What are some creative ideas for writing the alphabet with my 2 1/2 year old?

Question

My little boy is very bright. He recognized all of his capital and lower case letters by 18 months, and knew all of his letter sounds by 20 months. He is now just past 2 1/2 and he is learning to sound out easy words. I try to keep it fun and light, since he is young and I don't want to push him; but he does enjoy learning, so I spend some time teaching him. Lately I've been working with him on creating letters of the alphabet. He doesn't have the dexterity to write them with a pencil or crayon, but enjoys the effort if I guide his hand. I've guided his fingers to paint letters using finger paint, and we've made letters out of Cheerios, linguine, and Legos. He loves it. Any more creative ideas?

Answer 1

Spread alot of salt or sugar on a plate and use your finger to form letters.

Answer 2

I would not focus too much on writing letters at this age.  He maybe very bright, but the fine motor coordination is not developed at this age. So it is not fair to expect him to be able to do this.  I would allow him to draw and be creative with it.  Hands-on activites are the best way for young children to learn. I like the idea of making cheerios and linguine into letters.  This is awesome.  Tracing letters in sand, paint, snow, etc.  These are all really good ways.  I would not focus on the writing though.  Let him do what he can with the pencils, crayons, etc.  If you make a big deal about it, he may shut down and not want to write because he can't do it perfect.

Answer 3

shaving cream--kids love it!  (as a bonus it removes marker off countertops/laminate tables as they play!)  When he does have more dexterity use a highlighter to write the letter and then have him trace it.

Answer 4

wow - sounds like you already have all the great ideas!  We print our student's names in yellow highlighter and have them trace.  You can also put shaving cream on a surface and have him write with his index finger.

Answer 5

I wrote this answer to a question about writing numbers, but it applies here.  I'm not going to go through and change "numbers" to "letters."  See the link in my sources page for more of the discussion:

______________________

What we use to get students to write numbers is actually quite

different. The problem with writing is that many students do

not have the fine motor skills developed to write. They also

may not have the concentration.

With that in mind, the question becomes "how do we build that

up so that writing becomes a natural thing for children?" I

think it is important that we help the child develop these

skills early. Once they are older, their hands are already

used to working in a certain way. It is harder later to teach

them than it is now, but to simply teach them is not

appropriate without a solid foundation.

Begin with the earlier years. Focus on several aspects:

1) Fine motor skills. We talk a lot on these boards about

exercises in fine motor skills and we do have a lot of great

ideas that get presented. I strongly encourage you to develop

find motor skills that also promote the pencil grip. Puzzels

that have pegs in them that you naturally use your 2 fingers

and thumb are fantastic for this. Transferring beads from one

container to the next with your fingers is also an activity

that children enjoy and that helps build up control of these

muscles. Using small tongs and picking up objects also helps

with this. Be sure to demonstrate to the children how to do

these activities properly. When I am selecting which bead I

want next and presenting this material, I look at my fingers

making the motion, then hold it up (not raised...just

naturally) as I select my next bead, continually making that

motion. Simply demonstrating this way gets most children

actively involved in this.

2) Concentration. The activities in the classroom are set up

to build up a child's level of concentration. There are

things within the materials that tell the student if they

messed up. It becomes evident because they cannot complete

the task of the material. They have to concentrate and find

out the solution to the problem. It is also important to

isolate the idea you are teaching. If you are teaching

colors, it may confuse the child to have a blue sky matched up

with a blue elephant. Why shouldn't the blue elephant be

matched up with the red cat? They're both animals. Isolate

the materials so that the only difference between them is the

blue or the red. This helps the child to focus strictly on

the one task he is working on.

3) Order - teach students to work with materials from left to

right and top to bottom. This will develop as an instinct

over time and will make writing and reading easier, since

they're used to starting so many other things this way.

4) Pre-writing writing materials. We have a set of metal

shapes that the child can use. They come in a square, red

frame and the shape is cut out and inlayed inside that frame

in blue. There are 10 frames: Circle, square, rectangle,

quatrofoil, ellise, oval, pentagon, parrallelogram, trapezoid,

and curvilinear triangle. The k**b on the shape to pull it out

is exactly like the k***s I described in #1...it allows the

student to grab ahold of it naturally with a pencil grip to

move it. (There's no easier way to pick it up)

The child takes this, along with some colored pencils, to a

table and begins working with it. The first thing they do is

place the red frame over the paper (no blue shape in there

now) and trace the shape. The main issue when a child first

starts writing by now does not seem to be the pencil grip, as

they have practiced that since day 1 of school, although

indirectly. If this is an issue, it is easily corrected since

they already have their muscles trained to the feel of the

grip. The main issue tends to be that they press too hard.

They may tear the paper. They may break the pencil. The nice

thing about this is that they immediate know something was

wrong and can correct it the next time. There is no need for

teacher interference at this point. The child just sees it

and tries to make it lighter the next time. Tracing the

inside of the shape has the control of error that the child

cannot go outside the shape itself. This is the first step in

control of where the pencil goes.

The second step involves the child being able to trace the

ouside of the blue shape. This is much harder because the

child must control the pencil to a much higher degree.

Other activities involve drawing lines inside the shapes,

different shading within the shape, and various thing that

help control the pencil control. It is quite a sight to see a

child who can trace the red one, then the blue, then color the

inside of various shades from lightest to darkest.

All of those help the child be prepared for writing, even if

it does not seem like it at first. (Who would think picking

up beads actually helps them write?)

As far as the direct writing of numbers is concerned, many of

our number activities use sandpaper numbers. These are

numbers cut out of sandpaper and glued onto a wooden board.

The child takes their index and middle finger and traces the

shape. If they go outside the shape, they automatically sense

the difference. Children, after practice, can even do this

blindfolded. This helps them both with feeling how the number

is written and learning the name of the number. They have a

sensorial experience with what the shape of the number is that

leaves a better image in their mind of how to write it.

I also think it is important to educate parents as far as the

development of writing is concerned. Many do not realize that

when a child is drawing random shapes and calling it writing,

that is a crucial early step. They have yet to see the

exactness of all the letter/number characters we have. That

comes with time and practice. They often then move into

shapes in the right spots (left to right) or lines drawn on

the paper (straight or squiggly lines). Then they begin to

just form letters that they know and then begin to see a

process happening. Few parents realize this and are quick to

just rush their child into writing things correctly. That's

just NOT how it works.

Answer 6

Yes. Stop pushing him to do motor skills he's not ready for. Kids don't develop at the same rate in all areas. Give him lots of time and materials to exercise his small motor skills without having to reach a goal. Give him lots of play dough, duplo, simple puzzles, big crayons and fat markers. Let him tear paper and glue it on more paper. Interesting magazines are good for this. Finger paint is great. The writing will come, without your guiding his hand, when he is ready and it will be his accomplishment, not yours,

Answer 7

Or how about spreading some shaving cream out onto a table and drawing the letters with his pointy finger into the shaving cream - this works best on a table that is not white.

You could also put some colored hair gel into a zip lock bag (enough but not too much).  The idea is to be able to lay the bag flat on a surface so you can draw the letters with your pointy fingers onto the gel.

My son's class had a very creative idea.  They would have collage materials that started with a particular letter (B - beans, R - rice, C - cheerios, H - heart stickers, etc.).  The teachers would "write" the letters with glue onto a piece of construction paper, and the children would put the collage material onto the glue parts.

As for some prewriting ideas, get some fat crayons or some fat pencils, and have your son practice just drawing lines up and down, side to side, and then in big circles.  Then work up to some of the easier letters, like T or H.

Good luck and most of all, have fun!

Answer 8

use alphabet cards and use playdo to trace the letters in the card

Answer 9

This is a little bit different than just helping him write the letters, but you could cut out large block letters and let him color, draw, paste things on them and then create your own alphabet to hang on a wall. If you ever go to the park, write out letters in the sand or collect things to make an alphabet collage. You sound like you have a creative imagination- good work!!!

Ooo another one popped into my head- get alphabet cookie cutters and make cookies together. I know he's only 2 1/2, but having him press down on the cutters, or helping mix etc, will help his fine and gross motor skills. But since he is 2 1/2, let him go to town with the fat crayons and all!!!

Answer 10

First, I would get some magnetic letters that he can stick on the refrigerator to spell out words.

Also, sand in a shallow aluminum pan would be easy to draw in.  To work on his dexterity give him wooden blocks to stack.

Since he is advancing so quickly you might want to check out some of my lists of books at my website.  I started it after I realized how many books I had purchased for nieces and nephews.

Answer 11

make the letters in sand, shaving cream, playdough, or other sensory items.

Answer 12

One that I have used with children/adults that tend to have more kinesthetic (hands on) learning styles, is the letters cut out of sandpaper.  

The rough letters made into the shape of each letter, make it  very hands on.  The learner can feel the whole letter.

Another thing is making an alphabet book.  Take pictures from a magazine, internet, photographs (that one is fun esp. if you use your own child in the pictures) and make a page for each letter.  The child learns that letters make the words that are used everyday in the things we do, wear, and go, etc.  It becomes the child's personal ABC book.

:-)

Answer 13

1) teach him to paint and get him to paint some pictures first. When he gets the fun of it, you paint a large letter (eg. "Aa") and ask him to try it out. If he succeeds, you get on with the rest of the alphabets.

2) Write some letters down and ask him to color them, using any color of him choice. AS he gets used to the shape, he might want to try them out himself.

Answer 14

Let him find letters in your environment. Simply, just to explain, a light post is the letter L or I. He can get very creative with that.

Also let him choose things in nature, bring them home and make the letters out of that, kids love this one.

Also, try asking him, see what he wants to make the letters out of!

Hope this helps!

Answer 15

u know what all u have to do is take two big white sheet and two paper scissor and let him write A on his sheet of paper and u Write B then exchange the paper and both of cut out..... and u color one and let him color the other...... do the same with some simple drawing ........ children are very clever so never let him know that u r trying to teach him alphabet ......now keep sticking the cutting in his room or cupboard or anywhere were both u and he can look at believe me he will not only learn his alphabet but also improve his handwriting ......

Answer 16

well what I did in my classroom is I would write on the board with chalk the letters and the children got to take a wet paint brush and paint the letters away... so if you have a small chalk board that is a fun way otherwise we LOVE the shaving cream on the table (depending on the cream it will clean too :-))

Answer 17

As someone else said...shaving cream. Kids love it, and it's also a great sensory activity (messy too...2 year olds love messy stuff)

Another idea could be Playdough, which is also good for developing fine motor skills.

And if you want a real tech-baby you could always let him play around on Microsoft Word. Set the font large and bold and let him try it.

I work with deaf/hard of hearing and hearing kids who sign...many of them can fingerspell simple words and their names by the time they are 3 or 4. One little Deaf boy just recently turned two and he can recognize his name and many letters both in fingerspelling and English print. That could be another idea.