I made this a fun experience, although it can be messy. I used finger paint, pudding, shaving cream and even sand. This gave them the strokes and the feel before having a writing utensil in their hand. As they progressed, we moved to large crayons, and so on.

Read, read, read... Children love to read, or at that age be read too. That's the first place we started with all eight of our children and they all learned to write as they learned to read.

Hi Sad1869,
Thanks for your post. It's great to have the perspective of a preschool teacher on this thread. I hope you'll consider joining our Parents of Preschoolers group where your insight would be most helpful!

community.greatschools.net/groups/11534

It's not important for a three year old to write. I am a preschool teacher and some children like to write and have interest and some aren't. Don't push it. But if they are interested then you can show him or her their name on a paper and ask them try to do it the same way. Tracing doesent help. Instead, practice the strokes needed. straight lines, curves and circles. Then explain each letter in those terms. For example, A t is a straight line down and a straight line across the middle. A b is a straight line down and then a curve from the middle to the bottom. Oh and please teach them to write uppercase and lower case correctly from the start. Don't teach all caps, it will be harder later to get them to write their name correctly.

Lastly, don't push it. Introduce it slowly and always make it fun.

I think the best way to teach a three year old how to write ABC and 123 is to read, read, read to /with him or her, and expose your child to age appropriate educational materials.

My daughter got her library at two years and three months, when she managed to write her first name and the first letter of her last name. The fact is, I did not teach her how to write anything, but she played around with any available writing materials and along line connected reading with writing.

A good question!

At three years old, your biggest concern is putting a pen, pencil or crayon in your child's hand. It takes a lot of practice to control that crayon. Supply a lot of paper, color books, maybe a chalk board and just let the child scribble away. Draw a stick figure and show the child. Then draw the head but not the face and ask your child to add ears, nose, mouth and eyes. It's going to look like a Picasso for a really long time, but no matter as long as the child is enjoying the time with you. By about 4, you'll notice that the the facial parts are actually making it to the general area where they belong. At that point you might want to start working on tracing letters and shapes. Just for a little more fun, I suggest going to wal-mart. They have this dry erase book with letters and numbers and shapes...get dry erase markers in a variety of colors and eraser for it and just let the child play until he/she actually takes an interest in tracing.

Don't worry about writing just yet. Let her be 3 and scribble, make crosses (which crosses the midline of the body, an important skill), X's, etc. Anything multisensory will be appealing and therefore effective: sand or cornmeal on a cookie sheet or a stove burner cover (found at the dollar store), shaving cream, pudding, etc....

the best way is to introduce a letter a week or even two or three then once the child know the letter have the child trace them daily, but be creative and dispay them on the refrigerator or on the wall where the child can see them. do not russ just have patient and please stay on track.

What on earth is the hurry to get a 3 year old to write letters or numbers?! They're still toddlers at this age! Most kids aren't even remotely developmentally ready to take that on. A lot of 5 year olds aren't even ready to do this, yet they're asked to do so in kindegarten. In some European countries, they don't even begin to teach reading until age 7.

Well the 4mat that i used was 2 write my child's name down on a peace of large cardboard with color, which really got her attention, now 2 her this was art so she tried 2 do what mommy did, it was colorful scribble which begin 2 form into shaken letters , but with it came allot of yea's n good job (major encouragement) please b patient because it can b frustrating, but remember this is fun time crayons and big paper n remember keep the encouragement coming...(YEAAA GOOD JOB MOMMY) (NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR BABY), OH AND WE ALSO HAD PHONICS LEARNING CD-ROMS WHICH HELPED HER 2 SEE, HEAR AND CHALLENGE HER, ***AWESOME***

Children begin writing by first learning to make squiggles on a page, and then those squiggles and lines start to resemble shapes and letters. I think this PDF might be beneficial:

www.iowa.gov/educate/ecr3-5/docs/wconcept.pdf


Not all children are ready to begin forming letters at age 3, but this guide should help you see the developmental process that takes place and leads up to writing letters.

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Many three year olds are just learning their numbers and letters - asking a three year old to write their letters and numbers might be asking too much. Only if they can solidly say their numbers and letters and solidly recognize them and read them - only then would I think to ask a child to start to write.
In the old days, we didn't ask children to begin to write until 1st grade when children were 6.

Kumon has a set of books you can get from Target. They start off with tracing paths little animals take along a road and eventually the child is tracing numbers and letters. The Kumon method is great. Great investment if you decide to enroll in the classes.

I like dry erase books that have games and letters that the kids can trace over and over again. Make it fun. I also have a page from a book that has the outline of the letters and numbers and I make copies of it and my son can pick his favorite pen, pencil, marker etc and he can trace the numbers or letters while my older daughter does her homework.

I kept magnets on the fridge and we would read (I would recite) Dr. Suess ABC book, Big A Little A what begins with A, and she would put the letters in order. It was a great teaching tool and oodles of fun. We would play while cooking dinner, etc. Those books they have with tracing letters are good, too.

This article may be of interest: www.pbs.org/parents/readinglanguage/toddler/writing_milestone_toddler.html

and

mylittlefingers.blogspot.com/2006/12/writing.html


I use to fill a pan with 1/4" salt and let my child write the letters in the "sand" with their finger then we would shake the tray to "erase" the letters and start all over again. Sometimes we would just draw pictures. Play-dough is also a good tactile method of making letters.

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Hello,to get a three year old to write and learn their abcs and numbers ,what about playdough? Have your child roll out long tubes that can be formed into numbers or letters.There is also alphabet soup and pasta .Play games forming easy words.Letting them have free time to draw will always help their fine motor skills.What about shaving cream and large stencils they can trace.Usually 3 year olds like a lot of tactile sensations so if you can capture their interest early with things that look like fun you can get them intrigued.Fat markers and sheets and sheets of paper with an alphabet posted somewhere may spark them too.Good luck

I know every child is different, but often boys develop fine motor skills later than girls. Your son may not be ready to write yet. You can still do "letter and number recognition" tasks with him, but to strengthen his finger/hand muscles, have him do fun "occupational therapy" types of tasks, like digging for pennies that are buried in playdoh, or finding "toy soldiers" buried in a sandbox, or buttoning a shirt, or assembling lego pieces. When it comes to letters and numbers, you might try having him "print big" on a cookie sheet coated with shaving cream or salt.

Get a piece of paper and start with one or two letters. I always like to start with the first letter of the child's name. You can hold the pencil with the child and get him/her used to the motion. Flashcards are a great way to get them to recognize letters too.