Writing the Right way…
Your kid is reluctant to start writing? Some tips that I am following to make my boy start writing…
My boy is going to be 4 years old soon. Since last few months, I was wondering whether to start writing practice for him or wait for a while. Different viewpoints exist in general about this milestone. So I was a bit on the fence myself.
My elder daughter started writing when she was about 3-3.5 years old despite being a preemie baby but my son was happily playing, running around, singing nursery rhymes, recognizing letters and numbers but running away when it came to notebook and pencils.
After observing this for a few months, I decided to work on this aspect before it became an issue. This is what I did. In fact, am still doing.
1. First of all, for some time, I stopped showing / giving him notebooks, pencils and writing practice books totally. He was simply saying that he is “feeling tired” just by looking at them.
Not a good sign! Kids can form likes and dislikes quite fast in this age.
2. Instead, I gave him more of play-dough, kinetic sand to improve his motor skills and make his grip firmer. I let his elder sister play with him so that he could “copy-cat” a few things and learn from her.
3. Pretend play like Doctor-Doctor came in handy too. He role-played the doctor part, checked his “patients” and scribbled something on the prescription notebook. He was willingly doing this.
4. I also encouraged him to do coloring and other art and craft. I again took help of his sister who always indulges in painting, making bookmarks, drawing sketches and so on. He started using crayons, sketch pens and other mediums. The “art” was quite messy but for him it was “a car”. In an excitement, he wrote a bit on the wall, their play tent but I chose not to stop his creativity and willingness to write something. Not bad!
5. In the pre-school he attends, Teachers taught him to draw shapes, join lines and formed the base for writing letters. He is learning pretty well in the school. I also noticed that my boy remembers the alphabets as a combination of shapes. Example: C as half-circle, E as one standing line and three sleeping lines connected to it and so on.
Each child has his / her own style of thinking and learning. I believe as a parent, we should appreciate and work around that.
6. Next step for me was to take a blank drawing block, notepad and sit with him. I bought a few thicker and easy to hold pencils and a gripper that can be attached to the normal pencil meant for early-writers. I used these tools myself to make him comfortable with the same. Thicker pencils are working quite well for him and improving his writing skills.
This free-flow writing on the blank drawing block and notepad made him confident and removed the mental block he had towards writing.
7. Gradually, I have started giving him Writing Skills workbooks to practice that has joining dots, coloring alphabets and some other interesting activities. Fine tuning and finesse is still needed for him to write well but he has started to like writing for sure.
Kids are by default bright people. It is just that as parents, we need to have patience, skills to adapt to their pace of learning and yes, you should see the progress happening on its own!
Note: This article I wrote originally for theAsianparent – leading parenting magazine in Singapore. Link to the original article is here – http://sg.theasianparent.com/writing-right-way/
teaching my 2 and 3 year old kids fine motor skills as well at the moment..
Right way.. Really need to teach from young
Interesting article~ Will show this to my brothers and sis-in-laws
thanks for the tips, I know that would be bored if I give a notebook to child
thanks for the tips, agree with your way, children would tired if directly looking at notebook
my kid is also four but doesn’t write yet, even tho he is attending school, tho my elder boy started writing at 2. I guess they all have their different pace for real.
It is very important to make it interesting for them to develop a liking for things they are doing.
Thanks for the tip. It look super useful for mum to urge their kids to start writing. XD
Thanks for sharing these tips. It is definitely very important to encourage children to write while they are still young.
In an era where iPad and smartphones are so popular among kids, it is very difficult to get them to do simple things like this. You’ve shared some good tips.
it’s good to get kids learning early on.It’s also good to focus on how each child learns
Thanks for the tips, it actually works. Will share it with my mummy friends also.
Test
I have a son 3y4m he can hold the pencil with proper way.. now he has done many coloring books heheheh but not yet the alphabets.. he only oral it
Thanks for these tips. I guess some kids are more inclined towards letters and words, while others prefer math or science.
I like your thoughtful approach 🙂 it's interesting to adjust between the different growth and needs of kids, I've also two kids of similar ages and am encountering similar decisions!
Interesting article. Thanks for sharing.