If your child is reciting the alphabet song and knows to count from 1 to 10, you might be thinking of teaching them to write the alphabets and numbers. But before that, there’s something they need to learn — pre-writing skills.
Pre-writing skills is learning to draw the lines and curves that make up alphabets and numbers. Once your child is comfortable with these basics, it will be a lot easier for them to write.
While toys such as stencils and mazes help build this skill, you can also use DIY games to teach your child about shapes, patterns, and how to hold and operate small objects like pencils.
This week’s co create activity is one such quick and enjoyable game!
Benefits of a Pre-Writing Board
This week’s activity is once again brought to you by Disha Shah, a DIY blogger and mom to 3-year-old Tvisha. You can see Disha’s previous activity, DIY Popsicle Puzzle, here.
This activity is called a Pre-Writing Board. It is easy to make and play with but it offers a wide range of benefits for toddlers and preschoolers. Some of these include:
1. Fine motor skills - Holding the fillers between their thumb and first finger and placing them along the lines will teach your child the pincer grasp. Over time, this will help them hold a pencil and write.
2. Hand-eye coordination skills - Picking up the fillers and placing them correctly along the lines will hone their hand-eye coordination.
3. Concentration - Filling up the entire page with carefully placed baubles will teach your child to focus and concentrate for longer periods of time.
4. Learning direction - Working from left to right while placing the fillers will familiarise them with direction. This is key in learning how to write.
5. Learning shapes and patterns - The different shapes and patterns in the game will help your child to gradually identity and draw them.
6. Learning different strokes - Playing with this board will also teach them to identity and draw a sleeping line ____, standing line ||||, and slanting line ///.
Creating the Pre-Writing Board
Age Group:
This activity can be enjoyed by children between 2.5 to 5 years.
Materials required:
1. A piece of cardboard
2. A white chart paper or an A4 sheet
3. A black marker
4. A tray of fillers such as buttons, coins, shells, beads, beans, and pompoms (make sure you use age-appropriate materials that are safe for your child to play with).
How to create the board:
1. Take the cardboard and stick the chart paper or A4 sheet on it.
2. Draw a few basic lines and strokes across the breadth of the paper with the marker.
3. Separate the different types of fillers into different bowls.
How to play with the DIY Pre-Writing Board
The aim of this activity is simple — place the fillers along the different lines and strokes on the paper. Once your child gets accustomed to this, you can ask them to only use one color fillers on each line, alternate between two different types of fillers, or any other fun combinations.
For older children, you can make a spiral curve pattern and teach them about different types of curves. You can even introduce letters and numbers to preschoolers using this board. Once they are familiar with the alphabet and numbers, you can ask them to try writing themselves and then decorating the board!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this activity. If you would like to share your experience playing this board game, tag us at #CoCreatewithshumee. Stay home and stay safe!
Disha Shah is a DIY blogger who creates smart play ideas for children. You can follow her @momkid.smartplay on Instagram.