This summer

Inspired by a new home educating friend

I created a writing box for Esther

She is always drawing

Tinkering and making

I wanted to encourage her to start writing

And so I created her writing box

I bought a large pretty box

Pink with woodland creatures

And filled it with

Writing tools and resources

I bought the original stock for the box

From Sainsburys and Tiger

I have since added bits from Hema

And also shop in places like Poundland

In Esther’s writing box

She has

Felt tip pens

HB pencils

Scented pens

Highlighters

Crayons

Coloured post it notes

Fluorescent stars and speech bubbles

Sticky notes of different shapes and sizes

A range of greetings cards

Postcards

Exercise books

Notepads

A diary

Index cards

Envelopes

Writing practice books from various publishers

A whiteboard

Whiteboard markers

Rubber

Pencil sharpener

Stickers

Stampers

Stencils

Glue sticks

Scissors

I also supplement the box

With word lists

And word banks

Often from Twinkl

Linked to things we have done

Or places we are going

The box is bright and inviting

It is an invitation to write

A writing box

When I first presented Esther with the box

She wanted to use everything all at once

She began by writing cards

To start with it would just be

Dear You

From Me

But now

Two weeks in to her box ownership

She is writing messages

Not just to and from

To begin with the messages were mostly for me

My mummy mail

Also for William and for Bea

I wanted to widen her writing experience

So encouraged her to leave a picture in a post box

She had made with Daddy

Now she exchanges cards and gifts

With an imaginary literary friend

The Scruffy Fairy

She writes to her every day

And every morning

The first thing that she does

Is check her post box for mail

As well as cards and messages

Esther also likes to write labels

She has been labelling everything in the house

She also used the bright star shapes to write sound words

Pop

Crash

Bang

As well as writing

Esther loves to draw

And with the tools in her box

She has created some wonderful creatures

Including a tiger with multiple heads

To show his different emotions and moods

By giving Esther this box of treasure

And the space and freedom

To do with it as she chooses

I am learning a lot about my daughter

And it has really made her fall in love with writing

As I hoped it would

Every morning

After checking her post box

Esther sets herself up at the table

And starts writing

She has really enjoyed these

Wild About books from Letts

I have been impressed with them too

They are perfect for home educating families

And provide Esther with something she can do independently

To improve her handwriting

Esther actually has lovely handwriting

I think it is because she is arty

William is still a reluctant writer

But this box has encouraged him too

He wrote me a sorry note the other day

And a little I love you too

Even Bea sits up at the table

She knows the letters in her name

And loves me to help her write them

This writing box has been great fun to set up

It invites and encourages all my children to write

To explore different resources and tools through play

As well as writing there is a whole lot of reading going on

And lots of talking too

I think the project is a success

Because the resources I choose

Are bright and colourful

Can be used in lots of different ways

For lots of different things

I keep adding to the box

I link the resources to what is going on

In our day to day life

Going forward I will link

To our home learning topic

The writing box

Means I spend more time with Esther

Helping her with her writing

We love exploring ideas together

And I am hoping as Bea gets older

We will all be able to work on writing projects together

Having a post box alongside the writing box

Has also been a big hit in our home

If you have a little one learning to write

Why not set them up a writing box?

See what they can do

Where it leads you

Who they choose to write to

Have fun!