My son is 3 and has suddenly developed an interest in learning his letters. We've been singing the ABCs, and he can recognize many of the capital letters and tell us something that starts with that letter. The other day he told me he wants to write his name! So I found a site where you can print off those tracing pages for each letter and picked a few to start with. The first one I gave him was E, which is the first letter of his name, and he did great! He very proud of himself, and has been drawing Es everywhere. The next day we tried D for daddy, but the curved side was too hard for him, and he got frustrated. I waited a couple days, then we tried M for mommy, and I thought the straight lines would be easier. But he only tried it once, then got mad when it didn't look right and didn't want to try it again. If you've done this with your kids, which letters did you start with? Is there something better than the tracing pages? I don't want to pressure him but I want to take advantage of his interest to learn.
Instead of pencil and paper, try a magna-doodle or a stick in the dirt, or a finger in shaving cream on the table....
(pencil and paper requires more advance fine motor skills than the other methods. And the kids probably find them much more fun too).
Before you do the trace letters, have him practice the curves, straight lines, diagonal lines... the fundamental basics of the shapes of the letters.
for examples, curved lines:
http://www.kidslearningstation.com/tracing-lines/trace-cu...
diagonal lines:
http://www.kidslearningstation.com/tracing-lines/
I would look up a program called Handwriting Without Tears (you can Google it) - it's what they are using in my DD's 3 year old preschool class. You can make it more fun by having him use his finger to trace letters in sand, shaving cream, etc. That might be easier for him than trying to master holding a pencil at the same time.
Also, I have heard it is easiest to learn letters that only have horizontal and vertical lines (like E, H, and T), then letters with diagonals (like M and N), then the ones with curves are the most difficult (like B and D). So some schools teach writing letters in that order, starting with the ones that are easiest and then moving up.
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We use the Kumon dry erase cards - and b/c they are coated they are a bit easier for the kids to write on.
Once the confidence is there I would move him from markers to crayons/pencils b/c (I was told by a teacher) there is a big movement to get markers out of the early classrooms due to the fact they are much easier for children to manipulate and they aren't developing the proper strength in their hands. Good luck!
I agree... find a fun/unusual way to write the letters. You might also print off some block versions of letters for him to color, instead of trying to write.
One word of caution because I learned this the hard way with my daughter who is now four. I had began teaching her to write her letters prior to her entering preschool this year. There is a specific way in which they want the letters written. Meaning for the letter M start at the top of the line going down for the 1st stoke, then back to the top to start second stoke, then bottom to top on the third, top to bottom on the fourth. The circles in the letters b, d, g, are to go in specific direction. When they are in preschool they break each movement down into strokes. My daughter had to unlearn and relearn the movements. She's doing great with it now but wow what a hard thing to unlearn and relearn. I did find several websites with printable tracing letters that do it in the correct stoke order. If I have them book marked I'll send them to you. What I did was have my daughter start out using the bigger crayons which were easier for her to manipulate and then moved onto the bigger pencils once her hands were strong enough to manipulate it properly. We also used plastic knives to draw the letters into rolled out playdough, shaving cream on her outdoor table where she could use her "magic finger" to draw the letters and shapes.
Just praise him as he tries.
