Homeschool Writing Prompts

Sometimes children have difficulty thinking what to write about. You can help them by providing homeschool writing prompts.

Below you will find interesting words that will help your child start his story. There are characters, character traits, settings, and different plots.

Have your child pick a word from each category. Then have him write a story using the words. The story can be serious or funny.

Before you begin be sure that your child knows the meaning of the words.

Characters

All stories have a main character. Here is a list of animals, reptiles, birds, insects, and people. There should be at least one character here that has a story that needs to be told.

• Ant, antelope, alligator, astronaut, actor, author, aunt,
• Bobcat, buffalo, bear, bat, butterfly, bird, bee, baby, baker, bandit, blacksmith, brother,
• Cat, cougar, camel, crocodile, cow, chicken, crow, chef, cowboy, clown,
• Dog, deer, donkey, dinosaur, dad, dancer, detective, doctor, dentist,
• Elephant, explorer, elf,
• Fish, flamingo, fox, father, firefighter, farmer, fisherman,
• Giraffe, gorilla, goat, grocer, gardener,
• Horse, hummingbird, hawk, hyena, hunter, historian,
• Iguana, inventor,
• Jaguar, juggler, judge,
• Kangaroo, kitten, king,
• Lion, lizard,
• Mouse, monkey, mom, mailman,
• Nurse,
• Owl,
• Panda, penguin, police officer,
• Quail, queen,
• Rat, raccoon, raven,
• Snake, skunk, shark, spider, sailor, shepherd, shopkeeper, sister,
• Turtle, tiger, teacher,
• Unicorn, uncle,
• Veterinarian,
• Whale, wolf,
• yak,
• Zebra, zoo keeper

Adjectives Describing the Character

The next step in writing a good story is to give your character a trait. Is he sad, funny, or smart? Here is a list of character traits.

• Ambitious, able,
• Bold, bossy, beautiful,
• Cute, creative, confident, curious, cunning,
• Devoted, daring, dainty, dignified, disobedient,
• Educated, exhausted,
• Fussy, famous, funny, forgetful,
• Good,
• Huge, humble, hateful,
• Intelligent, irritating, indecisive,
• Just, judgmental,
• Kindhearted,
• Loud, lonely, lazy,
• Mean, mischievous,
• Nosy, nervous,
• Opinionated,
• Popular, puzzled, picky,
• Quiet,
• Real, restless, rude,
• Strong, sad, shy,
• Truthful, talkative,
• Unkind, ungrateful,
• Warm, witty,
• Zealous

Setting

Each story takes place somewhere. Here is a list of homeschooling writing prompts that deal with the setting.

• Airport, Africa, Antarctica,
• Beach, barn, bedroom,
• Castle, cellar, city, church, circus,
• Desert, diner,
• Forest, farm,
• Grocery store,
• House, home, hospital,
• Jungle,
• Lake, living room, library, lighthouse,
• Meadow, mountain, Mars,
• Open field, ocean,
• Pond, prairie,
• River, restaurant,
• Space, stormy night, store, ship, swamp, school,
• Train, tent,
• Under ground,
• Vegetable stand,
• Zoo

Plot

In every good story there is a problem that needs to be solved. Or there is a conflict. This is the plot.  Here are some plot ideas.

• Eats the forbidden fruit,
• Finds a secret room,
•  Finds gold,
•  Finds an old journal,
•  Finds out that he can fly, 
• Goes on a long journey,
  
• Goes to town,
  
• Goes on a trip,
• Hides in the box,
•  Hands and feet are tied,
•  Hears glass breaking,
•  Hears tapping on the wall,
• Is invisible,
• Jumps from the plane,
• Lost the coin,
• Meets someone from the Bible,
  
• Meets a friend,
  
• Makes a mistake,
  
• Meets a stranger,
  
• Meets a dragon,
• The ship is sinking,
  
• The river flooded,
• Wins the prize,

Next have your child use the homeschool writing prompts to write a story. He will need to add details and sequence events. A daring explorer finds gold in the jungle is not very exciting. You need to add some details.

One way to complete the story is to ask who, what, where, when, why, and how.  Your readers would want to know what the explorer did that was daring. They would also want some details about how he found the gold. We know that the gold was found in the jungle but where. Was the gold found in a cave that was guarded by natives? Continue thinking about details and the sequence of events until you have an exciting story.

Homeschool writing prompts are a tool to help your child write stories.

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