The communication game can help build a good foundation in writing and communicating. If you are looking to grow your young writer’s listening and description skills, then this language arts exercise is for you. Plus, it’s fun!
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Writing is Communicating
Writing is the most powerful tool in mankind’s arsenal. It’s how we convey our belief’s, thoughts, feelings, opinions, passions, and facts to others. It’s a way to document our scientific data, formulas, history, and geography!
It is the greatest form of communication.
Yet, school didn’t teach me to write for pleasure. It was always a chore of essays that did not inspire self-expression or my own personal quirky insights. Oh, no. Writing was all about grammar, punctuation, spelling, and word limits.
Writing should be intuitive, not mechanical.
As important as grammar, punctuation, and spelling are…they did not help me with the actual writing process or how to get my thoughts onto paper.
I still cringe when it’s time for someone to critique my writing.
It’s a crisis of confidence, folks!
We all fear that our writing isn’t good enough, and our kids are no different.
Communication is Key
I want to help my children get what’s in their heads onto paper. They always have such wonderfully fantastic ideas! How can I inspire my kiddos to write for pleasure about the things that are important to them?
Well, first my kids need to have thoughts.
Oh, yeah. We’ve got thoughts, folks! Oodles of amazing thoughts…and opinions too!
Then comes communication. Can they communicate their thoughts to you? Do they have worthwhile things to say?
Absolutely! They may even be mini lawyers in the making! I’m pretty sure they would argue, quite eloquently, with a fence post!
But do they always convey those thoughts effectively?
Incorporating the Communication Game into Your Child’s Language Arts
Brave Writer is all about helping your child find their writer’s voice and enjoy the writing process.
The communication game is the first project in The Writer’s Jungle. The Writer’s Jungle is sorta like a manual for parents. It teaches you, mom, how to teach your kids to write. To discover their writing voice.
The communication game is an exercise that helps elicit certain fundamentals to good writing such as the importance of using the right words to effectively communicate the details you see and how to convey those details to another person accurately.
This game is also great for bringing you and your kids together. Did I mention that it’s fun?
The Communication Game
We started by drawing a simple picture on a piece of paper.
Then, one of the kids had to describe the picture on the paper using good communication so that one of us could recreate the original drawing on the whiteboard…by description only!
This is hard, folks!
It took several different drawings. Think…six, before my son finally started to get the hang of it. Prior to that, it was quite a frustration for all. It really made the children realize how descriptive they needed to be for someone else to “see” what they saw on the paper.
Mom had a hard time not jumping in and offering her own “obvious” descriptions.
But eventually, it all came together, and we were able to see the big picture with this exercise!
You wouldn’t think that a stick figure would be hard to describe to someone, but it actually takes amazing concentration and focus to minute details!
The kids ended up playing around with this exercise on their own for another 30 minutes and asked if we could play again tomorrow.
What started with groans ended with giggles and a better understanding of how descriptions and communication are crucial to writing.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Cracker Exercise
Afterward, I thought it would be fun to take the communication game a step further with another hands-on exercise. I invited the children, in turn, to each tell me how to create a peanut butter and jelly cracker.
I provided all the necessary items and waited to follow their instructions.
They both did superbly at telling me to twist off the jar lids.
But it kinda went downhill from there.
Neither one of them remembered to tell me to use the provided knife or spoon to scoop out the peanut butter or jelly!
I promise, I washed my hands before this exercise.
The shock and awe on their faces when I reached my hands into the jars and scooped out large amounts of peanut butter and jelly was comical!
Because they didn’t describe how much peanut butter or jelly to apply!
This was a fun way to remind the children that your words and descriptions matter!
One cracker ended with far too much peanut butter and jelly. Another cracker ended up with the peanut butter on top of the cracker…
Because I wasn’t told to turn it peanut butter side down.
The point of these exercises was to show the kiddos the importance of communication. We had loads of fun and I believe this is an exercise not soon forgotten.
Now tell me, how do you promote good communication in your homeschool?
Grab your own copy of Brave Writer’s The Writer’s Jungle and start learning how to help your children enjoy the writing process and growing your young writer’s voice!
Check out these other fantastic resources about teaching your child to write:
- Why It’s So Hard to Learn to Communicate through Writing by Dachelle at Hide The Chocolate
- Incorporating the Communication Game into Your Child’s Language Arts by Erin at Nourishing My Scholar
- Why Interesting Writing is More Than a Mountain of Words by Bethany at Homeschool Mindset with Bethany Ishee
- Why Brave Writer Is Such A Big Deal by Shawna at Not The Former Things
- Writing and Observing with all of Our Senses by Erin at Nourishing My Scholar
Do you want to learn more about the Brave Writer Lifestyle? Then be sure to check out these other posts:
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Playing with Language Games Your Kids will Love
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10 Easy Ideas for Spending One-On-One Time With Your Child
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Homeschool Art Appreciation and the Brave Writer Lifestyle
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No Stress Poetry Teatime and the Brave Writer Lifestyle
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Poetry Tea Time and the Brave Writer Lifestyle
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Becoming A Family Of Brave Writers
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Big, Juicy Conversations in our Homeschool
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25 Movies You Can Pair With Books
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