8 yo's creative writing--should I correct spelling error/grammar?

[VroomieMama]

My 8 yo. dd has started to enjoy writing and I want to reinforce that but I see that there are so many spelling error and some necessary grammar changes. My DH and I wondered if we should step in and help her with spelling/grammar correction but we're concerned that if we do that then she'll stop or avoid writing at all. We want her creativity and confidence to flourish in any areas that will help her to grow.

We do correct and etc when she does her homework but we aren't sure if we should do that when she's writing things during her free time.



I'm not sure if this is the right area to post about this subject.

[Alyantavid]

My 8 year old is an avid writer/drawer. I don't correct his mistakes, I just let him write and I encourage him to write whatever, however. He recently did a paper for school and had to do a final draft kind of thing where he did go through and correct any mistakes. I think that's a whole different issue than kids just writing to write. I do correct homework mistakes though.

So no, I wouldn't correct it.

[JElaineB]

My son is 8 years old and in 2nd grade. He does well on spelling tests at school, but of course doesn't know every word he wants to write yet. I don't correct the writing that he does for fun.

[VroomieMama]

Ok, thanks. I'm feeling so much better and I'll tell my DH about this.

[eepster]

Only if she asks you to.

[mom2happy]

NO way!
My DD does a lot of writing in her room. She spends hours creating stories and art. Pointing mistakes out would make her not want to show me what she made and inhibit her creativity. She does well in school, so at home I just want her to flow.

[LynnS6]

Nope, don't correct. Spelling is largely developmental and the more she reads and writes, the better it will get. That doesn't mean that you should never work on spelling, but not during creative writing. Heck, I teach graduate students, and I tell them when they are drafting to not worry about spelling or conventions.

[beanma]

I might say "let me know if you want any help with spelling", but no more than that. It's not an assignment.

[PatchChild]

"let me know if you want help" is a great response at this age because it leaves the control up to the child.

Writing is supposed to be fun, if you have to spell everything correctly, kids tend to simplify their word choice to only things they know they can spell. Forget dumbing down idea for the sake of spelling, have fun!

[VroomieMama]

Thanks for the feedback. We realized that we would not correct her after the first two poster who responded to this thread.

[kcparker]

You could always give her her a trio of "writer's companions" as a gift: Moleskine notebook, dictionary and thesaurus. That would be a way of both supporting her writing efforts and feeling that you are doing something to help her with spelling correctly - if she needs to know the spelling, she can look it up on her own.

[onlyboys]

It's been very helpful for my budding writer (also 8) to use a word processing program. Last night he said to me, "I didn't know 'kinda' wasn't a word." All because of that little squiggle. I think it might help self-correction.

I didn't even know he knew how to type, but he sought the computer out and loved it.