Going to college or university is a huge step for your children. So, you want to do your best to get them ready for it.
Get your children into the habit of writing to an academic standard
One of the things young people struggle with is writing their essays and dissertation. It is not easy to write an academic paper. To become good at it you need to practice. Something most children do not really get a chance to do before attending college or university.
For example, it is essential to include citations and do so in the way prescribed. This free tool makes it really easy for your children to correctly create citations. Potentially, you could get them into the habit of doing this when they write ordinary school papers.
This will ensure that they are used to it by the time they reach university. Having to quote their sources will also help your children to learn how to do their research properly.
Encourage your children to write in different formats
Writing is like any skill, the more you do it the better you get. So, provide your children with plenty of opportunities to write outside of doing their schoolwork.
For example, instead of simply writing a letter of complaint yourself, ask one of your older children to do it for you. Perhaps instead of doing a household chore. They will learn a lot more from writing that letter on your behalf than they would from cutting the lawn every week.
Let your child run their own blog
If you can, get them to start a blog. A lot of children will happily write about one of their hobbies or something they are a fan of. Usually, they will enjoy running that type of blog. They will be able to share their articles via social media and build up some great connections by doing so.
Plus, they will have something impressive to add to their university application and resume. Potentially, they could also earn a little money from their blog.
Later, they could sell it to partially fund their further education. As you can see here, these days, it is not hard to sell an established blog for around 24 times its average monthly profit. Your child only has to make $200 a month from AdWords, affiliate earnings and other forms of monetization. For this example, we are looking at a value of around $4,800 before selling charges. This article explains some of the many ways your child could generate some income from their blog to turn it into a tempting proposition for potential buyers.
Provide them with the opportunity to read more
The more your child reads, the easier it will be for them to become a good writer. So, provide them with the funds to buy books and magazine subscriptions. If they have a passion for the theatre, let them join a local group. This will encourage them to read, absorb large blocks of text and interpret them. All skills that will help them to become better at all kinds of writing.