Writing is an important skill. This process of communication plays an important role in everybody’s life. Thus, as parents, it is important to encourage children to write and develop strong writing skills.
We can encourage kids to write even at a young age. Those senseless scribbles and doodles are stepping stones to developing strong writing skills.
Here are ways for parent to encourage your kids and toddlers to write:
1. Provide a place to write. Find an area where the child can sit properly and with lots of writing materials from pens, pencils, crayons and papers.
2. Find activities to develop fine motor skills need for writing. These can be picking up blocks, picking up toys, clay molding, sorting beans (or M&Ms) with tweezers and finger painting. Young children would hold a pen or a pencil in an awkward way. These activities helps them gain more control in holding a writing instrument.
3. Be a role model. Share your own writing as well. I personally don’t write that much because of technology but there are some writing I can’t avoid like making a grocery list, writing Thank You letters, and taking down notes. Make sure your child is watching as you do this.
4. Draw, Scribble and Doodle. For beginners, just let them write anything and draw anything. It can have no resemblance to any letter or number or object but continue to encourage. Let them express themselves and ask them to explain that they wrote or draw. Respond to whatever meaning they convey.
5. Get some fun writing activities. Mazes, connect the dots, copy the color and other workbooks are some materials where they can practice writing skills without the pressure. This is best for beginners and a good introduction to writing.
For mazes, I recommend you visit www.mazegenerator.net for an infinite supply of mazes. Play around with the settings for a difficulty level. For beginners, I would use s 5×5 size.
6. Involve the child in writing activities. These activities can be the ones I mentioned above like writing a Thank You card, making a shopping list or a guest list, and writing down labels for jars and containers. Writing letters and postcards are great opportunities to practice writing too.
7. Use different materials. This tip was shared by a pre-school teacher. I use this technique when my child loses his interest in writing. I would buy a new colored pen, a new shape of a marker, or a new color of drawing book. This gives the child new oppurtunities and new interests in writing.
8. Copy. If a child likes a particular song, let the child copy the lyrics. This can also be a poem or a short quotation. My son likes traffic signs and names on buses and taxis. I let him write them as he draws.
9. Have writing project. This is intended for older kids for more advanced writing skills. Let them have a journal, diary, a travel log or a vocabulary notebook. Encourage your child to write as often as possible.
10. Focus on the content. Leave the grammar, the strokes and the structure for later. What is important is the meaning. You can point our a few errors every now and them but be sure not to over criticize.
For parents, just be patient. Writing skills develops slowly. It can take months or years. But keep on giving encouragements. Mastery comes with constant practice.
