Writing Exercises for Family Entertainment: 3 of 6

Let's continue to explore the theory that learning to write can be a form of family entertainment.

As I stated previously, writing can be fun and even therapeutic. Not only can writing itself be fun, but learning to write can provide an opportunity for family entertainment. And it's not that difficult.

It bears repeating that in today's world of lightning-speed communication, writing continues to be a valuable way to reach out to one another. However, busy families seldom have time to speak to one another, much less take the time to learn how to write together. Nonetheless, it makes sense to hone your writing skills—even if you find writing a drudgery and avoid it, basking in the brevity of social media. So take the time to evaluate if your family might enjoy the simple exercises outlined in these columns to improve your writing skills while you have fun with your family.

In the first exercise, the family described the act of cooking dinner. Each family member first described the cook, then used at least three action verbs to tell us how the cook actually made the dinner, and concluded with a description of the result—with the caveat that it was not intended as a way for teenagers to critique their parents' or sibling's cooking.

For the second exercise, we called on the artistic skills of family members. Each member of the family took turns writing and then reading a paragraph describing a room that none of the other family members had ever seen. They then spent ten minutes drawing that room.

For this current exercise, we are going to write a paragraph describing something that each member of the family sees every day, and ask the other family members to identify it. It can be a room, a sign, a specific tree, a park, a road, a place, a water tower, a bridge, a restaurant – anything that your family sees regularly. Each family member should prepare a paragraph, and then at a family gathering, read the entire paragraph. The other members have five minutes to guess what it is, but the quicker the identification, the better the description. Time how long the identification takes. The winner is the one who takes the least time to be identified.

As part of the description, the author should describe:

• Physical characteristics: size, color, weight, color, shape, height, movable or permanent

• Environment: smell, light or dark, clean or dirty, bright, dark

• Parts of the whole: furniture, paper, wires, wood, water

Of course, you and your family may not always be at home. Next, let's explore having fun writing if you're on a trip together.

Joyce T. Strand, Ph.D.

Author of the Jillian Hillcrest Mystery Series

Joycestrand.com