Children are very curious human beings, and they learn a lot through play. However, as parents, you want your child to know all the necessary life skills to help them get through day by day when they grow up. And one of the things that parents do is by providing prewriting activities to prepare toddlers for writing.
Teaching children at a very young age has its perks. Your children will know a lot about the world early on. My toddler is at that age where he explores everything he touches. He is very curious about the things that I do.
However, to prepare your child for writing, there are activities I let him do to enhance fine motor skills. Let us dig down about what it is and learn about exciting prewriting activities for toddlers.
What is fine motor skill?
Fine motor skill is the act of moving the muscles in your wrists and hands. It is a skill your child needs to gain more control over the things he could do with his hands. By enhancing the fine motor skill of your child, you are helping her do things efficiently.
While visual motor skill is not a part of fine motor skills, it aids in the activities performed to prepare your child to write. One benefit of practising fine motor skills is improving eye-hand coordination.
While fine motor skill is essential to your child’s development, so is a gross motor skill. Gross motor skill targets the larger muscles of the body. Activities that enhance gross motor skills include jumping, walking, and running.
Fine motor skills benefits
Children play to learn and enhance their skills. Besides preparing for writing, prewriting skills activities for preschoolers also help kids develop independence as they do things on their own.
Prepares toddler for writing
Fine motor skills target the small muscles in the hands so your child is ready when she has to learn to write. Instead of forcing your toddler to write, why not try providing her with preschool prewriting activities?
Improves concentration
What I noticed with my toddler is that he is very focused when drawing on his drawing board. Many toddler prewriting activities allow your child to improve concentration. A tip for parents: Try not to say anything or even applaud your child when she is busy with her “work.”
Eye-hand coordination
I mentioned earlier that visual motor skill helps in fine motor skill development. Many activities need both eyes and hands working together. Cutting paper, writing, and many games use both sense organs.
Prepares toddler to use tools
Sooner than later, your children will have to button their shirts and tie their shoes on their own. You can help them be ready for everyday life simple tasks by helping them enhance their fine motor skills.
Cognitive development
Your child is learning in any activity or game she plays. A study revealed that fine motor skills are involved in cognitive development. All the more reason for you to start giving prewriting activities to your toddler!
Prewriting activities your toddler would enjoy
Different types of play are beneficial for children. You might think that children only play to have fun but they also learn a lot. You might not be aware but most of the games and activities target a specific skill.
By generating ideas through prewriting activities, you are encouraging your children to learn while playing. Below are some exciting prewriting activities to prepare toddlers for writing:
- Drawing and coloring shapes
Holding pens, pencils, and crayons can help your child’s hand be ready for writing.
- Playing with paper clips, clothes clips
You can let your child pinch clothes clips and attach paper clips to paper or cardboard.
- Playdough
Let your child roll, squish, or make different shapes using clay to help exercise her small muscles in the hands.
- Cutting activities
You can let your toddler use safety scissors or real scissors (if your mama heart can) to cut papers, cards, and strings.
- Drawing or scribbling
Similar with coloring, holding pens and markers for drawing and scribbling can help prepare your child for writing.
- Opening containers or bottles
Bottles that have a twist cap can also help. You can collect twist caps from used bottles and stick them into a board for your child to play with.
- Threading or lacing
Many threading or lacing toys are available, but you can also make them at home. You can use old shoelaces and let your child thread in cardboards with holes. You may also use big beads (especially for children who love to put things into their mouths) for lacing.
- Squeezing activities
Have your child squeeze rubberized toys or used bottles. My toddler loves squeezing water from small shampoo bottles during bath time.
- Stacking
Stacking blocks, small toys, and other similar items can also be helpful when preparing your child for writing. Other than that, stacking also helps in developing concentration and eye-hand coordination.
The examples of prewriting activities mentioned above require small muscles in the hands so your child can get ready for writing. By allowing your toddler to play, you are giving her an opportunity to enjoy learning.
Gross motor skill and fine motor skill relationship
Parents want their children to learn to write because it is an essential skill to use until they grow old. However, did you know that gross motor skills work hand in hand with fine motor skills?
A study proved that physical activities have a great effect on the development of fine motor skills in children. So if you want your children to be excited about going to school and writing, let them run and jump in the playground.
Conclusion
We all want our children to start learning while they are young. And learning through play is one of the best ways for your children to enjoy while acquiring new skills. Prewriting activities are very helpful not only to prepare toddlers for writing but also to help them develop useful skills they could use when they grow older.
I hope you found this article useful for getting your toddler ready for schooling. If you think that I missed out on some prewriting activities, you may share them in the comments section below. I’d love to hear your thoughts too! 😉
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