«Dear Christ Child ...»
Story Advent calendar
Are you still looking for creative content to fill a family member's Advent calendar? You could write a serialised story together with your child and distribute the individual «chapters» on the calendar. Older children can make up the story themselves, beginners can copy the story or draw pictures to go with it.
«Dear Christ Child ... »
Some children are allowed to write a wish list to the Christ Child, Grandma or Father Christmas - an effective opportunity for the children to try out what they can achieve by writing. Younger children can write down their wishes in keywords and illustrate them with drawings.
Table decoration
When preparing the Christmas dinner, the children can take on a special decorating task: Write a name tag and a menu card for all the guests, decorate them beautifully and hand them out at their seats.
Greeting cards
Many families send Christmas cards and New Year's wishes around the festive season. This is an opportunity for children to write their first letters - for example, by writing cards to a few relatives or thank you cards for their presents. Beginners can dictate the text and add drawings, letters and symbols. Children find writing particularly effective when they receive a reply to their post.
Background
Learning to write is like learning anything else: it takes motivation. Especially for beginners, writing is exhausting and difficult. So you need a good reason to do it anyway. It is particularly motivating when writing focusses on communication, i.e. when writing is used to convey or achieve something. It is also beneficial when learners see themselves as successful writers. Children experience their own writing success, for example, when they can achieve a positive reaction from readers.
Appolino Writing
From Lehrmittelverlag St. Gallen (for iOS, Android, Windows): This app for children aged 5 to 9 offers an enormous wealth of exercises and small games relating to writing. It is suitable for beginners as well as advanced writers and young writing fans.
Cost: CHF 5.
