Aids to Writing

Even before my daughter could write very well, she loved to make cards for people.  She would draw pictures, add stamps and stickers, and she would stencil someone's name.  She asked me for help with spelling, but she could find the letters on the stencil and then write it on the paper.

Through her initiative with the stencil, we began to use the stencil as a regular part of writing practice, spelling practice, letter recognition, etc.  We began to distinguish capital and lowercase letters and to use the capital letter at the beginning of a name and lowercase for the rest of the name.  Now, due to overuse and being a little torn, I need to replace my stencil for my next daughter, who is learning to write.

We also use letter stamps to spell words as well as letter stickers.  We have played matching games when teaching letter recognition: I write something and then the girls "write" it on their own pages with stamps or stickers.  They have helped me make cards before, by using stickers to spell "Merry Christmas" or "Praying for You."

One of my friends does a Bible verse activity with her son, where they cut out letters from a magazine to spell out a Bible verse and then glue it onto a sheet of paper.  She is framing these to give away as Christmas gifts from her son to grandparents.  I thought this was a great idea! But my older daughter is not too much into cutting and gluing and she wanted me to do the whole thing for her.  Maybe next year...

Anyway, through the use of cutting and gluing, stamping, stickers, and stenciling, we can have practice with spelling, making words, etc without the fine motor skills of having to form the letters perfectly.  Just another way to keep it interesting and build confidence.