You won’t believe this, but 25 years ago we didn’t even teach children to write in kindergarten. It was thought to be developmentally inappropriate! My, how things have changed because now we are asking four year olds to start writing. Children’s hands are not any different than they were 25 years ago, but our expectations have changed.
We need to provide children with experiences and opportunities to learn, but we can’t force them to “perform” before they are ready. It’s also important to remember that each child learns in her own way at her own time. Some walk early, some talk early, some write early…but eventually they will all be successful. As my daughter remarked when my grandson finally started to write: “Children take it in and take it in and take it in – and then something comes out!”
On my website this month you’ll find many ideas for getting children ready to write. Although the focus will be on pre-writing activities, most of the ideas can be adapted for letters, numerals, shapes, words, and other skills. A key principle for early childhood is to go from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract. If you want children to develop writing skills, you have to offer them a wide variety of engaging experiences where they can learn as they play.
We hope that you and your students will enjoy and learn from this series of videos about forming Upper Case Letters. Click here. If you would like to be kept up-to-date on newly added videos, please subscribe from the YouTube page. There is no charge to be a subscriber.