Learning to Write Letters with Finger Paint

Children will attempt to write letters while scribbling and drawing at an early age. My first child, Eric, started making many of his letters from the bottom up. It was difficult to get him to start writing his lowercase "r" in his name correctly. It wasn't that big of a deal, but unlearning something takes time and can cause frustration.


Try finger paint, freezer paper, and pointer fingers to make learning to write letters fun.  
 

Here are some things to practice before a child is ready to write letters.
1. Practice making lines from the top to the bottom.
2. Practice making circles from the left to the right. Many letters like c, o, d, a, and g start at the 2:00 position of a circle and move to the left. (Making smiley faces and having a child follow your finger is fun.)
3. Practice making candy canes that look like the letter f or the tail of the letter g.
4. Let your child be creative and have fun making lines and pictures with finger paint.


There are a few different styles of printing. If you are homeschooling, you can choose your favorite style to teach. If you are sending your child to school, it would be wise to check what style of handwriting will be taught. My children's school district teaches manuscript handwriting or D' Nealian.

Handwriting Tips from Therapy Street for Kids
 Here's a link to a previous post that includes videos showing how to form letters using D'Nealian style handwriting.