Introducing children to writing is a journey not a race
Your child is the smartest little person you know. They pick things up lightning fast, they are always curious, they ask you a million questions an hour and they always have a come back for everything.
And yet the pressures of writing from school and even before they start school is worrying you, making you restless and you keep looking for ways to get your child ready for the task.
As an early years educator and early reading and writing mentor, I have to say that learning to write is a journey, not a race. And the one way to get your child to carry positive experiences about the journey is to take it slow, make the process more intentional, and don’t let the pressure of comparison get to you. Because you’ll inevitably end up passing that pressure to your child
The truth is learning to write requires a lot of preparedness and the education system evades this preparedness, putting young children directly upto the task of writing. This only usually makes them more resistant to writing, a resistance that they can carry throughout their student careers.
But how to get children writing ready?
Start with their fine motor skills!
And before you ask, fine motor skills are the ability to make small, precise movements with the hands, fingers, feet and toes. Essentially, it is muscle control, hand-eye coordination and nervous system coordination. Developing fine motor skills helps children do simple every day tasks such as eating, writing, buttoning clothes, combing their hair.
So the first thing to invest time on to get your child writing ready is polishing their hand muscles.
And if you’re wondering how to hone your child’s hand muscles, here are some simple activities to explore with some magnificent House of Zizi products!
Chakla Belan
The House of Zizi child-size, wooden Chakla Belan has been a part of Indian childhoods for generations, even civilizations. Invented during the Indus Valley Civilizations, the Chakla Belan has become that quintessential toy that’s also a great way of passing down culture and tradition. It’s only obvious that something so that has stood the test of time is a great activity for developing a child’s hand muscles. The back and forth movement when moulding clay is great for strengthening hand muscles as well as improving hand-eye coordination.
Mortar and pestle
Another treasure from the Indian household is the mortar and pestle, Designed for little hands, this duo is made to provide a hands-on sensory experience to your child. It can be used to mix, grind, smash different textures like berries, chalk, leaves and everything under the sun. It’s a great tool to let the little scientists exercise their imagination and just have a great time while also improving hand strength and developing their muscles.
Knife and chopping board
Another timeless kitchen gadget from the House of Zizi designed to encourage independence. The House of Zizi Montessori knife is a safe knife great for chopping soft foods like bananas, paneer, watermelon etc. Not only does the activity promote a sense of responsibility and confidence, it’s also another great sensory exploration for toddlers. It also proves a great tool to improve a child’s grip and dexterity, the chopping motion is great practice and lays a solid groundwork for writing readiness.
Shoe Lacing activity
This unique product by our brand is a perfect way to instill this skill that’ll come in handy your child’s entire life. Made of wooden in vibrant colors, this lacing activity is great to develop your focus, improve their attention span, making it a great exercise for their hands as well as brain.
Some additional ideas!
Some other activities that you can and must explore with your child are painting and then gradually scribbling. When a child paints, the brush being more fluid than a pencil or pen, it improves their grip and gives them a real taste of expressing on paper. Let them paint as much as possible and once they feel surer let them explore crayons and chalk.
When your child feels comfortable scribbling is when you progress to making characters and letters and a great medium to introduce them to letter making is sand pit. Let your child draw letters, numbers, lines, shapes, characters in sand with their fingers. Again this activity is great to get them curious about the alphabet and it makes them easier to draw.
These activity can go a long way and I think the longer you explore these and more with your child, the more ready they’ll become to writing. But even so, when introducing writing, or any activity for that matter, it is important to remember that children will engage in a new activity for a short while initially. It is only with time that their capacity for that particular activity will increase. The same goes for writing.
So happy exploring! Enjoy this journey with your child, so they enjoy it too.