No school doesn’t mean your child should stop learning and developing their handwriting skills. In fact, the holidays are the perfect time for your child to improve their handwriting – and in fun, holiday-inspired ways! Here are 7 ways to super boost handwriting on holiday.

That time is upon us again­ — the summer holidays! Children everywhere are packing away their school bags and stationery for six long weeks. You might be embarking on a wonderful summer holiday. Spending time as a family. Or enlisting the help of family members or child minders during the summer holidays. Whatever you’ve got planned, there are plenty of ways you can engage your child in writing!

1. Keeping a holiday journal

At the start of the holidays, pick up a notepad or journal and get your little (or not so little!) one to start writing a holiday journal. This can be as short as a sentence or two on what they’ve done every day to an elaborate journal of the family’s adventures. To make it more fun, they can turn the journal into a “scrapbook” by drawing the day’s events, adding stickers, or cutting and sticking collages.

2. Buy holiday-themed stationery

If you’re going away on holiday, buy “holiday” stationery, such as themed notepads, pens, and pencils. Something as simple as a Mickey Mouse pencil from Disney can really inspire children to write. They can also collect leaflets on places they visit to encourage reading too as they create a scrapbook.

3. Writing postcards

A quick tip to improve your children’s handwriting skills on holiday is to buy a few postcards and get them to write to friends and family members back home in their neatest writing. They could even send a postcard back to themselves for when they return!

4. Making personalised maps

Creating personalised maps of your adventures will inspire your kids to start writing! When they see a place name, get them to make a note of it and create a personalised map of their summer holidays. You can use the place names as a game as well—setting a challenge with a prize for whoever can find the most place names visited on a local map.

5. Creating and playing word games

Children love games—so encourage them to write by playing with words. A fun tradition is to design word searches and crosswords for each other, or playing hangman. Try a treasure hunt where your child draws a treasure map and writes a series of hints or clues for you or family members to find hidden items.

6. Writing stories

Especially on those rainy summer days, writing stories is a magical technique to keep your child involved in writing. If they’re struggling for inspiration, set them a “scene” or give them a character to write a short story about. They can also draw accompanying pictures. As well as improving their handwriting, it will stretch their imagination!

7. Making lists

Holidays are a brilliant time to improve your child’s writing by making lists. Whether it’s a list of things they’d like to do over the summer holidays. A list of things to pack for a holiday, or daily to-do lists. You could even set a “theme” for the day, such as the colour red, and get them to write a list of every red thing they see that day.

Getting your children to improve their handwriting over the summer holidays can be fun and imaginative for the whole family—you just need to be creative!