Any Child Can Write: An At Home Guide to Enhancing Your Childs Elementary Education - Softcover

Wiener, Harvey S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195094158 ISBN 13: 9780195094152

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995

Synopsis

Writing is a magical realm of expression that allows children to come to terms with the joys and pains of daily living. It is a way for them to explore the inner self. A few words, a few sentences glow on a page like a little crayon drawing. It is an expression of personal vision, a perception of the world as the child sees it. It is also a permanent record of experience--words and sentences holding and keeping the essence of a moment in language.
In this delightful and engaging book, Dr. Harvey S. Wiener shows how parents can encourage their children to write with a home program that can be used from preschool through high school. As Dr. Wiener explains, such a program begins with the building of attitudes and moves through simple, varied, and practical experience with the written word. By setting up an atmosphere in the home that encourages creative written expression, coupled with a parent's guidance in writing (guidance that often falls short in many schools), children will gain an outlook on writing that will build confidence in their abilities to use language.
Children learn by imitation, and there are countless opportunities for a child to watch an adult performing simple writing tasks everyday. For example, lists are some of the most accessible day-to-day writing activities. Dr. Wiener shows that children of any grade level can work with an adult to put together a list: for family groceries, the next birtday party, a list of toys to take on a visit to Grandma's. And, as the child grows older the list can be adapted to his or her own interest and needs: a schedule of activities for after school, or a list of expenses to keep track of weekly allowance or money earned babysitting. Other enjoyable and easy writing experiences are room signs (Peter's Room), labels affixed to objects throughout the child's bedroom (window, closet, desk), birthday notes to parents, brothers, and sisters that can be displayed on the refrigerator, table, or bedroom door, and, with a home computer, children can make signs for every holiday and celebration (Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Anniversary). Dr. Wiener goes on to offer ideas on how to use riddles, games, and rhymes to build vocabulary, and how to use a small child's crayon drawing as an inspiration for his or her first written communication.
Children love words, says Dr. Wiener; they are natural storytellers. In general, however, their writing skills seem to be getting poorer. This is due in part to to television, movies, tape and disk players, and other technological advances. Dr. Wiener insists that this can be overcome. Parents are a child's best teacher, and this wonderful book shows just how simple it is for a parent to help their child draw upon ordinary experiences and put them down on paper. He offers helpful hints for working with a child on homework, an entertaining list of one hundred ideas for writing at home for all ages, a special parents' refresher guide to the basics of grammar in clear, simple language--so parents can spot mistakes--and a reading list for young readers and their parents.
Written in a warm and engaging style by a renowned educational authority, Any Child Can Write will allow parents to instill positive attitudes toward writing in any child. Encouraging a child to write is giving the gift of communication. This fascinating book will help parent's give the gift of a lifetime.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author:
Harvey S. Wiener is Vice Provost of Academic Affairs at Adelphi University. He is the author of Any Child Can Read Better and Talk with Your Child.

From Library Journal

Notable for a positive, upbeat tone and readable, informal style, these books, by the author of several other titles on language skills, will motivate, even inspire, parents to supplement and enrich their children's learning experiences. Unlike most recent home-learning books, Any Child Can Read does not cover reading drills, phonetics, sight vocabulary, or sounding out. Rather than urging parents to teach reading, Wiener addresses the ways in which they can help children perform the intellectual tasks involved in critical reading: understanding concepts and meanings, developing skills of inference, determining differences, generalizing, extracting information, and drawing conclusions. He includes a fully annotated list of recommended books for grades one through six with suggestions for talking intelligently with children about the books. This will be a valuable tool for parents, and teachers will find many suggestions they can use in the classroom. Any Child Can Write , a revised edition of a 1978 best seller ( LJ 6/15/78) now out of print, outlines a home program that encourages creative writing. Word games, sentence crafts, autobiography, poetry, narration, painting word pictures, letter writing, and preparing school reports are covered. Appendixes list 100 topics for writing, dictionaries and wordbooks for children, and language skill books for parents. Libraries with the first edition may not find it necessary to acquire this one, although it does contain some updated material. Concerned parents and institutions without the first should have it.
- Shirley L. Hopkinson, California State Univ., San Jose
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0195094158
• ISBN 13: 9780195094152
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352