Tips For Parents Helping Children Learn to Write Well
Helping your children with their writing contributes to their confidence and supports their learning. It also assists teachers knowing that interest and help is being given at home. It gives you an opportunity to spend some valuable time with your child, working together. Although we develop our own writing styles in time, writing needs to come from a good starting point.
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Alphabet
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Line some paper with large gaps between each line. Write the letters on one line and ask your child to write the letters themselves beneath yours. Practice with lower case first of all. Depending on how your child is taught the alphabet (using phonics or standard sounds) you need to make the sound at the same time so the child memorizes it too. If your child is young, start with encouraging her to draw lines or circles.
Sentences
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When writing sentences, they need to be short to begin with. Teach your child capital letters. Even though your child will be learning this at school, you need to stick to the same methods so your child does not get confused. Sentences like "The cat sat on the mat," and "The dog fell in the bog" help with using the same letters and seeing how one letter can change it into a completely different word.
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Repetition
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Keep practicing; repetition is boring but it works. Maybe you can listen to music while you are working, or offer a reward at the end for hard work, but keep at it. Use games to encourage your child, such as thinking of all the things in the room that start with "a" and writing them all down. Focus on areas where your child seems to be struggling; there may be certain letters that she can't write well. Try a different method to write them or use analogies to guide such as "kicking K" or "curly C" or anything that will help the child remember it and write the letters well.
Cursive
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Getting to this point is where your child starts to develop his own style of handwriting. Even more help is required to ensure your child does not become a scribbler. Practicing cursive requires repetition and coaxing. Your child may be a bit more forthright in his views now and may not want to keep practicing, so you are going to have to use all your wiles to spend time on this. Get him to write letters to celebrity fan clubs or his favorite singer in his best handwriting.
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References
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- Photo Credit writing image by Alison Bowden from Fotolia.com
