Feel like my toddler is going faster than I can

[ballardlm]

Hi everyone. I am new here although I have been stalking for a long time:001_smile: I was wondering if I could get some advice from experienced mamas. I don't know if my son is gifted per se but I am not sure what I should be doing with him. He is 19 months old and knows several of his letter sounds. This didn't freak me out but today he totally threw me for a loop. We were playing with the dry erase board (which he loves) and I started making letters. He started requesting certain letters and then he wanted me to hold his hand and help him trace the letters. He tried to trace them himself but didn't have the coordination so he wanted me to help him. Here is what I was wondering. I don't know the "proper" way to make letters and my handwriting is atrocious. Should I look through a book like HWOT and see how they form the letters so I am showing him correctly? And should I be correcting his grip yet? I didn't think I would have to worry about this until he was older but the last thing I want to do is create bad habits that we have to fix later. Oh, and if I'm just overanalyzing everything and need to chill please feel free to tell me. He is my first child and I have Young Mom Syndrome lol.

[2smartones]

Yes, you should reteach yourself first. With someone that young, it's fun to teach handwriting with something other than pencils or crayons. Use shaving cream on the shower wall, sidewalk chalk outside, a plate full of chocolate pudding, craft/wrapping/butcher paper with finger paint, a cookie sheet full of rice/beans/sprinkles/M&Ms, etc. Use your imagination, but let the primary instrument be a finger or something bulky like chalk.

[Joshin]

At that age I really liked the Montessori sandpaper letters. The littles like to trace the rough letters. I'd give them a tray with sandbox sand in it and they would trace the sandpaper letters with their fingers then transfer that skill to drawing the letter on the sand tray. Disclaimer: we aren't Montessori-style homeschoolers, but a lot of the Montessori-inspired letter skills exercises seemed to work really well for my eldest, an early reader/writer. Especially since mom has pretty bad handwriting!

[Katy]

At that age I really liked the Montessori sandpaper letters. The littles like to trace the rough letters. I'd give them a tray with sandbox sand in it and they would trace the sandpaper letters with their fingers then transfer that skill to drawing the letter on the sand tray. Disclaimer: we aren't Montessori-style homeschoolers, but a lot of the Montessori-inspired letter skills exercises seemed to work really well for my eldest, an early reader/writer. Especially since mom has pretty bad handwriting!

 

Be careful with sandbox sand if you're buying it new - a friend installed a sandbox for her kiddos, and only afterward found a warning on the side of the sand bags that said "Play sand is not for playing." And went on to give this warning that it was not natural sand, it was manufactured, and it had fine dust in it that may cause lung cancer! If you've got access to a bit of natural sandy soil, or maybe a creek bed or something, grab some, bake it to sterlize, and that at least won't have cancer-causing fine dust.

[ballardlm]

Thanks for the tip on the sandbox! I think I will stick to salt trays. And thank you all for all the ideas. I don't feel nearly as overwhelmed now.

[boscopup]

Be careful with sandbox sand if you're buying it new - a friend installed a sandbox for her kiddos, and only afterward found a warning on the side of the sand bags that said "Play sand is not for playing." And went on to give this warning that it was not natural sand, it was manufactured, and it had fine dust in it that may cause lung cancer! If you've got access to a bit of natural sandy soil, or maybe a creek bed or something, grab some, bake it to sterlize, and that at least won't have cancer-causing fine dust.

 

We just went to a local place that sells truck loads of sand. They put a scoop in the back of our truck, then DH shoveled it out into the sandbox. It was waaaaaaay cheaper. Of course, it does require a truck. :tongue_smilie:

 

To the OP: Get yourself a copy of The Writing Road to Reading. It not only has good handwriting instructions to reteach yourself proper writing, but it also goes into phonics/spelling stuff you'll need to know also. Good teacher training! I wouldn't bother using any of it with your kid right now, but just learn yourself so you CAN properly help your child write letters when he asks. :)

 

Then hit the library and do lots and lots and lots of reading to your child. That will be the best thing for him at that age, and he can point out letters and eventually words that he recognizes. ;)

[Parker Martin]

I worried about the exact same thing. Turns out, it didn't matter. He's five now and writes like a second or third grader according to teachers I know.

 

I wouldn't worry about it.

 

My son especially liked me to write letters in dashes on his Magnadoodle so that he could then trace over them with the large circular magnet.

 

ETA: This is assuming that even though your handwriting is terrible, you can write a legible single print letter when you aren't rushed. (My writing got much better after the seemingly eternal amount of time my son wanted to spend on the Magnadoodle.) If you couldn't print, then yes, it would be important to learn how, but you're a functional adult, so odds are that you are print capable.

 

I'll also add that my son had to switch styles more than once in those early years due to preschool, but it doesn't seem to have hurt him.

Edited August 26, 2012 by Parker Martin

[jenbrdsly]

You could also try letter writing with shaving cream in the bathtub. Just be sure to buy unscented so your little one doesn't smell like an old man.

[kohlby]

My middle child was an observer. So I totally agree with learning the correct way to make the letters yourself. I never taught her how to write any of her letters - and she surprised us at 2 when we asked her to sign her name with an "L" and she wrote her entire name! She started out with the correct grip, but change to a fist grip. She had amazing coordination with the fist grip though, coloring pictures at 2 much better than her 5 year old brother. I worried that she wouldn't change it back but Miss Independant wouldn't let me teach her. One thing that helped was using tiny chalk/pencils. If it's small enough, then they're forced not to use the fist grip. That helped her reteach herself by watching me when I wasn't teaching her it!

 

There are a few letters that she did not write in the correct order. Like she learned the number 8 on her own correctly easily but "a" was a ball and short stick for the longest time. When she actually want to learn the "right" way, she learned it quickly. She had no interest in the correct way until 5 though.

 

*A fun tracing activity would be to trace the numbers/letters in pudding. I did that for my oldest who was delayed in his handwriting skills.