All About Elementary Writing
From how to write a 10-minute diary every day to writing strategies for each grade level.
Special lecture on elementary writing by teacher Eun-kyung Lee of "Wise Elementary School Life"

The amount of writing that elementary school students have to do these days is enormous.
The types of writing for each subject are diverse and the topics are endless, including diaries, reading logs, letters, and reports.
The proportion of elementary schools where test questions are only descriptive or essay-type is also increasing.
Moreover, full-scale essay evaluation begins in middle and high school.
The importance of writing is increasing, and my heart is burning, but my child at home cannot sit at the desk and hold a pencil for 5 minutes.
My child twists his body and sticks out his mouth when I tell him to write a diary. What should I do?

Eun-kyung Lee, a mentor to elementary school parents in Korea, advises starting with one line a day.
Just as a child takes his first steps, he encourages his children to take one step at a time when writing.
Sending a child to an essay academy who hasn't even developed the habit of writing one line a day is like asking a baby who has just started eating solid food to chew meat.
First, I advise you to develop the habit of writing every day at home, and then it is not too late to go to an academy.
He added that in order to develop the habit of writing every day, parents should not correct their children's spelling with a red pen, but rather highlight the parts that their children have written well and praise them for anything they write.


In doing so, we introduce 'writing-specific training strategies' that parents can easily follow at home.
He says that diary writing starts with one line a day once a week, free writing starts with writing freely without any rules like a child playing in a playground, reading logs start with picking three keywords from a book, and anyone can write an essay if they know a simple formula, so don't be afraid. He also says that writing in English is enough just by following an English book.
I am confident that if we can help children gradually increase their writing from one line a day to five lines and then ten lines a day, writing will not be a boring and burdensome homework assignment, but rather a wing that will help them grow intellectually.

My child hates writing so much. What should I do?
Please give me about a week and allow me to write just one line.
Show a permissive attitude by saying, "Just write one line, and if you want to write more, it's okay."
There is no need to be anxious about a week-long vacation during your child's six years of elementary school.
Children who have spent time like that often find themselves feeling grateful to their parents for understanding their feelings.

--- p.141

Develop a beautiful habit of writing a diary in just 10 minutes every day.
To develop a journaling habit, start small without worrying about frequency, content, or length, and aim to eventually write one article on a set topic every day.
If your child is in the upper grades but has not developed the habit of writing a diary and is still at the lower grade level, start with a very small amount of writing that feels like a lower grade.
This way, your chances of success are higher.

--- p.158

Amazing and Unique Elementary Free Writing
Free writing is the best writing in elementary school.
There are no restrictions on free writing.
This is truly free writing, not about what happened, not about what I learned, not about a topic given to me by my parents, not about homework given to me by my teacher.
The subject matter, format, spelling, grammar, and length are all free.
I don't even care about spelling or spacing.
I write haphazardly, as if I'm doodling, talking, or playing.
So, I'm going to start thinking that even a child who is tired of writing diaries, reading logs, and essays can try this.

--- p.203

Do I really need to write a reading log?
You don't have to use it.
If your child wants to write, if they want to keep a record of what they've read, if they have time left after finishing other studies and want to write something, then saying, "Okay, then go ahead and write it," is fine.
However, this does not mean that you need to fight a war by forcing yourself to write something that is not even school homework throughout elementary school.
There are many fun writing topics that will help you practice writing, and there are more pressing writing topics that you should practice writing on.

--- p.243

How to write an elementary essay
In the early stages of elementary writing, the focus should be on writing essays with a basic format rather than focusing on both content and format.
That's how you succeed.
Once you've mastered the format of the essay, think of it as gradually moving on to practice filling it with richer and more creative content.

--- p.287

What does English writing mean in elementary school?
What children in elementary school need is not language classes for English writing, but the 'experience' of English writing.
Rather than rushing to achieve perfect results, the core and necessary reason for English writing in elementary school is to experience that you can write in English and to maintain your confidence in English through the experience of creating English sentences on your own, even if they are not perfect.

--- p.313