We have a schedule and children love highlighting in it as they complete a particular lesson or an activity. It keeps me organized, and children have a clear weekly plan in front of them, which allows them to monitor their progress. I believe that good habits form a good character, so as part of Adrian's morning routine, he starts the day by writing in his workbooks.
To keep the motivation burning, I offer Adrian various workbooks, and he picks according to his current mood: it can be Numbers tracing (buy here), Letters (buy Uppercase here and Lowercase here), Logic Workbook (buy here), Spatial Reasoning (buy here) and so forth. The goal is to make his experience diverse, interesting and desirable. Working with these workbooks develops his concentration, stamina, and most importantly, fine motor skills.
Fine motor control is one of the most essential skills that will lead to efficiency in completing tasks such as writing, cutting, using a fork/spoon, threading, manipulating puzzle pieces, zipping, buttoning, tying shoelaces and so many more. Without well-developed fine motor skills, which is a coordination of small muscles in the hands and fingers, a child may have difficulty learning to write or performing many of the other critical tasks presented in the preschool and kindergarten classrooms. By practicing, the child masters these essential skills, while captivating workbooks make the process fun and engaging.
LOWER CASE WRITING
Below, Adrian is working with My First Book of Lowercase Letters (buy here) at 3 years old (2017-09-17). The Kumon workbooks are based on the "Kumon Method" – an educational philosophy that introduces learning concepts in an incremental, step-by-step approach, allowing children to master new skills easily and without anxiety or frustration. As a result, children gain confidence in their abilities and are motivated to learn on their own. For example, the child first masters straight lines like in z, k, l, before moving on to curved ones like in o, s, q.
When teaching a child to write, you would start with lowercase letters since they are most prevalent.
A pincer grip, a common term among elementary school educators, therapists, and doctors, is the grasp used by the index finger and thumb to pinch a pen/pencil, shoelace, or a puzzle piece.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/252060805
It takes time and practice for children to strengthen the muscles used in the pincer grip. It is important to demonstrate to your child the proper pincer grip, using only a thumb and a pointer finger. When showing, open your thumb and pointer finger as wide as possible before closing on the pen. Also, keep your three remaining fingers (the middle finger, ring finger and pinky finger) tight against your palm, so that only your thumb and pointer finger are doing the work.
All KUMON "writing" workbooks illustrate the proper pencil grip by forming an "L" with two fingers, not three! It is much easier though for a child to have control over a pencil with three fingers (similar to what Adrian did while tracing k and q), but it is much encouraged to instill the proper pencil grip from the start as to avoid unlearning improper grip.
And writing needs not be only in a workbook! Make writing fun! Go outside, explore and offer a child to write own name using nature's objects. Here, Adrian wrote his name with what he could find in our backyard: sticks, stones, and fern!
Make writing diverse! Write with a puzzle (buy Magnetic Pattern Blocks Set here), LEGO, pom poms and more!
Below {from the most recent}, I listed links to our language writing progress and Adrian's fine motor development.
See here a video post "Refining Straight Lines in 🔠 Uppercase Letter-Writing at 39 months," and here where Adrian was tracing in the same workbook, but a month earlier, at 38 months.
See here a video post "✍️Tracing ABCs 🐋Animal Flash Cards with a💧Water 🖋️ Pen."
Buy Water Flash Cards here.
Below, see a video of Adrian spontaneously beginning to write his name at 37 months! Before that, he was just doodling.
See here a video "1️⃣ First Time ✍️Writing Own name 'Adrian' at 37 months."
For more on Adrian's weekly schedule and other workbooks …
See here 👦🏼Adrian's ✍️ 🔢 Math Workbooks Round Up• Keeping a Schedule.
If you are looking for a fun interactive education sticker workbook, Adrian loves his BLUE book (below/buy here). For girls, there is a similar PINK book (buy here).
See here "A ❤️Favorite 📘 BLUE Book at 36 months."
My Brilliantly Blue Sticker book (buy here) has been Adrian's absolute favorite since he was two years old because of the diversity of subjects (e.g. transportation, dinosaurs, farm animals, solar system etc.,) hands-on application and many-many bright blue stickers!
For totally hands-on "letter-making" see here Wikki Stix Alphabet Cards.
For sensorial "writing" see here a🎥 post "Dropper Writing Letter M with LEGO (Language 101)."
Does your child have a favorite workbook? Leave a comment! I love hearing from you!
p.s. You might also want to check out our "🔠 Letter Series (Montessori Language)" posts here which has a lot of links to letter recognition activities we have been doing since Adrian was two years old.
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