Another successful idea, since he is more an artist than a writer, was to give him English assignments that involved drawing. One idea, for instance, after we had just returned from a vacation, was to design a brochure for his ideal vacation resort and hotel. His enthusiasm for the drawing totally overcame his reluctance about the writing, and he ended up doing a truly awesome job. In addition, we combined mathematics into the assignment by having him make one page of the brochure a price listing for various services with different combined package rates.

I always suggest to parents who are trying to get younger children to be more proficient in reading that they pick their child's obsession, be it dinosaurs, cars, or princesses, and check out every book in the library on that topic and nothing else until the child becomes more enthusiastic about reading. To learn to enjoy writing as well, a child needs to be writing about something he or she cares about. Find your child's passion and let literacy flow around it!