Creative Writing Workbook

Creative
Writing
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n o b ad n g!
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Table of Contents
Creative Writing
How to Jumpstart Your Child's Mind with Brainstorming
Dragon & Cowboy Writing Prompts
Turtle & Fortune Teller Writing Roundup
Certificate of Completion
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Copyright © 2012 Education.com. All Rights Reserved

How to Jumpstart Your Child's Mind with
Brainstorming
By Heather Vale Goss
When you ask your child a question, does he routinely give a single
answer… and then stop? Is it hard for him to come up with a variety
of ideas while taking on a new task, working on a project, or doing
homework?
Choosing one solution without weighing the options of others

prevents your child from exploring possibilities, and ending up with
something even better. Having a flexible mind, on the other hand,
allows him to be more creative, make more informed decisions,
stand out from the crowd, and excel not only in school, but in every
endeavor for the rest of his life.
A great way to practice this skill is through brainstorming. Bruce Van

Patter, an illustrator and creative writing teacher for kids, says, “Most children, when trying to
come up with an idea, grab the first one that pops into their heads. That idea is bound to be a
common one; if it came that quickly to one child, it probably is readily available to the minds of
thousands. Brainstorming moves kids past the obvious.”
How can parents help children learn how to brainstorm effectively? Here’s what Van Patter
suggests:
Encouraging
Van Patter recommends providing an environment for your child that encourages the safe
exploration of ideas. After all, brainstorming really isn’t just about the results; it’s about the
process. It’s kind of like exercising the mind… doing stretches so that you become more and
more flexible over time. That’s why people say, “There are no bad ideas when you’re
brainstorming!” Obviously some ideas are better than others, but it’s important not to judge or
criticize while your child is coming up with them.
Teach your child to think in terms of “no limits”. It might seem crazy at first, but why can’t he
build a helicopter-sized model of a dragonfly for the science fair? Let him decide later if he
wants to tweak the idea.
Asking
Next, you can help the process along by asking your child questions. “Questions can gently
nudge kids to keep reaching for something different. A very helpful question is to ask is, ‘What
if?’” Van Patter explains.
You could also ask questions such as, “What else could you try?” or “What other possibilities
are there?” If it’s a report or essay he’s brainstorming, you could ask, “What else is
important?” or “What would someone want to know next?”
Combining
Not all ideas have to be completely from scratch. Van Patter points out, “Creativity is more of a
rearranging than a creating. A child can produce an original concept by combining two very
ordinary thoughts. The originality comes through the unusual combinations.”
One way he has kids do this is to create a grid with one category of ideas down the side, and
another across the top. Where each column intersects with each row will be boxes that create
new ideas. For example, if your child is brainstorming a story for creative writing class, one
category could be animals, and the other habitats. What story could be written about a bear
who lives in a swamp? Or an elephant at the North Pole?
Expanding
If your child’s too young to write, you can take note of what he says; otherwise have him write
down all his ideas on a piece of paper. He might like to draw random circles on the page and
write his ideas inside the circles, or he might prefer making a list, or a series of categorized lists.
“Brainstorming works best when a whole slew of ideas are recorded, without much editing. The
temptation will be to either off-handedly discard ones that seem useless or to stop too soon.
Fill a whole page with ideas before sifting through to find that one concept that grabs one's
attention. The bigger the stream of ideas, the greater the chance of finding that shining
nugget,” Van Patter says.
Waiting
After your child has brain-dumped everything he can possibly think of, have him take a short
break. This allows him to see the results with a fresh point of view, and lets the subconscious
mind start making connections and sorting through the ideas. When he returns, the last step
will often come very easily.
Sifting
Now’s the time to sort through the page and pick the best idea. If the brainstorm is for an
essay or school project, have your child discard the weakest ideas, and divide the rest into
topics and subtopics. If he drew circles, he can connect them up with lines and color them to
group related ideas. With lists, he can draw boxes or lines to join certain concepts together, or
use different colored highlighters to code them.
Once your child begins stretching and flexing his mind through brainstorming, you’ll find him
constantly coming up with new and more creative ideas, and making better decisions as a
result!
© Copyright 2006-2011 Education.com All Rights Reserved.

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Choosing one solution without weighing the options of others

A great way to practice this skill is through brainstorming. Bruce Van

© Copyright 2006-2011 Education.com All Rights Reserved.

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