Kate Funk, the creator of Ready-Made Preschool, transformed my thinking about “handwriting” practice for the preschooler.

First let me say that there are preschoolers out there that are ready for true handwriting practice where they pick up a pencil and form letters and numbers that actually look like letters and numbers. One of Little Bug’s friends at church was sick and I asked Little Bug if she wanted to mail her a Get Well card. About a week later, Little Bug received a card from her friend in the mail and needless to say, I was impressed when I opened it up and saw this:

Her little friend turned four a few months ago and is obviously writing letters!

I believe I was one of these early writers and was writing my name by 3 and from an early age showed an interest in writing. Interesting now because I love to write.

But what about the 3-4 year olds who cannot write?

I probably looked at every single handwriting curricula out there at convention, trying to find something I thought would be a good fit for Little Bug. I was empty-handed when it came to handwriting curricula because I just knew getting Little Bug to sit and attempt to write five A’s in a row on a workbook just was going to cause us BOTH stress!

I ended up buying Explode the Code A, B, C which are the first workbooks in the series for the preschooler/Kindergartener. Since it wasn’t a lot of “write five A’s in a row”, I thought it looked to be the best match for her at this point. My friends I was at convention with (who have been homeschooling for years) have used Explode the Code and loved it. They started their preschoolers/Kindergarteners with this little series and had great success. Considering each book was $5.95 at Convention, I bought them with the mind set that we will try them, but if at any point I feel it is not the right timing to do the program, I will put the books away and use them the following year.

And then I met Kate!

As she was sharing with me about Ready-Made Preschool, she told me that many preschoolers are simply not ready to hold a pencil and form letters and numbers in a workbook. Because of this, she believes the emphasize in ‘handwriting’ with the preschooler who is not ready, should be forming letters with Do-A-Dot Markers, in sand and with whipped cream and shaving cream.

We’ve been doing Dot Letters since I started Learning Time with Little Bug and because Little Bug is an “all over the map” kind of kid, she’s always just put the dots on the letters in whatever way she’s wanted.

It wasn’t until I talked with Kate that I realized it is important for the children to put the dots on the paper in the way they would if they were writing the letters. That way they learn the motions of the writing the letters without actually holding a pencil and writing letters. Makes sense!

So, in the Dot Letter M picture that you see above, Little Bug put the dots on the letter M in the way she would if she were writing the letter M. First, I had her just use her pointer finger and “write” the letters. Then she started putting the dots on the letter. We talked about the straight and curvy lines that make the letter Mm. It was cool because I saw what Kate was talking about. Little Bug “wrote” an M with both her pointer finger and the dots. She did the motions of writing an M without having to use pencil and paper, which, developmentally, she is just not ready to do.

I wrote this post for anyone out there (like me just a couple weeks ago) who is a little worried and concerned that their 4 year old can’t write and really isn’t interested in writing! Chill out and don’t worry!!!

Click here and print out Do A Dot worksheets for A to Z from Confessions of a Homeschooler, one of my most favorite homeschool blogs!

Buy some playdoh, shaving cream and sand and let your child practice “writing” that way!

Some 3-4 year olds are simply not ready to write. And that is okay. They will get there and doing these fun little activities will help them get there.

I’m so thankful Kate took the ‘handwriting’ pressure off me for Little Bug’s PK4 year!

- Elaine