How To Work On Your Child’s Writing Skills Before They Start School

Worried about your child’s not-so-good writing skills? Do their fine motor skills need improvement? Try these fun activities that this mom suggests that bring back the fun in writing for your kids.
Total
0
Shares

If you are anything like the husband and I, your daily school schedule looks something like climbing to the top of Mt.Everest. It’s tough, needs tremendous amounts of will-power and is usually a losing battle. Strike a chord yet?

Your little kindergartner will put up quite the fight to wake up, get ready or even to get on the school bus. Most times there will be tears on both sides if you are like me, and a lot of frustration for the parents. There could be a number of reasons your child may not be enjoying school, but the most common is the sudden need for competition, the pressure to keep up with an entire class of children of varied ages and skill sets. 

You may also like: Tips to get your child to write effectively 

The exposure to reading, writing and comprehension increase significantly. Most children at this stage have a certain view of themselves within the limits of their evolving emotions and that takes a hit if they see themselves falling behind.

In our case, my son was reading billboards at 3 years of age, his reading skills were rather good as we had been reading since he was 18 months or so and he had a good grasp of patterns which aids in reading. Writing, however, was not our strength but once he began school he had to write, and keep up with the other children in his class as well. This in-turn affected his ‘fun at school’ concept and he rebelled the only way he knew how, by refusing to go to school.

What’s the easier way to get kids to love writing? 

He was 4, did not have a good grasp or fine motor skills, that were needed for writing. His bones may not have been fully developed which meant his hands hurt each time he wrote a page of letters, pushing him to further dislike the process. So we had to devise a way to help him learn through what he enjoyed best – play.

We focused on developing his fine motor skills and grasping skills first then moved on to actual writing/tracing and other letter-based play activities. In order to ensure that he trusts the process to not include writing as he had already made up his mind that did not enjoy it, we eliminated pen and paper.

So here are a few fun play based techniques we used to help him develop his writing skills. These are done at home with simple items you’ll find around the home or in your kitchen:

Tracing:

When I say tracing its not the common paper and pen tracing we used, instead I used atta/playdough to form the alphabet and gave him chickpeas/channa in a cup. He placed the chickpeas on the atta to form each word. This form of tracing also doubled up as a sensory activity that he really enjoyed doing. We’ve also traced on rice/dals, poured out on trays. You can use this technique for alphabet/number recognition for younger children as well.

You may also like: Tracing activities to try with your kids 

Art:

Like most children, my son enjoys painting as a process, not as an outcome based activity. Now, swap the brush with more specific tools such as a ear bud or a piece of sponge, imagine splattering paint with a medicine dropper. You can use kitchen tissue instead of paper for effect and they’ll be fascinated to see how the paint spreads. What do these tools do? They help your child practice the pincer grasp or pencil holding technique which will help in writing later.

You may also like: What is process art and why is it important for our kids? 

Blackboard or chalkboard:

Children have a tendency to write on the wall. That’s stating the obvious, the reason behind it is that they don’t have to hold anything and the standing posture gives them good leverage to apply pressure for writing. Now if we can allow them exactly that wouldn’t that be a cool start? Once we got our blackboard my kids use it every day at least once and on some days multiple times. This includes my 1-year-old who loves the board and what he can do on it.

These are a few of the play based techniques that have helped us overcome the initial struggle with writing. He now actually races to write in class, is comfortable with cursive writing and overall is enjoying the school experience.  A little effort and direction at home can go a long way in helping our kids enjoy learning. While we cannot control our education system and its pressures, we can begin at home.

 

 

Leave a Reply

KSP NEWSLETTER

Subscribe to get the latest news & updates delivered directly to your inbox.

You May Also Like