When do you begin to teach handwriting?

[blessed2fosteradopt]

My littles are 3.2 yrs.. I have a Kumon book that lists the age range as 3-5 that teaches uppercase letter writing. I think my children are too young for this??? Am I wrong? At what age do you begin to teach handwriting and with what source(s)?

 

Blessings,

 

Lisa

[myfatherslily]

I *think* my DD started writing a few letters at that age, but it's hard to remember:) My son is 3 1/2 yrs old. Though he draws and cuts paper well, he's not much for writing letters on paper. But he DOES love to do HWT Wet-Dry-Try capital letters (

) :)

[Guest RecumbentHeart]

Depends on the child, I imagine. My 3 and a half year old has already started trying to write his name and it's actually legible. What you could do is start with forming letters with their finger in a tray of salt or some such thing. You could also simply print out some free letter tracing sheets and see if they're interested. I used some earlier this year with my guy simply to reinforce letter recognition more so than to teach writing and that's probably what started him being interested in writing in general.

[Ellie]

There are things you can do that *begin* to teach handwriting.

 

Put your dc's writing tool in his hand with the proper grip. Really.

 

Have him practice writing circles that begin at the top (we Spalding/SWR folks would say circles need to start at 2 on the clock :D), and lines that begin at the top. If you have them do this in Cool Whip or chooclate pudding, they'll have lots of fun.

 

Teach lower-case letters first. They are used more often than uppercase, after all; also, many dc who learn upper-case first have trouble later on knowing when to use upper-case and lower-case, and will sprinkle upper-case indiscriminately through their words. Just teach lower-case, and upper-case when they need to know them, along with the rules.

 

You can also make letters using sandpaper, and have your dc trace them--in their proper forms--while saying their sounds.

[abbeyej]

In my experience, it's much easier to spend a little time from a very young age (3 isn't too young) on correct pencil grip and letter formation than to try to correct bad habits later on. Perhaps that's not such an issue for children who don't choose to write early on...

[FairProspects]

I'm going to go against the grain and say yes they are too young. I think they are the perfect age for writing in sand, pudding, cool whip, sandpaper letters, etc. but our family friend is an occupational therapist with 20+ years experience in the school district and she has seen way too many kids with finger & hand injuries from being forced into writing and pencil grips too young.

 

When my oldest turned 3, she begged me not to enroll him in an "academic" preschool. Not because of the academics, but because of the emphasis on writing which can really hurt developing little hands. Obviously, kids who pick up crayons or pencils and write on their own will do it in a way that is comfortable for them, but trying to teach littles the proper grip & forcing them to write too early can actually hurt them sometimes. That opinion may not be popular around here, but there it is.

[mama2cntrykids]

My dd is 3 yrs. 3 months and while she has a nice pencil grip, she isn't interested in actually writing letters. While I'd like for her to start writing her name, I'm not forcing the issue on her. She is only 3 after all. That's just us though.

[FO4UR]

I begin young, but with playdoh and finger paints and sidewalk chalk. I teach the strokes to the letters over and over and over again...and save the pencil/paper handwriting for later when the strokes are automatic (and the child has the fm control to handle a pencil correctly!!!). I teach the sounds at the same time we learn the strokes.

 

Give your dc crayons/chalk broken down in 1-2 inch chunks. This forces a tripod grasp and will pay off big-time down the road!

 

I think the important thing at that age is to prevent bad habits from forming.

[whitestavern]

I started both DC with letter formation in Kindergarten. They both did preK programs, one Montessori and one not, and neither stressed printing much.

[Mama2two]

My five year old wasn't ready until about 4 or 4.5.

 

My daughter though (3.5 years) was ready to start learning with cornmeal at age 3. She is now using the small chalkboard to learn with HWT.

[blessed2fosteradopt]

Thanks for the replies. I don't know that my daughter is ready. I am going to have her play with salt, cornmeal, etc. and see how she does. I know my son, same age, definitely is not as he cannot even grip a crayon correctly yet.

 

For those of you who have children who are writing, do you use regular pencils or are there some toddler size that I am missing out on?

 

Thank you!