When Alexa was 4 years old and seemed ready for Kindergarten, I read The Three R's of Homeschooling by Howard and Susan Richman, as well as a few homeschooling books by Raymond and Dorothy Moore. From these emerged two particular concepts that greatly influenced our hs writing program -- that it should be a group activity with lots of interaction and involvement on my part and that it should have purpose and an audience.
Writing started with inventing a story together. Frequently when we drove in the car, I would offer a simple prompt or story-starter, something like, "The attic was really dark, when Zach secretly climbed up the ladder and opened the door..." Once started, Zach could keep a story going, and going, and going. Eventually, I got the point across that stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. When we arrived home, many long stories were modified and shortened. Zach or Alexa would recite as I typed them out using the largest font available. If something didn't make sense, I would try to get them to make a change. As they grew older, they gradually began to appreciate my suggestions.
See "A 'Short' Story by Zachary Weber" that I typed for him when he was 7 in 1995.
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