how do you teach a three year old how to wright his abc and 123?

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.