TIPS: Teaching young kids how to start writing

February 10, 2020

Hiya, rookie mommas!

We are finally at this stage! Ang bilis nga naan talaga ng panahon.

Me and Arya have been very busy learning and practicing our handwriting skills. I have been preparing her for her future assessments in Preschool for this year, 2020.

So far, we have been practicing everyday, and I have come up with a few tips to help her improve her handwriting skills and I would love to share them with you!

Tip #1

Don't force your little ones to write if they don't want to. Often times, me and Arya get to a lot of argument because she easily gets bored and I always forget not to push her because it will be a negative experience for her and we don't want that to happen. Kids should enjoy and make handwriting a fun experience so if we stress them out they might end up not writing because they will associate a bad experience to the activity being done.

Tip #2 - If your little ones expresses an interest in writing,

The best place to start is by giving them big - or chunky crayons and papers to use. Let them draw and doodle whatever they want since this will also serve as their practice.

Tip #3 - you may want to strengthen and build more muscles into their little hands

There are a lot of hand exercises that your child can do to improve their grips as well as hand coordination. Like, playing with play dough, or kinetic sand, as well as using thongs to pick-up little things and move them aside.

Tip #4 - if your little ones starts makings rounds and lines,

Then the best path to do now is to start them with pre-writing exercises. There is a proper order on how a child should learn how to draw or write letters and numbers. They might not be able to learn how to write their names immediately without mastering how lines and curves are done first. We usually start with circles and straight lines.

Tip #5 - Once your littles ones can keep up with the activities,

Stick to the routine. Make time and do it everyday. It doesn't have to be an hour or more of handwriting but do it mostly on when the child is interested and relaxed - also not distracted - turn off the TV/radio and avoid using gadgets while both of you are doing the activities

Tip #6 - Reward system,

This is something that works for me and Arya. She loves watching Netflix cartoons and playing Roblux on my phone. So, I make it to a point that she cannot do any of those things if she will not finish 1 - 2 worksheets. It's effective for us because I'm able to set up a boundary that she already understands that she can only play and watch after doing her homework. Of course, this may not work for everyone.

Tip #7 - Once you got the routine all set up,

It's time to be more creative with your worksheets! I Googled some customised worksheets and have asked my sister to print them out for me because I don't have a printer at home and having 100+ pages be printed in malls or computer shops will be very expensive.

Here are the websites that I used to customised Arya's worksheets:

1. https://tools.atozteacherstuff.com/printable-handwriting-practice-worksheet-maker/

2. https://www.createprintables.com/name_tracing_worksheet.php

Tip #8 - helping them with the grip

One thing I found very helpful was the pencil grips that I bought from Shopee. Arya's pencil grip is not yet strong and she has her own way of handling a pencil but it's also the best time to correct that since it is still developing. So, I got these pencil grips for only P29.000 (for the 4 pcs) and P49.00 (for the 2 finger pencil grip). Click here and here to buy.

Tip #9 - make things colorful.

Writing with pencils is not as fun as writing with colored pens. BUT getting used to writing with pencils is your priority to teach them before moving into colored pens or gel pens because they need to get used to the feeling of how writing with led pens on a paper feels like versus using pens. I bought these for P29.00 from Shopee. Click here to buy.

Tip #10 - Don't set high goals and expectations on your child.

One thing I learned about this on-going journey is that, one day they are very very good with drawing lines and curves, and then the next day they don't know what to do. And for us moms, that can be very frustrating. It takes a lot of time, practice, hard work, and patience from both the parent and the child to be successful on their handwriting journey.