How an Unschooler Learns to Write

My daughter Imogen loves writing. It’s part of who she is.

“When did you start writing?” I ask.

“I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing.”

My fourth child was writing stories long before she knew how to form letters into words.

“Do you remember how Charlotte and I would sit side by side at the kitchen table and draw our stories?” says Imogen. “We’d chat about what was happening in the story and then draw it. Then we’d chat again. And then we’d draw some more. When the page was full, we’d turn it over. Sometimes we’d end up with a stack of more than 50 pages.”

“Do you think drawing is a good introduction to writing?” I ask.

“Oh yes!” Imogen’s eyes are aglow as she remembers those wonderful story drawing days. “When kids are drawing, they are exercising their imaginations. They’re discovering what storytelling is all about. If a child is used to telling stories, later on, she will find it easier to write. She’ll want to write.”

Imogen tells me that a day arrived when she wanted to use words to write her stories down on paper. “It seemed like the next logical step.” But did she have the necessary skills? Perhaps she first had to learn all the basics such as grammar, punctuation and spelling by doing a course with lots of exercises?  No, she learnt all these skills while she was actually writing.

“It’s much better to learn about such things as spelling while you’re writing,” says Imogen. “When you want to write, you want to know more to improve your writing. You have something to say and you want to say it the best way you can.

Writing courses, workbooks and websites that try and teach spelling, punctuation and grammar aren’t the way to encourage a child’s love of writing. Kids can’t see why these skills are important if they’re not using them. If they’re made to learn them, without having a need for them, they won’t remember them very well.”

Imogen has something else to add, “Anyway, there’s something far more important than writing skills. Kids need something to write about.”

Yes, we can have the best writing skills in the world, but if we have nothing to write about they aren’t going to be much use.

Something to write about? We are back to Imogen’s childhood drawing stories. They were the start of her writing passion.

So Imogen taught herself to write. She read widely and experimented with different techniques. She wrote and wrote and wrote. And her skills improved enormously. But that wasn’t enough for her. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Professional Writing and Publishing because she wanted to learn even more. This course involved writing a number of essays.

“How many essays did you write before you started your university course?” I ask.

“Two and they were terrible!” says Imogen with a grin.

Was my daughter at a disadvantage because she didn’t have any essay writing skills? Was she ill-prepared for university learning?

I shall answer those questions next time!

This post is based on a conversation I had with Imogen in episode 5 of my podcast: Unschool Writing, Essays, and a Few Panicky Moments!

Photo: My daughter Imogen has got lots to smile about. She has just launched her first novel, The Crystal Tree, out into the world! Her fantasy adventure is now available on Amazon as a paperback or a Kindle ebook. Why not check it out?

So I’m wondering if your children also like to draw while telling stories? Or perhaps they act their stories out? My boys used to make up stories as they paced up and down the garden together. When I was a child, I used to make up stories in my head while I was in bed. I still do that!