Starting early with child writing activities for your preschooler is a great idea. Writing is a crucial component in the development of your child’s literacy ability and we’ve compiled 6 important activities you can undertake as a parent.
1. Practice Opportunities
Give your child plenty of opportunity to practice their writing and drawing skills. Create a space in your house where your child can use crayons, pencils or chalk to write on paper, in a workbook or on a chalkboard. ie a prescribed spot on a mat, a small table etc.
2. Activity Sheets
Teach your child how to write by demonstrating how letters are correctly written. A range of worksheets are available to download with fun activities that will develop your childs ability to write. Most worksheets start by having a child trace a letter over a printed example. Children are then able to practice writing the letters freehand thereafter.
3. Names
Typically, the first word that your child is likely to recognize and the first word that they will attempt to write, is their own name. Encourage your child to write their name on any pictures they draw, as a way of practicing their name.
4. Everyday Writing
Teach your child to write cards, notes or letters to people. You can start off by writing the message for your child and having your child copy the message in their own writing.
5. Storywriting
Encourage your child to write different types of stories. Be positive with the result regardless of the accuracy!
6. Build Confidence
Generally, children go through a range of development phases with their writing. They will start by trying to write words known to them such as it, to and the.
They then will start to spell more complex words by correctly using the first letter for a word. As their ability to spell improves their ability to include more correct letters will increase… drh to dg to dog
Tip: When your child is learning to write make sure that you focus on what your child has done well (don’t start correcting the mistakes right away!).