HANDWRITING SUCCESS SECRETS FOR PRESCHOOLERS
without stress!
So...you want your child to be good at handwriting, but you don't want the battles many people often have...
Sounds good, but how do you get these kinds of results?
I'm happy to say that we have figured out the solution after 10+ years of experience with REAL preschoolers.
Would you like to know the secrets?
Sounds good, but how do you get these kinds of results?
I'm happy to say that we have figured out the solution after 10+ years of experience with REAL preschoolers.
Would you like to know the secrets?
Ok, here they are! :)
First things first:
With young children, there are some other really important basics to work on before they even touch a pencil if you REALLY want to set them up for success.
Imagine learning a new sport. You don't usually go out the very first day and try to play a real game.
NOPE. You first begin with the foundations. Same with handwriting.
The kids who will be most successful in the long run are the ones who start out right.
What should they do FIRST??
Build up those important little hand and finger muscles!!
You can start out with anything that requires hand strength (but is FUN - as we always want to disguise "learning activities" as fun when we can). Lots of time with playdough is one of my personal favorites.
Of course, we will give you TONS of ideas if you decide to purchase our Sunshine Learn to Write Program. But I bet you can think of lots of great activities your little one can do to get stronger hands through play. Keep switching it up to keep it interesting.
Once they start to get stronger hands, you can move on to building up the muscles used for the pincher grasp (how they will hold the pencil eventually).
First things first:
With young children, there are some other really important basics to work on before they even touch a pencil if you REALLY want to set them up for success.
Imagine learning a new sport. You don't usually go out the very first day and try to play a real game.
NOPE. You first begin with the foundations. Same with handwriting.
The kids who will be most successful in the long run are the ones who start out right.
What should they do FIRST??
Build up those important little hand and finger muscles!!
You can start out with anything that requires hand strength (but is FUN - as we always want to disguise "learning activities" as fun when we can). Lots of time with playdough is one of my personal favorites.
Of course, we will give you TONS of ideas if you decide to purchase our Sunshine Learn to Write Program. But I bet you can think of lots of great activities your little one can do to get stronger hands through play. Keep switching it up to keep it interesting.
Once they start to get stronger hands, you can move on to building up the muscles used for the pincher grasp (how they will hold the pencil eventually).
BUT don't get ahead of yourself here. We are not actually going to be giving them a pencil yet.
Once again, we want to simply build up those muscles and KEEP. IT. FUN.
Think tiny objects (as long as they are past the "eating everything stage" of course).
These can be toys, nature items, etc. Whatever your child enjoys!
Extra points if they have to push/pull the items together/apart, too. The more muscles needed, the better.
After a bit of this, you can introduce some other fun activities like kids chopsticks and scissors, too.
Once again, we want to simply build up those muscles and KEEP. IT. FUN.
Think tiny objects (as long as they are past the "eating everything stage" of course).
These can be toys, nature items, etc. Whatever your child enjoys!
Extra points if they have to push/pull the items together/apart, too. The more muscles needed, the better.
After a bit of this, you can introduce some other fun activities like kids chopsticks and scissors, too.
Here are a couple great options on Amazon:
(The first ones are REALLY good for beginning cutters since they spring back open for easier cutting, and the next ones are great as "real" kid scissors since they cut great, but have a blunt tip for safety.
(The first ones are REALLY good for beginning cutters since they spring back open for easier cutting, and the next ones are great as "real" kid scissors since they cut great, but have a blunt tip for safety.
**Of course, ALWAYS supervise your child with scissors. Unless you want him/her to get a new haircut or cut their clothing up!
By now, your little one likely has pretty strong hands... IF you've been making sure to incorporate these activities regularly for a while. Take your time, you will be happy you did later!
One more step before we introduce a pencil:
Coloring with little pieces of crayons! You know all those crayons that drive you crazy when they get broken? Those are actually PERFECT. For extra fun, you can even get some little rock crayons, too (not necessary, but they are a great tool).
The goal with the tiny crayon pieces or coloring rocks, is that kids have to hold them with their pincher grasp. It's much harder to hold a tiny item for coloring with a fist grip.
Set them up for success!
Feel free to print out coloring pictures and/or just give them big sheets of paper to color on. Making large motions where they have to cross the midpoint of their body is actually a great way to develop the brain for reading skills later, too!
You can even take it outside with small pieces of chalk. Just keep an eye on how they hold the coloring tools and try to offer the size where they typically use the pincher grasp the most.
Once you have done this for a while, I highly recommend to allow them to use small crayon bits to begin some tracing activities.
You can find lots of fun sheets online to print out with curves, diagonals, zig-zags, etc. Start off easy, and then slowly add more challenging ones.
(If you get our writing program, we will supply you with many great ones to use.)
Set them up for success!
Feel free to print out coloring pictures and/or just give them big sheets of paper to color on. Making large motions where they have to cross the midpoint of their body is actually a great way to develop the brain for reading skills later, too!
You can even take it outside with small pieces of chalk. Just keep an eye on how they hold the coloring tools and try to offer the size where they typically use the pincher grasp the most.
Once you have done this for a while, I highly recommend to allow them to use small crayon bits to begin some tracing activities.
You can find lots of fun sheets online to print out with curves, diagonals, zig-zags, etc. Start off easy, and then slowly add more challenging ones.
(If you get our writing program, we will supply you with many great ones to use.)
The goal is to slowly introduce staying on the line. Don't worry if they don't do that at first - that is TOTALLY normal.
Many of our preschoolers will just kind of color around the general area in the beginning. Eventually, they will realize that the goal is to stay on the lines.
These are all normal developmental stages - so please don't try to rush them.
Just like with anything, if you wait until a child is really ready for something, you will get good results rather quickly.
In the meantime, be sure to keep up with all the FUN hand and finger strengthening activities as before. You definitely don't want your little one to loose all that strength now!
Once tracing lines starts to become easy, you can move on to some real letters.
To begin with, I highly recommend using large letters and having no more than 4 on a page.
Here's an example of one of ours:
Many of our preschoolers will just kind of color around the general area in the beginning. Eventually, they will realize that the goal is to stay on the lines.
These are all normal developmental stages - so please don't try to rush them.
Just like with anything, if you wait until a child is really ready for something, you will get good results rather quickly.
In the meantime, be sure to keep up with all the FUN hand and finger strengthening activities as before. You definitely don't want your little one to loose all that strength now!
Once tracing lines starts to become easy, you can move on to some real letters.
To begin with, I highly recommend using large letters and having no more than 4 on a page.
Here's an example of one of ours:
In our preschool, we like to teach them how to write their name, too. We will usually use a grey crayon or highlighter to write it, and the kids get to practice tracing them.
After going through the whole alphabet at this larger size, you can decide to do it again, or gradually make the letters smaller. It just depends on your child's age and ability level. We vary it in our preschool depending on what each child needs.
Of course, we also incorporate numbers in our classes and curriculum in a similar fashion.
For children who are going off to kindergarten, we will also teach them to write words and some sentences as we learn them along with our letters and reading curriculum.
You can get all of this to use for your home or school when you purchase our curriculum. It's a great way to help kids learn in a developmentally appropriate way and really sets them up for success!
Our families always tell us how their children that learn through our programs LOVE school and are VERY well prepared for kindergarten!
I hope you enjoy implementing these techniques with your kids/students. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.
If you would like to get our curriculum for yourself, you can easily purchase it here:
After going through the whole alphabet at this larger size, you can decide to do it again, or gradually make the letters smaller. It just depends on your child's age and ability level. We vary it in our preschool depending on what each child needs.
Of course, we also incorporate numbers in our classes and curriculum in a similar fashion.
For children who are going off to kindergarten, we will also teach them to write words and some sentences as we learn them along with our letters and reading curriculum.
You can get all of this to use for your home or school when you purchase our curriculum. It's a great way to help kids learn in a developmentally appropriate way and really sets them up for success!
Our families always tell us how their children that learn through our programs LOVE school and are VERY well prepared for kindergarten!
I hope you enjoy implementing these techniques with your kids/students. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.
If you would like to get our curriculum for yourself, you can easily purchase it here: