Use these free printable writing prompts to get your kids writing every day. Plus, pick up tips for building confident writers.
I remember when my oldest was in fourth grade. He was still going to public school then (his last year there). At that time, fourth grade was typically the year the schools in our state pushed hard on writing skills to prepare the students for the writing portion of the state standardized test. Yuck. I know.
My son used to get so stressed when it came to writing.

He’d clam up, panic, and just sit there staring at the paper with his pencil in his sweaty little fourth-grade hand. His scores were always crazy amazing when it came to those stupid tests, but when it was time for the essay portion? He flopped. I remember him getting some ridiculous low score because his page was virtually blank when he finally turned it in — poor kid. The writing process was always so hard for him.
That was the year we pulled him out of public school, and I never shared his scores with him when they came in the mail that summer because, one, I didn’t care about them and, two, I knew he’d be so bummed. He cared so much about test scores and the like. We all did back then — silly us. [Read more…]