My son is 4, turning 5 in March. He's been enrolled in an ECFE preschool last year and this year. He is left handed and does struggle a bit with fine motor skills. He knows all the letters in the alphabet, and can count to 20. He's working on writing his name, but it is a bit messy and compared to many of his peers, he seems to be a bit behind.
My question - how much time should I try to spend with him at home working on writing skills? He's come a long way in his preschool this year (there are only 7 kids so he gets more personal time with the teachers), but really would rather just play when he is at home. I don't want to make "homework" a negative thing at age 4 so I've been letting it go. But, today, his teacher gave us some materials so we could "practice his letters at home". Now, to me at age 4, this seems early, but maybe I should be spending more time on it?
Your thoughts are appreciated. Especially from those whose kids seemed a bit slower to want to spend time working on writing. I know some kids that really are motivated to learn/write their letters but my son seems to be happy knowing them, working on reading skills instead of writing skills.
Thanks!
Jessica
Thanks everyone for your comments. I think we'll just keep what we are doing. We do most of the things you all suggested in our weekly play already (but for the shaving cream - I think I'll leave that for ECFE - they do it in the classroom). I was just feeling pressure to work on it because his teacher gave us stuff to bring home. We do puzzles, regular lego's (not the duplo kind), he has some new building toys that require finer motor skills, painting, etc. So, we'll just keep that up and call it good. We've done his preschool screening - we actually did it at age 3, so it was a while a go now. At that time, he was very advanced in every way but for his pencil grip. :)
Thanks again!
Jessica
Wow. Let him play! Learning doesn't have to mean "sit down and do homework". Play IS learning for children. As others have suggested, choose toys that will teach him motor skills, and an easel is fun to write/draw on. Many children are still learning handwriting through K and 1st grade and on.
good grief, he has plenty of time to learn all that. That's what kindergarten is for! Keep it fun, offer him opportunities to practice if he wants, and when he's done, let him be done.
check out this site - for ideas on activities to do with him, and for a realistic sense of where he needs to be for K. (It's from the MN Dept of Ed.)
http://www.blastofftok.org/index.php
If you're concerned about him, have you done his prescreening yet? It's required by the state before he enters kindergarten, it's free, and it's actually kind of fun.
It sounds like he's doing really well. Good luck with kindergarten!
I'm a preschool teacher, and here are a few of my suggestions.
Go to Ikea and get him a cheap easel. (It's easier to write on a vertical surface than a flat one.)
Do lots of games and activities that use fine motor skills (like puzzles or legos).
Make it a family expectation that everyone in the family writes something on cards -- family birthdays, Valentine cards, thank yous, Grandma & Grandpa's anniversary card, etc. We have done that since our children were tiny, and now they write wonderful, heartfelt messages on all the cards we send to family.
Look into "Handwriting Without Tears," -- you can google it easily -- a company that specializes in helping kids learn better penmanship.
We were told by our Pre-K 4 teacher we needed to work on my son's handwriting. (He was in a private catholic school.) We were given homework to help him and in my opinion it was a lot! What I did is I focused on games that helped with his fine motor skills such as legos, painting, threading beads, (like to make a necklace or bracelet) puzzles, etc. I noticed a big difference and he currently is in the 2nd grade with the best penmanship! The smaller the pieces to work with the better...it improves the fine motor skills.
Give it a try! Good Luck...
Boys' brains develop differently from girls' brains. The language center of boys' brains (words, writing, etc) develop later than in girls' brains. However, gross motor skills, math, fantasy play, etc. develop faster in boys. I think we put too much pressure on boys to learn to do the things that girls do at the same time. Since most preschool and kindergarten teachers are women, and more moms than dads show up at parent-teacher conferences, we tend to stress ourselves out that our boys aren't as smart, when really, that part of their brain isn't wired up yet. He'll embrace writing when he's ready. I agree with the other responders who are telling you to provide lots of opporutunities to read and write around him. Keep reading him stories and playing word games in the car, etc. But don't worry about it!
By the way, the research I'm referring to above was done by Leonard Sax, MD, PhD. His web site, www.whygendermatters.com, has helped me figure out why my boys and girls do the things they do! I think all parents and teachers of boys should consider what Dr Sax has to say.
I know from personal experience that boys would rather not write! My son is in 5th grade and for his entire life if he could avoid paper and pencil (or even crayons) he would. However you need to help him now, especially if his PreK teacher is giving you extra work.... then he needs it. Kindergarten they learn alot of stuff very fast... it moves very quickly and they often have spelling tests for sight words by the end of the year. If he is having trouble with writting and is behind from the beginning of the year it will only get worse. As I said my son is in 5th grade he hates writting and his hand writting is TERRIBLE. In fact his preschool sister writes neater than he does. He rushes through paper work because he doesn't enjoy it at all but... that is just the way it is.
If your son like electronic toys there are tons out there that help write letters and its not really homework if they are playing. One of our favorites is the fisher price computer cool school. It hooks up to your computer and have an area that you put cards under, trace them and what you trace shows up on the computer monitor. There are letters, numbers, shapes, ever just squiggles that helps with fine motor skills. There is an art center that lets them make lots of fun pictures too. Also helping with the motor skills. Just be careful and play with the toys before you buy them. My older daughter had a toy that unless you wrote it exactly they way the computer did it would say try again. The letter looked the same but say she drew the top line, bottem line then middle line of the E and the computer wanted you going from the top down, that kind of thing. She is also left handed. Her writting is pretty neat (for being left handed) but in first grade now her teacher is making her work harder on it.
I don't think there is really a time limit that you can put on it... just work on it some every night or afternoon whatever. Reward him for good effort and cooperation and try to make it fun. Someone suggested using other mediums (then paper and pencil) for my son and that helps. Shaving cream on the table.... you draw a letter... let him trace in your mark and see how it feels... then he can try on his own. Not just letters but shapes and stuff too. Also using finger paint, or painting with a paint brush, playing in sand, or flour (if you are brave enough for that all over the kitchen).
Hope this helps :) good luck
my daughter was prescreened at 5yrs for kindergarten,they spent a whole day with her-test after test-at the end of the day-their conclusion-my daughter was basically retarded-i was devestated to say the least-i asked how they came to this conclusion-their answer-shes left handed,she answered very few questions,an failed 90% of the tests.the said to put her in head start-just to give her a chance to see how she would do in a public school-so i said ok..still confused-well she went-they were confused why she was there-they said there was nothing wrong with her at all-just shy-not retarded...this was 24 yrs ago...theres absoulutely nothing wrong with her.being a lefty-is a gift.todays kids are pushed so hard an fast its stupid.take your time with your child.good luck
If you have a school supply store nearby (we have United Arts and Education in the Indianapolis area), I'd recommend taking him there and letting him pick some things.
We got our kids cheap posters ($1.99 each), construction paper, etc. One of our sons favorite new toys is an alphabet stencil he got in a goody bag from a birthday party this weekend. He's barely been parted from it the past 2 days.
As a lefty, too, I'd encourage you not to use a lot of the left-handed products or techniques. Teach him how to hold his pencil correctly (not the lefty hook) and how to use real scissors. it will pay dividends in the end.
We're luck that our kids love being at the library and playing games. even something like candy land can be fun if you alter it to have more letters, etc. on it.
Good luck! I think one-on-one attention will go a long way as long as it's fun and not a chore.
We're in Texas so I know that school expectations are different down here but it seems like he is right on track to me. My daughter is in kindergarten now and is still working on writing her name correctly but she is right on track as far as the teacher is concerned. I would concentrate on playing games that help to strengthen his overall fine motor skills, not just focusing specifically on writing his letters. Play with playdoh, find a toy that he can button and unbutton, or work with putting laces through the holes. Even just coloring with crayons will translate into improved fine motor skills and better handwriting.
Good luck,
K.
The only things I would add to the great advice is:
1) find activities for him that build his torso and shoulder muscles as these as necessary to writing success. Even though my son seemed strong to me he made huge strides in writing after he started doing karate and archery.
2) We bought a large sheet of melamine (sp?) board (the stuff they make white boards out of) at Menards. We trimmed it to fit on a door and then gave our son a pile of colorful dry-erase markers and he has a blast drawing pictures, writing, etc. Not as messy as painting but still helps him build the muscles for writing.
My son turned 5 in July and started Kindergarden this fall. He had no desire to write and couldn't even hold a pen/pencil correctly a year ago despite his preschool teachers efforts and the time we worked on it at home. I was considering keeping him home another year but our district has a 3 week summer school program for incoming kindergardeners so I enrolled him and by the end he was writing his name and was genuinely interested in learning letters and wanted to work on them at home. Now half-way through the school year he knows all his letters and some simple words. He is constantly asking how to spell words and likes to try and write all the time. I know every child is different and I was totally thrown off after having 2 girls first but I know forcing him to try and work all the time at home was not very helpful. Just keep reading and if you are concerned speak with your district and see if they can do some additional testing.
