Teaching your Child Letter Formations
Your child’s vital first step on the road to education, letter formations are an essential part of mastering the basics of language and writing. The process of teaching your child letter formations can be fun and exciting, but there is a method to doing it correctly, in order to make sure you prepare your child before s/he starts school, and then help her/him when s/he joins school.
As a parent, there are a few important steps and methods that you need to learn and apply in order to teach your child. What you teach at home will benefit your child immensely, as in the early years of school, teachers concentrate on teaching children letter formations, with the goal of encouraging them to learn to write legibly and quickly.
Instructions
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1
Teachers use a variety of techniques for teaching letter formations (like start counter-clockwise, go across, down and around the garden), but they have received special training for this purpose. As a parent, therefore, you will need to do a fair amount of research regarding these techniques, and what better way than to start online? There are a large number of websites with the objective of educating parents for this purpose. Therefore, the first step for you should be online research.
A few great sites to visit for this purpose are:
http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/communication/handwriting.html
http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/literacy/writing/
http://www.therapystreetforkids.com/Handwriting.html
http://www.lefthandedchildren.org/letter-formation.htm -
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Work closely with your child’s teacher, and don’t be afraid to ask for tips and suggestions. They are there to make the learning process easy for your child, so it is essential for you to coordinate with and learn from them.
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Make sure you read through and stay updated with any class handouts your child might bring home, as these are full of information for you and your child.
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Teach your child about pencil control, as this is an essential part of learning letter formations. There are a variety of methods for pencil control, such as holding the pencil down toward the tip, the placement of the fingers in the tripod grip, and so on.
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Worksheets are the best place to start practicing letter formations, as these are repetitive, efficient, and fun. These can be found online, or in educational stores, libraries and bookstores. You may also want to pick-up booklets with washable covers, and attached felt pens.
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Repeat the worksheets over and over again, until your child is comfortable with each formation. During each learning session, you must be consistent, repetitive, and efficient.
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Finally, do not over-exert your child, as s/he will start seeing it as a tedious task. You must always aim to make learning a fun activity.
