How to teach your child to write his/her name

At a certain age (this differs from child to child) they start getting very excited about learning to read and write.  This usually happens before they go to school and it is a good thing that your child can at least write his/her name.

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I have seen many faces lit up if they can write their names or recognize and "read" it.

When you teach your child to write his/her name, you work on the fine motor skills.  You are also preparing him/her for school and it is a good thing if they can write their names before entering school. 

Do not teach your child to write all the letters of his/her name in capital letters - only the first letter must be a capital letter.

It is a good idea to do some pre-writing exercises every day that they can get use to the whole idea of writing and having more control over their motor skills.

Here are a few fun, easy, stress free ways in which you can teach your child to write his/her name

Print his/her name as an outline

It is a major accomplishment for a child to write his/her own name, so make an outline of the name to make it a little bit easier for them to write/trace it.  Type the name as a large font and print it.

Your child will now concentrate to stay within the lines when tracing on the print and that way he/she will also get use to the pattern of his/her name.  If you want to use this method a few times, put some plastic over the print and let your child write with a white board marker that can be wiped off from the plastic.

You can also, once your child is getting better at tracing the letters, print the name with some letters missing and he/she must add it without tracing on printed letters, but must write the letter themselves.

                           

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Fingerpaint with household items

Let them practice the motion of the letters using any household items.  They can fingerpaint in salt, shaving cream or even pudding.

Pudding and shaving cream can be messy but most kids will use it for longer, because they are enjoying the mess without getting in any trouble.

You can put sand or salt on a tray if you are not up for a big mess.

You can now concentrate more on the motion of writing the letters, rather than writing the letters perfectly.  The more they practices the motion, the better his/her small motor skills will become and in turn the writing of the letters.

            

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Use sidewalk chalk

The advantages of using this is not only that you can easily wash it of the walls or paving, but it is also nice and thick and easy to grip in those little hands.

First write his/her name in big letter and ask him/her to mimic the letters.  In time start scaling down on the size of the letters, so that he/she can learn to write the same letters, but in a smaller format. Eventually he/she will be able to write in a normal size on a piece of paper.

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Use a dry erase board

Kids love using a dry erase board, because they can do it over and over and write and wipe and not have to look at any mistakes they have made. This also saves a lot of paper.

Pack out the letter of his/her name

Print the name or the words you want him/her to write out on a paper and put the letters in a container.  The child must now search for the correct letters and put it in the right order.  

This does not only teach recognizing the correct letters, but also patience in finding the correct ones.

In due time you can take away the printed name and he/she must pack out the letters of his/her name.

       

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These are just a few ideas how your child can learn to write his/her name.  

Remember that this is a total new skill that must be learned so you will have to be patient.  

Let him/her learn in his/her own time but practice a few minutes every day.  The more he/she practices, the more control he/she will have on forming the letters, the smaller and more eligible it will become.

For some ideas on pre-writing exercises you can watch the video

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