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“InsPire A Love Of Writing”
– Night Zookeeper
A review series for Night Zookeeper
Do you have a child who loves reading, but refuses to write? How about a child who can write but struggles with creating ideas? Do you have a writer who struggles with using interesting vocabulary? Does your child write without punctuation or reasonable grammar? Or have you a little learner who loves to write and you want to encourage it further?
Night Zookeeper may be a great addition to your activities to help your child achieve those skills and develop confidence at the same time.
We have included an affiliate link to Night Zookeeper as an associate we may earn from qualifying subscriptions.
Just to add, that we became an affiliate with Night Zookeeper after I had already bought a subscription as I’d been wowed by what it has to offer and the difference it made to my little learner.
How To Engage A Reluctant Writer
We were in the middle of lockdown and a parent approached me for some support. Her Year 2 son was a strong reader, very creative and a bit of a bright spark. But writing? When it came to writing, he would switch off. It was a daily battle to encourage him put pen to paper for his remote learning with school.
We started some short sessions and our first session was amazingly positive and he started writing straight after the session by choice! Wow! Everyone was buzzing.
Our second session came and that’s where I saw the reluctant writer that his mum had mentioned. He was so wary of making a mistake – he’d set his own bar so impossibly high, that he didn’t want to put pen to paper (or pen to whiteboard, or type in a document). Year 2 and he already had a phobia of making a mistake.
If we could have had face-to-face sessions, I’d have had so many cards up my sleeve, but online learning was still reasonably new to me and everyone else. Trying all my usual techniques: creating a comic, turn taking with sentences, recording ideas, scribing, fill in the missing words in a text, word games… each time we hit that wall; I needed a new plan, a Zoom-friendly plan…
I turned to my best pal, Google, for a little inspiration:
- Best ways to engage reluctant writers.
- How to encourage a non-writer to write.
- Inspiring writing with a Year 2 writer.
- Building confidence in young writers.
So many variations on that theme got typed into the search bar. No luck. Nothing that would work for our online sessions anyway.
A Solution Found Me
Then one day, I was browsing Facebook and stumbled across an intriguing advert. I’d seen this advert so many times and admittedly, scrolled on past. I wasn’t interested in another subscription. But this time, I noticed a little ‘deal sweetener’: 7 day free trial. AWESOME!
I signed up and introduced it to my student that day. We haven’t looked back, I’m now using it with another of my students (who was also a very reluctant writer) and my writing-loving daughter too.
How Parent’s Homework Hub & Night Zookeeper Can Help You
I want to take you on our Night Zookeeper journeys with us, to help you discover the wealth of interesting, engaging and creative features hidden in this true treasure of a find. There is a lot to share and I’m still discovering features regularly too.
Enjoyable for children, and adults too really; it’s a joy to support these children on their writing journey; especially now the guard and resistance are down.
There’s Something Else In It For You Too!
If my students’ journeys inspire you to try Night Zookeeper out for yourself, click for a 7 day free trial (affiliate link). If you find you love it, like me, you get a whooping 52% discount off of your annual subscription too with the same affiliate LINK. What have you got to lose?
I highly recommend it as a teacher, a tutor, a writer and a parent too!
What’s Next On Our Night Zookeeper Journey?
Join me next week, where we start to see what adventures await our zookeepers and their creatures on Night Zookeeper.
Looking for fun writing activities to try in the meantime? Check these out.
