This World Book Day, Mosey is celebrating the profound connection between reading for pleasure and children’s love of storytelling.

Children are natural storytellers. Creating fantastical worlds, compelling characters, and thrilling adventures is part of their imaginary repertoire from as early as two years old, when they begin incorporating “make believe” into their play. Books and reading nourish this love of story by stimulating children’s imaginations and creativity, opening their minds to the possibilities of self-expression that, with the right encouragement, can lead them into crafting their own stories on the page.

Like reading for pleasure, the positive impact creative writing can have on children’s attainment and wellbeing should not be underestimated. It fosters a love of learning, nurtures their unique “voice” and sense of self, improves confidence, and encourages creative and inquisitive thinking – skills that support other, vital areas of learning, like problem-solving and independent thought.

Encouraging creative writing in the home can be enjoyable and rewarding for both you and your child.

Here are some tips on how to get started:

• Mistakes are okay! When kids are writing for pleasure, the goal is to support creativity and make it fun. Spelling and grammar corrections can wait until later.
• If your child gets stuck, don’t make suggestions – ask questions. Who is your main character and what do they want? Is there a problem they need to solve? Where could they go next? Help them bring their story to life!
• Speak the story into existence. Let your child tell you their story while you write it down. Just no editing! Use their voice, not yours.
• All writing is good writing. They don’t have to limit themselves to stories… jokes, plays, songs, poems, whatever sparks their imagination.

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And a few writing prompts to inspire your child:

• Think about your favourite toy. Create a story where they go on an adventure!
• Write a story about a Monster who shows up to a birthday party uninvited. Are they scary or nice? Do they bring a present??
• Imagine that you woke up one morning, looked out of your window, and saw a gigantic snail. What happens next?
• You find a magical book in a creaky, dusty old bookshop. It has the power to transport you to faraway places. Where do you end up? What happens there?

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You can find further tips and resources to help you nurture your child’s creative writing at Oxford Owl, Young Writers, and Scholastic.

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Celebrate World Book Day by helping your child to share their story!

Does your child know about Spark and Stripes, our Mosey characters?

Spark is an alien from a distant planet who has travelled thousands of lightyears to visit Earth. Spark loves reading, and is voyaging around our planet to discover as many new books as possible.

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Stripes is Spark’s robot friend who loves books just as much, but has to spend more time keeping Spark out of trouble than doing any reading!

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If your child would like to write and share a story about Spark, Stripes, and their adventures, the Mosey team would love to read it! We’ll read and respond to every story, and even publish the ones that fascinate, delight, and inspire us the most on the Mosey website, accompanied by an official Mosey illustration! They can be any length – short stories, long stories, stories that are just one sentence, stories that are also poems… the only limit is your child’s imagination. We just ask that the story is in their own words; grown-ups can help get things down on paper, but there’s no need to edit spelling or grammar. It’s important to us that children’s unique voices be heard and celebrated.

Just send photos of your child’s story (or the text if they’d prefer to type) to contactus@mosey.digital and put “Mosey – Story Challenge” in the subject line. Please also add your child's first name and age to the body of the email

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Dr Laura McKenzie has spent the past ten years working in academia and the subsidised Arts across organisations including Durham University, New Writing North, and Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children's Books. A lot of that work focused on supporting children and young people's reading, with a particular focus on building engagement with non-mainstream groups. At Mosey, she's delivering impact-led projects around reading for pleasure and helping to develop partnerships with researchers, universities, and third sector organisations.