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HELP! Need ideas to make writing fun!

post #1 of 15
9/9/05 at 2:33pm
Thread Starter 
Cody (my 5 yr old) is not doing well with writing. He gets extremely frustrated when he can't form a letter properly. I keep printing out different worksheets for him to practice with, but he just doesn't seem to be "getting it". Does anyone have any ideas to make writing fun for a kindergartener that is struggling???
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post #2 of 15
9/9/05 at 2:41pm
Have him write letters to family or friends .. even to you and his dad .. even mail them out! Write the letters with squirt icing onto each others hands. Trace letters into sugar on a cookie sheet. Bathtub crayons on the bathtub walls. sidewalk chalk and dry erase markers on mirrors and windows.
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post #3 of 15
9/9/05 at 2:44pm
Thread Starter 
Oooooh ... you're good!
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post #4 of 15
9/9/05 at 2:46pm
Here's a link with some ideas.

http://familyfun.go.com/parenting/le...6_famf66write/
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post #5 of 15
9/9/05 at 2:59pm
Here's another links.

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LAK1.htm - Scroll down to the writing part.
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post #6 of 15
9/9/05 at 3:30pm
I was going to suggest tracing it with his finger into sand, sugar, or salt.

Have you found any of the worksheets that have the tracing arrows? I hate that they didn't teach kids how to write letters correctly at Haley's school. To this day in 4th grade she still starts her "L"'s from the bottom of the page.
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post #7 of 15
9/9/05 at 3:32pm
Thread Starter 
I bought a book yesterday at the school supply store that I can photocopy tracing sheets, but he just doesn't even like doing that He has a hard time even following the lines. Maybe we'll try the finger writing thing for awhile. Wonder if I could get him to do better with finger paints??
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post #8 of 15
9/9/05 at 4:57pm
Michael hates worksheets so we try tracing with finger paints, or letting him write the letter freehanded on a blank sheet of paper.


I agree Roxanna has great ideas!
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post #9 of 15
9/9/05 at 7:00pm
Thread Starter 
I think we'll try some fingerpaint this weekend. Isn't there a recipe somewhere for homemade finger paints? Or am I imagining things??
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post #10 of 15
9/9/05 at 8:39pm
My son had a really hard time at the beginning of the school year (kindergarten) with writing and got really frustrated. I eventually found out that some kids who have speech problems also problems with their fine motor skills. William's speech delay was due to a motor planning problem. He knew what he wanted to say, but the signal between his brain and mouth would scramble and his mouth didn't know how to move to get sounds to come out right. The same thing was happening between his brain and hand. He knew how the letters should look, but actually getting the hand to do what he wanted was his problem. (I don't know if I'm explaining this very well.) Anyway, I was able to get his pediatrician to refer him to a occupational therapist and got our insurance to cover it. It did wonders for him. His therapist was terrific with him, and she used a program called "Handwriting without Tears". It is a ball and stick method, and it helps the child plan out how to form the letters.

Handwriting without tears

I know you've mentioned your boys' speech problems, and since they sound similar to my boys, I just thought I'd share. The first few months of the school year were hell for us last year because William had become so frustrated.
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post #11 of 15
9/13/05 at 6:40am
Dawn, both my boys have writing "issues" too. They balk when I ask them to write their names down on their school papers...because their handwriting is not as "nice looking" as others.

Or I guess you could try the old "sticker chart" method, like he gets a sticker for writing so much a day.

Have him stomp out letters to his name in the snow.

Or concentrate on the letters in his name.

That's all I got this mornin'

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post #12 of 15
9/13/05 at 8:31am
great ideas from everyone i cant suggest anything better
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post #13 of 15
9/13/05 at 12:44pm
Dawn I think you are right somewhere on the board, thinking it might be TT or PP that there is a recipe for homeade finger paints. Cody I know you can do it.
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post #14 of 15
9/13/05 at 2:27pm
Dawn, you may even want to look into the Handwriting Without Tears program. I know that Rainbow Resource Center carries the materials. It is not very expensive, and both my kids who had difficulty with fine motor activities loved it.

HTH
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post #15 of 15
9/13/05 at 4:57pm
Fingerpainting is WONDERFUL for developing better control! Any kind of arts-n-crafts will help. Don't just consider that the issue is "writing better," it really isn't. The issue is developing the fine motor skills in the hands, with better hand-eye coordination. So play-doh, finger-play songs/games, cooking, lacing cards, puzzles, painting with anything, including sponges and brushes and sand and glue and mustard and fingerpaint. Chalk is a TOTALLY different medium and yet it involves exactly the same muscles and skills. Don't get stuck on pencil-and-paper. Markers and crayons and clay all give you the same end result. Also, don't get stuck on visible results. Rather than a goal of well-written-letters, think of the goal as being "strong hands that he has better control of" and so... let it be FUN! A 5-year-old will learn far better through play than structured writing practice.

One of my favorite books when I was teaching was called Process Art, which was about art-for-the-sake-of-creating, not with a goal of something for Mom and Dad to hang up on the fridge or for making the same project that all the other kids did.

Control comes after the muscles - and the attention span - are ready.

Rani
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