Writing is one of the most vital communication forms and is a pillar of vast arrays of education systems around the globe. However, in the current technology-driven age, children are not getting enough opportunities to practice their writing ability hence making them stagnate in their progress. This, in turn, leaves myriads of parents looking for the best methods that they can use to turn the tables and improve their children’s writing skills.
It takes quite a lot of time to develop excellent writing skills and the journey to accomplish this is significantly long and tedious, but the result is being equipped with skills that will come in handy later in life. Thankfully, with the right framework of how to go about tackling writing lessons among children, there’s a lot that parents can do while at home to assist in improving their children’s writing. Below are some of the most foolproof methods that you can use to this effect and reap exceptional results.
Setup an Outstanding Learning Environment for Your Child
Before you begin, you should first ensure that you always set up a right learning environment for the children. You can quickly achieve this through;
1. Providing a Suitable Place for Writing
It is vital for children to have a comfortable place that they can write on such as a table or desk with a flat and smooth surface. Of importance also, is to see to it that this place has excellent lighting to prevent the children from straining their eyes too much.
2. Provide the Writing Materials
You should ensure that the children have a good supply of writing material such as crayons, pencils, pens and plenty of writing paper (both unlined and lined).
Make or Get a Pencil Grip
For your child to learn how to use the writing materials above, the first step should be teaching him/her how to hold pencils correctly. Regarding this, it is essential for you to note that a pencil grip is just the right tool for getting such a job done. In case you decide to go shopping for these tools, you should register at the back of your mind that good pencil grips are the type that resembles squishy blobs that have fingerprints in them.
On the other hand, buying a pencil grip is not your only option. You can make one from the comfort of your home. All that you are required to do is roll some clay into the form of a ball that has a diameter of one inch. You should then take a pencil and poke its tip through the middle, followed by pushing the clay an inch upwards. Hold the pencil in as though you were writing and use your thumb and fingers to make indents by driving into the clay.
Young minds have the tendency of trying to learn anything and everything from their surroundings. A vast array of parents around the globe have accepted the advice of using this principle to help propel their children’s progress in school. Use of clay (which children are used to interacting with as they play) is one of the best tools that you can incorporate in your quest to teach them new skills such as writing. The reason behind this is that they will perceive it as yet another chance to discover a new use of clay thus making their pencil grip lessons both exciting for them and memorable.
Teach Your Children to Write Using Food
Have you ever been in the frustrating position of trying to teach a child something but your efforts keep getting shot down by the child’s inattentiveness or general disinterest? If you have been in such a situation, you must be wondering what you can do to make your efforts in the “teaching how to write” arena count.
In light of the above, one of the most captivating and unique ways that you can use to take your children’s attention by storm is by using various foods to teach them how to write. You can show your child to practice the art of writing letters by making use of sugar, flour, mashed potatoes and even cream, among many other possible substances.
This works by spreading the material that you have at hand on a shoebox, a plate or even a table. You should then prompt the child to use his/her index finger to come up with some letters or even write some small words. Assist him/her to move from right to left and from bottom to top with the pointing finger. This form of writing will help the child to get some in-depth insight into the formation of letters without harboring any worries of how he/she is supposed to hold a crayon or pencil.
Use Textured Surfaces and Raised Lines
Many are the times that kids cannot feel themselves coming up with letters as they go about the writing process. This could in the long run turn out to be one of the most frustrating endeavors for a child trying to learn how to write and could hamper their reception to writing classes. However, you can curb this by using papers that have raised lines or even textured surfaces. For you to acquire a suitably textured surface, you can make your child place his/her writing on a bumpy object such as sandpaper or even the rough type of plastic placemats.
In case the child needs to have a feel of the lines with a pencil, you can use lined paper or a notebook paper that is wide-ruled. You should then trace the desired lines with school glue or fabric paint and then leave them to dry. Once completed, the child`s pencil will end up “bumping” the lines whenever he/she writes.
Highlight or Darken Lines
In my initial years as a parent to a school going child, I faced a problem when trying to teach my three year old son how to write. This problem, which was failure of my son keeping his handwriting within the constraints of a writing book’s lines, seemed tolerable at first but with time ended up growing into an unacceptable habit. By the time he was five years of age, the problem had mutated and escalated from bad to worse. His handwriting was grievously off the charts and it hit me (I still wish I had perceived this earlier on) the extent of damage this could have on his future academic life. In search of a remedy for this conundrum, I found many possible solutions, but out of them all, highlighting lines in his writing books turned out to be the simplest of them, but ironically the most effective one.
In case your child is experiencing trouble remaining within the required lines when crafting tall letters such as “Letter T” and also letters possessing tails such as “y,” it would be prudent for you to help in making the lines more visible. You can use around three markers, each with a different color or even highlighters to help in tracing the bottom, middle and top lines on a ruled paper. The essence of doing this is to assist the child in remembering that tall letter could, for instance, begin at the red line, while small letters remain embedded between the yellow and blue lines and the letters that possess tail dips should end just under the yellow line.
Conclusion
Writing is a vital part of human life in these present times. However, as much as it’s an essential skill in the quest for positive living, it is an equally difficult one to master. By involving your child with some basic and simple activities, you can assist your child to develop his/her writing skills at a tender age. The activities that we’ve expounded on here are of this nature and will work to contribute to the academic success of your children shortly once practiced appropriately.
Have you found this article interesting? Did the points above act as eye openers for you? Share in the comments below.
Kevin Nelson is a professional educator and a private tutor with over 8 years of experience. He is also a content writer for custom-writings.net and various blogs about higher education, entertainment, social media & blogging. During his off time, Kevin enjoys traveling and cooking. Feel free to connect with him on Twitter, Linkedin & Google+.
Image courtesy of masterstudio.
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