When to Start Handwriting

In my daughters preschool they start by tracing letters, and taking objects (beans, ripped pieces of paper, etc) and gluing them onto a paper with a letter on it. Perhaps you can start there?

At that age, I would do alternative things. For example, fill a large rectangular tupperware bin with rice. Have her draw her letters with her finger in the rice.I wouldn't concentrate on letters yet, as their fine motor skills take some time to catch up with their cognitive skills in deciphering what letters mean. I don't usually start working on writing before age 5. Some might be ready earlier, and some later, so be flexible in that. If she is struggling, don't make it a battle. It's not a race. You don't want her frustrated with learning. One day it will click. When my oldest was in montessori school, the teacher explained that children have sensitive periods where they are more capable of learning particular skills. The key is to be in tune with their sensitive periods and take full advantage of them. So, she may be ready to read in a small window of opportunity. If you take that opportunity when it arises, she may do very well, and it should come easily. However, if you miss that opportunity and try to teach it when she isn't as ready, then it will be much harder. The windows open and close, so it isn't an all or nothing thing. Enjoy her!

she is not too young to learn how to make the shapes of the letters but to make them small, concise, in straight lines TOTALLY. Think side walk chalk or dry erase markers on a white board or a mirrior. you can use paper but let her make them BIG. Start with the first letter of her name. Do one letter at a time.

Before you work on handwriting, work on writing curves, wiggles, zigzags and lines, you can make it fun. They are the basics of handwriting and need to be addressed first. Also, it doesn't matter that she hasn't grasped it yet, it's part of the learning process. It's easier if they use a fatter crayon/marker instead of a pencil.

Some good printable line tracing worksheets here that are good for fine motor skills.

http://www.ziggityzoom.com/print.php?activity=186

schoolsparks.com/kindergarten-worksheets/category/fine-motor-tracing-lines

Writing letters with her finger in a plate full of sand or sugar, or shaving cream is fun too. As is using a piece of yarn on a sandpaper and other crafty things like that will teach her to remember the shapes.

The readiness is all... if you feel you're "beating a dead horse" and she's only 3 1/2 -- then my guess would be she isn't ready for the kind of instruction you're giving.

I think there are some wonderful suggestions of fun ways to experience letter awareness --writing in rice, whipcream, sand. . But if she's frustrated and you are feeling she's a "lost cause" at this age -- then maybe the real focus should be on reducing your expectations and allowing her natural development to lead you .

You say you are introducing her to reading at this age? Why? It seems so premature. This is not a race. "Reading" and "writing" at 3 1/2 doesn't make her more intelligent. I would suggest that by allowing her to creatively experience her world fully, and explore it in ways that feel developmentally right and natural for her -- you will do more to challenge her intelligence and encourage it

She will work on all this in kindergarten ultimately -- making it fun now, and exposing her to some basics -- in a gradual way , should be the goal. If you are feeling frustrated -- so is she. A love of learning is what you want to develop , not a resistance to it.

So I would relax (and let her as well) -- and take your cues from her interest level

What a interesting question.I am a Handwriting development specialist and I would say at 3.5 you should be working with your child on Handwiting Readiness.

Work on getting thier
fine motor skills
grip developed
Body awareness
Social/behavioral skills development
Language and readiness skills
Early math concepts skills including directionality
Letter recognition, matching, vocabulary, rhyming
Imitation, problem solving, patterns, and sequencing
You should use Multisensory activities and make it fun an exciting.

At actual writing workbooks should come at age 4/5 .

Certified Handwiting Development Specialist

www.writetoshine.com
www.facebook.com/wite2shine
The Write to Shine®program Individualized Handwriting Tutoring based on the highly acclaimed Handwriting Without Tears® program

it's all in the attitude...make it fun & she'll learn.

That said, for beginning letters, I use a dry erase/wipe clean set of books & workbooks. "Before You Print"..."Before You Write" are both similar series. My books are 5+ years old & still going strong!

In these activites, children learn to draw curves/lines/etc by tracing pathways. Each page is an individual page....a curve filling out the side of a clown's face....an "s" curve taking a duck from the barnyard to the pond. It's things like this that make the learning fun! & we do these books for a month or so before moving on.

The next step is switching to the ABC & basic # books in the series. The 4yo in my daycare uses these almost daily now. She is very proud of the fact that she is beginning to identify more & more letters!

Thru all of this writing practice, I make sure to incorporate hands-on activities for the kids. The great part of hands-on is that it can apply all across the spectrum, age-wise! Last week, we worked on the letter "O" for the 4yo. "Owl" was our word for the week, & I used construction paper circles to teach the 2 2yo boys the "circle" shape & colors. We also used the circles to count & then used them for an owl gluing project. The 4yo did all of her own cutting, too! It amazes me how this all ties together ....& so easily.

Hope this helps!

I would have her trace letters with her finger in sand, rice, etc...
Also, trace lines(straight, curvy, zig zag)

I agree with Brown Eyed girl. My two 1/2 year old can write a couple of letters but we didn't start there. We started with just plain old coloring with pencils (and colored pencils) just to get the idea of holding a pencil. I would show her how mommy holds a pencil and then put her hands on it, which she would almost immediately move, but I never force it.

We like painting in pudding and shaving cream on the table and writing our letters in that. I also would make the letter in glue and then sprinkly giltter or sand on it. We make the letters out of paper, beans, beads, pipecleaners, etc. Or do rubbings of the stencils of the letters.

Just have fun don't force it!

give it a year. but, have her draw. or simple things like lines and circles.

Handwriting starts with things that lead to small motor control of the muscles in the hands/wrists/arms.
If she's playing with play dough, finger paints, stringing beads/pasta or lacing cards, cutting out shapes with safety scissors, coloring, using sidewalk chalk, etc - then she's already working on those small muscles just fine.
When my son was in Montessori, they didn't want the kids tracing shapes till they were about 5 years old.

my kids preschool had them try to write their name at 3 years. they had dotted letters adn the kids followed the dots.. then as they got better no dots.. by the end of an entire school year they could write their name very very sloppy almost illegible.

so.. start with a letter in her name. maybe the first letter of her name. keep trying practice a couple of days a week..

NOTE<<< she does nto need to know anything before kindergarden.. my daughter is in kindergarden and they are doing 1 letter per day. they talk about letters numbers colors in kindergarden.. so dont be in a rush to teach too much..

My daughter was in pre-k at the end of 3yo until 4, they practiced writing ith their fingers in shaving cream on the able for fun.
i think when they are interested. One week she may find it fun one week she may J. want to play with food and make a mess and feel diferent textures. My daughter loved it and was able to write her name and a good amount of sigh words before 3, without M. asking her to, she was J. into it., BUT you know what then she lost interest and picked up interest in math so they all average out eventually, with a few smarty pant's mixed in=) I remember times where her friends parents would stress they didn't do the same as her, BUT they're all pretty much even now. So J. let her be a kid! Thats what I'm hearing from my post on homework for K too, and I think I' gonna take that advice=)

Schools usually teach it in 3 rd grade. But you may have to teach her as it is becoming a dying art!
Handwriting requires more developed fine motor skills than printing. You may want to get her one of those printing tablets where she can trace the letters if she would enjoy that.
I used to work in early childhood intervention. One of the most important things learned was not to push something a child is not ready for. They may be working on a different, but just as important development.

My daughter was 2 1/2 when she started writing her letters and name. She was the most interested in it and wanted to learn unlike her younger brother. My son was 3 when he started writing his uppercase abc's and name. Were still working on numbers and lowercase abc's. Your daughter is definetly not too young, just keep giving her opportunities to practice.

I teach 3 and 4 year olds and we trace letters, glue things onto cardstock letters and they practice writing their names every day.

Okay, my son is now 5.
He, compared to my daughter, had NO interest in writing.
And yes, he was in Preschool.
I went by his cues, and per the Teachers.
They said, each child is different.
Not just per age.

Now, WHEN my son started Kindergarten, he was 4 and turned 5 shortly after. NOW he IS writing! All on his own.
Per his Kindergarten Teacher, I told her he is not writing. SHE said "NO WORRIES! Each child is different. He will be fine!" and he is.
She said "DO NOT FORCE THE CHILD or pressure them.... they will get it. And they will learn it, here."
And she is right.

Versus my daughter, she was writing at 2 years old.

I did not worry about my son and his writing. He is FINE now. All on his own and timeline.
AND many other of his classmates, are the SAME.

Just have your daughter do coloring books. This works the fine-motor skills and finger/hand movements. It does NOT have to be 'writing' per say.

Hello, I would wait a few more months and try again. Right now, I would focus on letting her scribble. Then go to circles. Scribbling is a prewriting excercise.
Good luck with your precious little girl.
K. K.

At this age their development in this area is still from the elbow or maybe even from the shoulder. They don't, or should not, have the ability at this age to write even somewhat legibly. They should be able to scribble well and try to color within the lines but not be able to accomplish it for another year or so.

Google developmental stages or go to parentcenter.com and put in your child's age and find articles about handwriting development.

She really is a bit young to grasp the concept of her fine motor skills and making a letter, which even though she "knows" them doe not rally understand them.. She understands the sun is bright and in the sky.. She understands the grass is green and on the ground.. she can kind of color these.. but letters are symbols.. totally different.

Continue to do fine motor skills with her. Let her use colors, pencils and markers on all sorts of paper.. Any way she wants. Maybe practice straight lines, circles and squiggles.. She will begin to have more control with making her brain capture the pattern and then be able to make her hand do what she wants.

Our son's preschool is starting a "Handwriting without Tears" curriculum. You can read more at hwtears.com. His class is 4-5 yrs old. They start pretty simply from what I can tell so far. Last week they started practicing tracing straight lines. This week, they start "L", which is just 2 straight lines. Next week is "E", 3 straight lines. Their program is all about condensing all the letters into 4 components: long line, short line, small curve (like in "P") and big curve (like in "D"). They don't learn the letters in order, rather build on the simplest ones like "L" before they get to "B". They learn the capitals first.
One fun thing is that they're not just focusing on using a crayon, marker or pencil. They're learning making the letters using their pointer finger. They'll put shaving cream, sprinkles, other messy stuff on a tray and have the kids practice with their finger. As they get better with holding a pencil or crayon, they start practicing with that. It seems that most of the kindergartners (1 year older) who have been in the program have good, legible handwriting.
EDITED: I should also mention: In parallel, the school is doing Zoophonics, which exposes the kids to the lower-case letters in parallel with the capitals for handwriting. They don't do the same letter each week, which doesn't seem to be a problem. Example, my son is learning the letter and sound of lower-case "d", but he's learning to write "L" this week. I imagine that in a few more weeks, he'll be able to write and sound out anything with a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j and L,F,E,T, and so on. Best thing is that my son is REALLY excited about both reading and sounding out words, AND trying to write, which is a huge leap from just 6 weeks ago.

I am not sure I would call it "hand writing" in my class we are doing early writing which simply is Tracing. We trace our names twice a week in preschool right now....some kids grasp it immediately and some act like it is a punishment.
Get lined paper and work on tracing...good luck = )
**also encouraging junior to hold the pencil and or crayon is a big first step!

My son was 3.5 when he wrote his name for the first time, but he only has 4 letters in his name. He's now almost 5 and is just now learning the rest of his upper case letters and all his lower case letters. For now, focus on what she can learn without having to coordinate pencil to paper :)

A wonderful thing is to "dance" out the letters on the floor. You can mark the "path" of each letter with masking tape and it's a really a fun way to become familiar with the particular lines & curves involved in each one.

My kids got minimal instruction in cursive writing at school when they were in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade. By the time they hit 5th grade, all handwriting instruction is over and neither of my kids are confident enough to use cursive as their primary writing. It's very disappointing.

3.5 seems pretty young to start because they don't have the fine motor skills yet, but when your child is ready, it will be up to you to peruse hand writing because teachers just dont' have time anymore. I have tried to stress the importance of mastering it to my children, but they have no interest and are not encouraged to do so in school. I don't know what is going to happen when they are adults and have to sign documents!

At 3.5 they should be given this "test" at the doctor, if not in school, where they draw a line over another line, they are asked to draw shapes like circles and to draw two lines parallel and one set cross, like a t. this is to make sure they are on the path to understanding how to write letters and that they have the spacial relationships mastered to begin letter writing. Look online, I bet you will find it and how to interpret it.
That said, my kiddos didn't start writing actual letters at preschool until age 4. It was their names at sign in and sign out. Some days it was just a scribble, but about 6 months later, they could spell and know how to write names - only to say. Now is a good time to play with it and if you can, instead of saying "Write a D." say "Draw a straight line, now make a curve." that really helped my son when starting, I would show him how an "a" was really a circle with a line by it, etc. and praise, praise, praise (as I am sure you do :) - I als really like the dry erase boards that are lined like paper. We use them at home and my boys love them!).
Have fun!