Begin with Interest

     Have you ever attempt to teach a boy to write well?  That is the formidable task that I am setting out to do with my son, Nathan, because I felt the school does not cater to his individual needs.   He is basically an engineer by design and requires special techniques.
     I do believe that anyone can master writing.  Contrary to popular belief, the writing process is not much different from an engineering design.  Organization/logical skills are required to clearly present the topic.  The "not exact science" (or what people term as talent/creative) part of writing can be learned through reading and frequent practice.  Lots of practice (daily) will improve fluency.   With fluency, the writing will become fluid and natural.  It comes easy without Herculean effort.
    To get boys to practice lots of writing, you need interesting topics.  Don't use cookie-cutter topics and expect miracles.  Interesting topics need to be individualized, meaning you need to know what  inspire your kids to invest the time and attention span in an hour project.  For Nathan, it's Lego.  He would design cool contraptions and settings for his Lego minifigures to battle and talk to each other.  Imagine what great stories can be generated from these setups!  I capitalized on this interest and work with him on being more creative about coming up with the stories.
    This is by no means the only interesting topic that we explored.  When he was enamored with Pokemons, we also worked on paragraphs about them.  And then, there was a time when he was so interested in trading cards and toys with his friends.   We also wrote about those trading events.   Sometimes interests change from day to day so I worked with him to see what would the best topic for that day to create something together.