AimeeM Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 Sell me on one, lol. We have MP's alphabet books, but my guy's fine motor skills aren't up to par with his brain yet (I believe he'll read well before he is able to write legibly, at this rate, lol). I'm looking for something fun for an active boy who does NOT like to get dirty (i.e. no sand drawing, no finger paints, no tracing in shaving cream, lol). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 You can see PAL's letter stories from the sample files in IEW's website. They are cute! I started my son out with a dry erase marker and a wall-mounted white board. Writing that way practices gross-motor rather than fine-motor skills. It's also so easy to erase mistakes. I let my son make the letters as big as he wants. Actually, PAL recommends this. First work on letter formation, then work on size & proportion. To work on fine motor strength, I have him do mazes, dot-to-dots, and cutting/pasting activities. He dislikes coloring. I think the R&S preschool books are super boring, but I love Evan-Moor's Never Bored books. As his hand strength has increased, he is able to write with pencil & paper - but he is older than your kid (almost 5 1/2). Does your DS like playdough, or bread dough? You could make letter pretzels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 You can see PAL's letter stories from the sample files in IEW's website. They are cute! I started my son out with a dry erase marker and a wall-mounted white board. Writing that way practices gross-motor rather than fine-motor skills. It's also so easy to erase mistakes. I let my son make the letters as big as he wants. Actually, PAL recommends this. First work on letter formation, then work on size & proportion. To work on fine motor strength, I have him do mazes, dot-to-dots, and cutting/pasting activities. He dislikes coloring. I think the R&S preschool books are super boring, but I love Evan-Moor's Never Bored books. As his hand strength has increased, he is able to write with pencil & paper - but he is older than your kid (almost 5 1/2). Does your DS like playdough, or bread dough? You could make letter pretzels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celticadea Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 have you looked at fundanoodle? it's been intriguing me lately. in some ways it's like HWT but the letters don't seem as oddly shaped. they have pre-writing stuff and early writing stuff too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeritasMama Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Coloring, play dough and clay, drawing, cutting are all important for fine motor development. HWT is a great program as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted April 16, 2013 Author Share Posted April 16, 2013 Coloring, play dough and clay, drawing, cutting are all important for fine motor development. HWT is a great program as well. I hear you and I agree. I do not, however, want to make him hate writing... and he can't stand "paper play" (i.e. coloring, drawing, etc). Now, he'll do it on the white board, lol, but not on paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 My 4 yr old likes to pick things up using kid chop sticks. You know the plastic ones that are attached at the top. My mom bought him a huge cardboard play house. He had a great time painting it. So do you have large boxes he could paint or draw on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midori Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 A friend of mine is an occupational therapist. When she heard I'd started DS1 tracing letters, she recommended some exercises to do instead. We had some little plastic rings that came on the top of a batch of bakery cupcakes. It became our game to pick them up with the very tips of his fingers and drop them into a plastic cup. ("AUUUGHHH, don't put me in the cup! AUUUUGHHH!") I found one of those old TickleBee games with a magnetic pen. I picked up a cheap knockoff Magnadoodle at the Dollar Store. Like Kleine, she suggested I get a pair of child's hinged chopsticks, and let him practice using them to drop things from one place to another place. We did those sorts of things for about a year before we tried doing pre-writing exercises on paper or markerboard again, when we got about 3 months away from his 4th birthday. My friend is of the opinion that in the US, we push kids in that direction too early... she'd prefer it if we waited until age 5 before we started tackling writing. But of course, limiting ourselves to dropping things into cups and playing with the Magnadoodle for so many years would be too hard. :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 I think you're asking mostly about handwriting, but to take another perspective on "pre-writing," I think Story Cubes and many of the activities in Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye are good for kids when they're pre-writing. Also, even at age four, narration - especially letting them narrate their own stories and writing them down, are great things to do. Of course, all the small motor skills stuff is extremely useful and necessary as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishMum Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 How about this book from Kumon, to help with his fine motor skills. My son loved it at your son's age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdownie Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 What about a rice or bean box? Since those, especially the beans, don't stick to hands like sand, he might feel cleaner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Geek Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 Have you tried a magnadoodle? Dd has spent much more time doodling and practicing letter writing on it than anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acorn Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 Sidewalk chalk as my kids were more capable of writing 12 in letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa in the UP of MI Posted April 27, 2013 Share Posted April 27, 2013 My kids learn to spell first using a movable alphabet. I teach them letter sounds/names and how to orally break a word into its separate sounds (starting with recognizing the first sound, then first and last, then all). After that we break out the movable alphabet. We move from there to AAS. My oldest started using a movable alphabet a few months before she turned 4yo, ds was 5.5yo, and younger dd will be starting soon (and could have started sooner, I'm just so busy!) at 5yo. ETA: My kids spell their way into reading. So at first it is easier for them to spell than to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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