Any Child Can Write [Paperback]

Harvey S. Wiener (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2003

Harvey S. Wiener shows how parents can encourage their children to write with a home program that can be used from preschool through high school. Beginning with the building of attitudes, Wiener moves through simple, varied and practical experience with the written word. By setting up an atmosphere in the home that encourages creative written expression, coupled with a parent's guidance in writing, children gain an outlook on writing that builds confidence in their abilities to use language.
This new edition addresses many heated issues about children's education and touches on today's critical debates: parents' roles in school preparations, the increased stress on writing assessment and performance measures throughout a child's education and across school sectors, and the debate over phonics. A revised and expanded section called "Key Books for Young Writers and Their Parents" will help any family stock its shelves with useful books for a home writing program.
A new chapter discusses the ubiquity of home computers and word processing programs and assesses their positive and negative influences on children's home learning experiences. In addition, Wiener describes how to find the best educational online resources and how to supervise a child's work on the Internet. Furthermore, he emphasizes the importance of collaboration--child and parent, child and sibling--to help avoid computer abuse and establish good computer practices. Finally, he integrates discussion on computers through the text, and also offers writing exercises and samples for children to obtain from Oxford's website.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Notable for a positive, upbeat tone and readable, informal style, these books, by the author of several other titles on language skills, will motivate, even inspire, parents to supplement and enrich their children's learning experiences. Unlike most recent home-learning books, Any Child Can Read does not cover reading drills, phonetics, sight vocabulary, or sounding out. Rather than urging parents to teach reading, Wiener addresses the ways in which they can help children perform the intellectual tasks involved in critical reading: understanding concepts and meanings, developing skills of inference, determining differences, generalizing, extracting information, and drawing conclusions. He includes a fully annotated list of recommended books for grades one through six with suggestions for talking intelligently with children about the books. This will be a valuable tool for parents, and teachers will find many suggestions they can use in the classroom. Any Child Can Write , a revised edition of a 1978 best seller ( LJ 6/15/78) now out of print, outlines a home program that encourages creative writing. Word games, sentence crafts, autobiography, poetry, narration, painting word pictures, letter writing, and preparing school reports are covered. Appendixes list 100 topics for writing, dictionaries and wordbooks for children, and language skill books for parents. Libraries with the first edition may not find it necessary to acquire this one, although it does contain some updated material. Concerned parents and institutions without the first should have it.
- Shirley L. Hopkinson, California State Univ., San Jose
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Engaging.... [Wiener] makes the job a serious kind of child's play, with some of the gratification instant to both parent and child."--Christian Science Monitor (on previous edition)

"Absolutely the best book ever written, and quite possibly the best that ever will be written, on teaching children to write."-Mary Pride, author of The New Big Book of Home Learning (on previous edition)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 4 edition (February 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195153162
• ISBN-13: 978-0195153163
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #810,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful addition to the home library..., May 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Any Child Can Write: An At Home Guide to Enhancing Your Childs Elementary Education (Paperback)

As a homeschooling mother, this book has been a great addition to our home library. It's not one of those books that I spent money on just to have it sit on my bookshelf taking up precious space. The simple exercises and helpful ideas have become the backbone of our home writing program. This book is much less expensive than investing big money in a complete writing curriculum. The ideas in this book would also provide easy supplemental writing activities for parents to do with non-homeschooled children, as well.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Writing Advice and Ideas, February 16, 2000

By 

P. Gardner "Penny Gardner" (American Fork, UT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Any Child Can Write: An At Home Guide to Enhancing Your Childs Elementary Education (Paperback)

Descriptive, creative expression is the focus of Wiener's book. He gives many concrete examples of how to improve the quality of one's writing. This book is full of fun activities to encourage lively, precise writing--yet it has none of those ghastly, contrived writing assignments.

Instead the author states: "A better synonym for creative writing is 'autobiography.' Those countless moments in an individual's life--brief, intense stretches of time--stud a child's day and glitter in his mind like diamonds long after the moments pass. By recalling those moments of experience through sensory language--specific, exact, sharply drawn--the young writer can practice the vital skills of writing. ...you should mine the riches of experiences in every child's world, riches for the pen or pencil to transform into record."

My children refer to the lists of tips I copied from "Any Child Can Write" as they write about their experiences, or a book they read, or a painting they studied. The lists help them write a description of a place or person or event. They also use more descriptive vocabulary as they write about a photo to place in their scrapbook. We find our writing has improved from our time with Mr. Wiener.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great addition to the home library, November 24, 2003

By 

Cheryl Ann Roatch (Kelmscott, WA Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Any Child Can Write (Paperback)

As a home schooler of seven plus years, we have been using the suggestions and ideas in this book for the past couple of years and have found them most effective. Our children enjoy the activities and I have noticed an improvement in their writing skills which I am sure is due, in part, to these activities. The book itself is a very easy read and I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It's a great resource for those just beginning home schooling and, for those already established, provides some new ideas to add to their programme. For those not home schooling it will assist parents who are eager to help their children improve their writing skills. Well done Mr Wiener and thank you!