Learning to write?

[anamika]

I don't think I have seen any threads which relate to this but then again, I probably wasn't paying attention.
DD is showing an interest in tracing the letters that we write for her. This is an almost overnight change - earlier she hated it if we tried to get her to do it.
Are there any good books, suggestions, ideas, tips for this stage? I was thinking of looking for some books that she could write on or something - do they make those? Once again, I feel utterly clueless, so any help is much appreciated.
I'm also incorporating all the suggestions from the learning to read thread, so thanks for all the help there.
Thanks,

[jenmcadams]

I'm not sure how old your DD is, but a couple of things that my kiddos have liked are the Wipe Clean books (Publisher is Priddy Book). There's a learn to write your letters, learn to write numbers, animals, things that go, etc. Here's a link to the letters book on Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/2r3njr

My DD didn't have tons of interest until the 4-5 months leading up to Kindergarten and we just had a few things laminated for her to practice on (like her name, our names, etc.)

Another book a lot of homeschooling (and other) moms have recommended is Handwriting Without Tears

[spanannie]

The only thing that got my son writing was Handwriting Without Tears. He learned to write his name and draw a person through this and then his writing took off on his own.

He's in Pre-K and can write all of his letters uppercase from memory, has recently started writing with lowercase, too, and writes numbers and draws just about everything. A little over a year ago, he couldn't even write the first letter of his name. I swear by this program.

[brittone2]

We have the wipe-clean books too. I saw the Priddy ones at B&N recently. I think the one we have is a different but very similar brand. Costco was selling them for 5-6 bucks a book if I remember correctly.

DS got interested in tracing and I would stick some of those workbook tracing pages in plastic page protectors, and then into a binder. He sometimes does stuff like that while his sister is napping on my lap and I need him to be quiet ;)

[ellies mom]

This site is pretty cool for making your own custom handwriting sheets.
http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/index.htm

You can find a lot of cool stuff at educational supply stores. There is another brand of books called "Wipe-off" that also sells wipe-off crayons. I've seen them at Target also. http://www.abcteacher.com/catalog/t-woabla.shtml

[MarisaSF]

Those print-your-own worksheets are very cool!

DD has been interested in writing letters too. She was having trouble with "S" and it was a bit frustrating for her, so I drew some dots for her to connect. It struck me though that she wouldn't really be learning to write an "S" that way because it would be my handwriting, not her natural handwriting. I think the small motor skill is being worked on by connecting dots or tracing, but not necessarily handwriting.

Is that true? Does anyone have any comments on manual dexterity vs handwriting?

[MarisaSF]

FWIW, I was just reading a doc from DD's school. It gave a bunch of reasons to teach cursive writing to young children. According to them, cursive allows a child to let their thoughts "flow" onto paper more quickly. It also reduces the chance of mixing up letters like b,d,p,q. Those points made sense to me. Not quite sure a 3 yo is ready for cursive, but I guess she'll be learning earlier than I did (3rd grade?).

[MarisaSF]

FWIW, I was just reading a doc from DD's school. It gave a bunch of reasons to teach cursive writing to young children. According to them, cursive allows a child to let their thoughts "flow" onto paper more quickly. It also reduces the chance of mixing up letters like b,d,p,q. Those points made sense to me. Not quite sure a 3 yo is ready for cursive, but I guess she'll be learning earlier than I did (3rd grade?).