I have tutored too many students who feel uncomfortable writing in their own language. By the fourth grade, they have stopped wanting to write anything because everything they write receives a grade. The two year old who once begged for a crayon has become the nine year old who is tired of failing. When I tell them that words can be fun, they roll their eyes and begin working on the twenty-five sentences sent home for them to copy twice as homework.

Parents always ask me what they can do to help their kids care about English; I suggest making words and writing fun. Science has discovered that we tend to recall better what we've learned while laughing. Research has also pointed to a direct correlation between reading comprehension and writing ability. In other words, teach your children to love writing, and they will learn to love reading. Luckily, children always have something they want to say.

You can make writing and words fun for your kids, as well as yourself. Here are four simple games that can help you begin:

Story-Story Grow:

In this game, everyone starts with a blank piece of paper. Everyone writes a sentence on their page, and then passes it to another player. Meanwhile, a different player passes you their paper and you add a sentence to make their story grow. If there are only two of you, you pass the same story back and forth. Essentially, you keep passing stories and adding sentences until someone calls for final pass. At this point, your job is to complete the story passed to you. Once done, you can have fun reading the stories to each other. Sometimes they are silly; sometimes they are wonderful. This game works well in groups of two and in groups of twenty. It works wonderfully with fourth graders who have forgotten the fun of writing. You can play it with your kids; you can play it with your friends; you can play it with your e-mail writing buddies. If players don't know how to start the first sentence, you can always begin with a prompt. Something like, "The most amazing thing I ever saw was..." This game nourishes creativity, understanding, problem solving, and writing skills.

One Word Story:

In this game, everyone works on the same story. The first player writes a word. The next player adds a second word in order to make the sentence grow. Each player in turn adds a new word. However, no word can be repeated. Your goal is to see how long your story can become without repeating a word. If you are working with children, simply point out the repeat and ask them to try again. Come to think of it, do the same thing while playing with adults. This game promotes vocabulary development, team building, creativity, and fun.

The Rhyming Game:

In this game, everyone tries to have a realistic conversation while managing to rhyme the last word of his or her own sentence with the last word of the previous sentence. In other words, if some asks, "How was your day?" you could respond with, "I ran into Bill, he said hay." You are not allowed to respond unless you can rhyme the last word of your response to the last word spoken. If the rhyme dies out, then the last person to speak can say something else and trigger a new word to rhyme. You can play the Rhyming Game anywhere and at any time. Some of my most amusing games have happened while cooking dinner. This game develops listening, patience, rhyming, word play, vocabulary, and roll on the floor laughter.

The License Plate Game:

In this game, you save your sanity while in traffic. Players get points by spotting license plates with letters that can form words. You get more points if you can make more than one word. So 34CRN54 becomes one point for corn, a second point for Cornwall, and a third point for Cornwallis. Not to mention, crane, acorn, crown, croon, cairn; you get the idea. In this game, you can add any letters you want, but you must keep the license plate letters in order. The license plate game promotes creativity, bonding, imagination, vocabulary, and interesting drives home with your kids. Not to mention that the point keeper learns record keeping and math.

When we make learning fun, learning comes naturally. Kids are sponges, often soaking up facts unexpected and alarming. Learn to play word games with your kids, and they may learn to love words. I know that I owe my love of writing to my mother's love of words. Make a habit of playing these games with your kids, and they may learn to love words from you.

Lynn Sager has toured over two-dozen countries and worked on three continents. Author of A River Worth Riding: Fourteen Rules for Navigating Life, Lynn currently lives in California; where she fills her time with private coaching, public speaking, and teaching writing for the LACCD and Pierce College. To read more about how to Navigating Life, visit her website at http://www.navigatinglife.org/ To read more articles on writing, visit her blog at http://creatingwritersworkshop.blogspot.com/