Creative Writing (for a younger child)

from bugsmomct:

Maybe a curriculum is not so much what you need then. Perhaps, look for a book (library or bookstore) that is a general writing guide (for teens or adults is fine). Then -you- look through it and pull out the main ideas of how they go about organizing the ideas. Once you've got a summary of the processes, pick maybe one style per month (news article, short story, opinion/persuasive, etc) and work on that style for the month, with either one larger project (as in a short story) or several smaller items (maybe a letter to the editor of the local paper about something of current interest - a new playground or the cancellation of some beloved town programs). You also might consider NaNoWriMo just for fun - National Novel Writing Month - nanowrimo.org. They have a Young Writers Program as well. The full version is to get a 50000 word novel done in one month (November) - it's not about a polished result but just getting the words flowing, no endless self-editing. The Youth version encourages the young writers to work with a mentor (they say teacher and student but anyhow...) to set a realistic but challenging goal for themselves. There are forums to connect with others online even! (and writing posts and online messages, emails, etc. is a whole other writing form FWIW)

A couple of ideas that may or may not be appropriate for your needs:haiku poetry is a very specific style with specific syllable counts you have to really boil down what you want to say to the essence. It's fun but it's also a very disciplined exercise.

Precis writing (I didn't get to this until high school but it has been very useful): basically, you write a standard essay or whatever (in school it was the standard two page essay on a topic). Then you reduce the length by half, while keeping the message the same. Then reduce by half again. What you end up with is a medium to large paragraph (6 to 8 sentences) that conveys the major ideas of what you want to say. Not something for a novelist necessarily but as a tool for organizing one's ideas, it can work great.

from hbbk20:
If she has any favorite books or aurthors you could have her....write a new ending to the book with her favorite charaters. Other things for that age are writing promps you write on a slip of paper and they pull out and write a paragraph or more on.....such as What is your favorite.....color, flavor, neighbor, summer time activity then she can write from there. Maybe ask your librarian for a resource in writing they are very helpful with things like this. Does she illustrate? My kids do a lot of illustration with their free writing, especially my oldest who does this on her own for fun. I would keep it as a fun thing more than a school work task, and try and keep it creative and low on criticism. No problem having her correct punctuation or spelling(editing) afterwards but don't knock the content LOL! She will probably be self critical of it and need time to go back and re-work it as she grows her ideas in the story.

from triplyblessed:
Have you seen the workbooks from Excellence in Writing? They are themed workbooks designed to help kids write. The one we have has DD pick out parts of stories and organise them in outlines and then re-tell the story. I believe they start at early elementary age.

from two_girls_mom2007:

I got at the Scholastic book sale a Scholastic book for creative writing for 1st - 3rd graders. There is a writing idea for every letter of the alphabet, actually more than one for some. They are reproducible sheets of themed paper to go with the idea as well. I think it would be young for a 3rd grader, but perfect for a 1st grader. Maybe you could find it on their website. If you are interested, let me know, and I will find the exact name of it for you.
Ideas include comparing and contrasting animals. Book reports. Holiday themed paragraphs (V for valentine's day). all kinds of different things. In the back it gives the basic symbols for editing as well.

from cl-susanmercy:
How about if you let her pick out a pretty journal, and then give her daily journal prompts so she can write in her journal (or dictate her entries to you if she'd rather do it that way). Letter of the Week has daily journal prompts for 6-8 year olds, organized by the month. (I think I need to re-visit these prompts for my ds, who loves to write in his journal but only does it sporadically ;-)

from kbmomto3:
I set up a writer's workshop, as described here, for my dd. It was great because it taught her the basics of writing in a very step-by-step manner and was totally self-paced. It sounds like it might be just the thing for your dd.