How to inspire creativity in your foster child

Earlier this month marked National Storytelling Week, which was run by the National Literacy Trust in partnership with Amazon.

First starting in 2000, it seeks to promote the act of storytelling among children and young people, helping them to understand their world and the lives and experiences of other people from various locations, times and walks of life.

Many people have a story within them, and foster children are no different – although they often come from turbulent backgrounds, they should still be encouraged to write as a way of exploring different scenarios and exploring the creative side of life. Here are some things you can do to encourage your foster child or children to put ink to paper.

Writing resources

The National Literacy Trust has various writing resources spread across age ranges and school levels, and they even offer pre-recorded writing workshops run by authors – all of which are free to access on their website.

Exploring passions and interests

A common adage for writers is to ‘write what you know’. This can link to journalling about one’s thoughts and feelings. Your child could also write narratives inspired by real people and events, or topics that they care about, such as the environment or space exploration.

Competitions

There are various writing competitions for children and young people under the age of 18, usually in writing either narrative fiction or poetry. An online search will bring up various results, though the BBC holds a yearly 500-word competition for young writers aged between 5 and 11 years old.