Steps to 6 Ways to Make Practicing Penmanship Easy and Fun for your Preschooler

Penmanship should not be a boring task for any child. Sometimes, the “boring tasks” children refer to have been introduced to them either at an inappropriate time for their stage of development for that particular task or that they were introduced in a laborious manner. Here are some steps that may guide you into making penmanship an automatic skill in your child in his later stages.

1. Introduce the alphabet.
You may introduce the alphabet to your child in both visual and tactile ways. You may cut out letters from felt papers or use any embossed material. As you introduce the letter, allow your child to touch the letter freely or with your hand guiding his. As you guide your child’s hand by motioning the way you would write that letter, keep repeating the name of the letter.

2. Start with a blank paper.
When your child shows his interest in writing by doodling and saying that it’s the letter “A,etc.,” you may start encouraging him to write on blank sheets of paper. Let him doodle for a time. As he doodles, observe when he can be capable of tracing the lines that you make. Introduce writing a certain letter by trying to make a game out of it. Write some dashed lines that he would follow and continue making those dashed lines until he finishes the whole letter. As he finishes, always give an appropriate praise or encouragement.

3. Gradually introduce writing within the lines.
You may start providing your child papers with blue-red-blue lines. Drawing one set of blue-red-blue lines on a letter sized bond paper is highly suggested. This would enable your child to concentrate on only one set blue and red lines as he starts learning how to write. You can also adjust the width of the spaces between the lines. Remember that your child is still struggling to control his fine motor skills at this time.

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