How To Teach A Child To Write?
When kids start writing for the first time it’s very exciting most of the time. You should know that the first step towards initiate writing or how to teach a child to write is not just sit and start right away by grabbing a pencil. It’s generally followed by most of the people and it’s most probably possible that we started the same way too. Teaching kids to write doesn’t have to start with tracing directly and it could be a test for your patience.
Not all toddlers or preschool children write by following the same technique and teaching them learn can be different for every child. It depends on a lot of factors for example how difficult it is for him to hold the pencil, maintain the posture and how interesting he finds learning to write or draw. There are a few tips to help him master the task with ease. Starting with teaching preschoolers to write doesn’t always begin with directly copying the alphabets or numbers, make sure you refresh their minds and create the atmosphere.
• You can start with making him draw or trace things on the sand with their fingers or small wooden sticks. Try doing this activity by replacing sand with the oatmeal.
• Draw easy shapes or lines and make him copy those onto the paper.
• When working on how to teach a child to write make him practice the appropriate posture and correct lightning. The correct posture is very important when writing. It could otherwise lead to stress on eyes, weak eyesight and back pain.
• You can also involve erasing boards or white boards to start off.
• Crayons have a good grip than usual pencils and kids find it interesting if colors are added over to anything. Give them colors to start with drawing lines or rough shapes.
Below are some activities that you might look into while initiating with teaching your child how to write:
1) How to hold a pencil:
Griping a pencil varies with child to child. You might have seen that there are different ways a person holds a pen or pencil while writing. It might be unique also and similar to how must of us do it.
• Teach him the most common method that is holding a pencil in between your thumb and index finger while giving it a support with your middle finger.
• When you begin teaching them about how to hold a pencil, start with shorter pencils as they are easy to start with and doesn’t require much support.
• While learning to write letter teach them about how to grip first, forget about if the handwriting is good or bad. It’s with practice and will eventually become better.
Teach kids to write Alphabets with tracing games!
This online game will help your kids to easily learn how to write. They can now enjoy spending their free time tracing all the capital and small ABC alphabets with different variety of colors. Try out this effective way of teaching kids.
2) Introduce them with activities before start:
You can try start teaching preschoolers to write with various fun activities to introduce your little one into the writing world and prepare to initiate:
Blank Journals:
Take sheets of 2-3 blank papers and fold them to make a book. Try with plain papers as the ones with lines could restrict them to start off. Give him color pencils or crayons for a good grip and let him start with it. He’ll draw lines and stuff but that’s okay, it’s a good sign that he can start. Introduce him to the tools used for writing.
Trace alphabets with glitter glue:
Okay now this seems to be a fun activity for young toddlers and preschoolers. Use the glitter glue to create alphabets or numbers on a card sheet (you can do the same with numbers). You can use different colors for each. Let it dry overnight and you’ll see that it provides a texture if you trace over with your finger. Now one by one ask the children to do so. Allow him to do it slowly and let his brain grasp the shape. This is called multi-sensory learning and there are a lot of techniques for it.
Teach them cut shapes:
As children we also enjoyed cutting and crafting. We learn the most out of things we enjoy and that is the reason behind this activity. Trace out easy shapes on a plane paper with the help of a marker and ask them to cut it out as neat as possible. This would enhance their co-ordination and motor skills which further helps them to write.
Exposure to print materials:
Provide your little one with books or materials defining alphabets and numbers. Let him observe and help him do so by explaining him about alphabets and how each one seems. There are a plenty of such books in the market to start with. Try with letter toys and magnets to create exposure.
Trace Numbers:
The most popular teaching preschoolers to write activity is when you trace and join the dots to form alphabets, letters or numbers. This is the most famous technique and it always works. The dots work as a path way for them to observe where to start and go while making any specific shape or write.
3) Teaching to write Alphabets and numbers:
Start teaching them with the uppercase letters. They might get confused with the smaller one’s. Along with how to teach a child to write, learning can be challenging if not guided properly. There are a few steps that would ease your little one’s learning session.
• Encourage them to write in between two lines.
• Ask them to trace on the dots you have created to avail the letter they want to achieve. Practicing this for a while will help them have a picture of each alphabet or number and that way they would be able to write it on their own.
• You can try helping him by holding his hand and tracing over again and again.
4) Incorporate writing time with play time:
The best part of the day is the play time and kids wait for it all day long, in school or at home. They count hours for it. You can include their writing activities into it and they won’t take it as a part of studying which and enjoy it. Kids learn the best out of that time. Add all the fun tools into their play time and teach them via fun activities.
The first time you kid starts to write can be frustrating and fun at the same time. It demands patience and attention for both of you. Proceed towards a step by step by step approach with how to teach a child to write. Handwriting is the first thing you notice when you go through somebody’s notebook and a good handwriting never fails to impress. Don’t worry if your child loves looking at the pictures and doesn’t wants to right. It’s not with every child that he becomes restless and wants to write. Everyone is different.
You’ll get amazed to know that children start getting the fundamentals of writing even before they start practicing and learning. They start understanding the length of strings for writing out a word. Their motor driving activities and techniques would help him with beginning to write. These are a few steps that might help you to begin with teaching kids to write.