Teaching children to print is proving harder then I thought... Well, I figured it would be difficult, but not for the reasons I'm finding now. I thought holding the pencil would be hard, as well as learning how to draw the letters, but I have learned that getting them to sit long enough to learn them, as well as going from tracing to drawing themselves is complicated. And drawing all those dotted lines is time consuming!
So I've found a few ways to make it more interesting, and to help remember the letters better. First, we sing a wonderful song about the words beginnnig with the letters (A has apple, alligator, away, B is for bear, berry, bug, etc) just to learn the letters. Then I take each letter and turn it into an animal or object that starts with that letter. Turn an "A" on it's side an you can make an alligator, or make a "B" into a bear. This helps associate the letter with a shape as well. If you put these in a scrapbook or put them on the wall, you can create an animal alphabet for them to memorise. When driving around in the car there are lots of things that look like letters, or you can read license plates.
I've found that making it seem more fun and less sitting at a table helps, so I've got window writers (Crayola) and allow her to trace letters on the windows or doors, and I let her draw in the frost on the window sometimes. Sure, it's more cleaning, but it's much easier then other ways I've tried to get her to print.
So I've found a few ways to make it more interesting, and to help remember the letters better. First, we sing a wonderful song about the words beginnnig with the letters (A has apple, alligator, away, B is for bear, berry, bug, etc) just to learn the letters. Then I take each letter and turn it into an animal or object that starts with that letter. Turn an "A" on it's side an you can make an alligator, or make a "B" into a bear. This helps associate the letter with a shape as well. If you put these in a scrapbook or put them on the wall, you can create an animal alphabet for them to memorise. When driving around in the car there are lots of things that look like letters, or you can read license plates.
I've found that making it seem more fun and less sitting at a table helps, so I've got window writers (Crayola) and allow her to trace letters on the windows or doors, and I let her draw in the frost on the window sometimes. Sure, it's more cleaning, but it's much easier then other ways I've tried to get her to print.