While most classroom teachers enjoy the summer break from work that a teaching position gives them, other teachers struggle to find part-time work during that time to earn a little extra income.

If you’re one of those classroom teachers who searches for part time work during the summer, writing for children just might be the job you’re looking for. Here’s why:

1. During the school year you’re in close contact with children and/or teens in your classroom. That means you know first hand what kids or teens think about, how they talk, and how they act. You can use this information to create believable child or teen characters and dialogue for these characters that rings true. If you read stories and books for children with your students during the school year, you also know the kinds of story lines that appeal to children and teens.

2. As a teacher, you have access to your school’s library. Talk to the librarian to find out what kinds of books students find most interesting. Also, what kinds of books seem to be in short supply? Does your school librarian think there needs to be more middle grade novels available for girls, for example? Or, is there almost nothing available on certain topics of interest to children? Use this information to create stories, novels, and nonfiction articles and books that will help fill these voids or shortages.

3. You know what kinds of materials you like to use in your classroom with your students. Why not try your hand at creating some of these materials for children’s educational publishers? Most of the best teaching materials are created by teachers themselves. Why not make some money from the types of materials you are probably already creating and using yourself in your own classroom?

4. Once you gain a few publication credits, you can continue writing for children or teens during the school year. You won’t have time for as much writing while you’re teaching, of course. Still, you can probably manage to work on at least one nonfiction article or short story for children or teens each month. Even if you don’t finish these pieces and submit them for publication during the school year, when school ends for the summer you will have plenty of writing projects to finish up and submit to editors.

5. Once your part-time children’s writing career is established, you won’t need to search for a part-time job every summer. You can immediately get to work once summer break begins. You might even manage to line up some regular summer writing assignments with one or two children’s educational publishers. Many full-time teachers manage to write a short nonfiction book for children or teens every summer and substantially increase their yearly income.

6. Should you ever decide to stop teaching, or when you retire from teaching, you will already have an enjoyable second career to fall back on. And this time, you can work from home in the comfort of your pajamas if you like!

These are just a few of the reasons that so many classroom teachers turn to writing for children as a part-time job or second career. If you enjoy writing as much as you enjoy teaching, then writing for children just might be the perfect summer job or second career for you, too.

Learn to write for children