none of it for the novel I just KNOW is simmering just below my surface.

First, we read. When my son was small and now with our daughter, we read books by Dr. Seuss, Virginia Lee Burton, and Sandra Boynton during the day. These are fantastic works, beautifully illustrated, that help children understand reading and language and so much more. But at bedtime, I put away the books with pictures and read novels. Boxcar Children books at first, and then the classics. Sherlock Holmes, The Time Machine, and The Hobbit were some of his favorites.

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