Handwriting is an essential skill that has to be developed in every child from early childhood. Practice is the only way to make them skilled and many times, parents find it hard to reinforce the same in children, especially the reluctant ones. Here comes the necessity of incorporating fun activities for handwriting practice in kids. This is an effective way to make children sneakily practise handwriting without letting them know that they are practising to improve their handwriting.
Top 15 Fun Handwriting Activities For Kids
This article mentions some fun handwriting activities that parents and teachers can adopt to make children practise writing in a fun-filled manner.
- Secret Messages to Decode
- Writing Activities That Are Related to the Interests of Children
- Encourage Drawing Skills
- Letter Writing
- Learning Letter Formation Using Magnetic Alphabet Cards
- Pencil Control Worksheets
- Sensory Handwriting Practices
- Draw and Write About a Monster
- Write a Comic Book or Creative Journal
- Writing a Song
- Clever Cat Trick
- Spirograph
- Story Writing Game
- Functional Handwriting Tasks at Home
- Diary Writing
1. Secret Messages to Decode
This is an exciting and easy way to make children, even the reluctant ones, write in a fun manner. Children write to decode the answers from the clues one by one. This game builds curiosity in children and gives them the handwriting practice for the day. Develop the game with clues and code words on the previous night and ask the child to decode it and find the answer by writing.
2. Writing Activities That Are Related to the Interests of Children
Writing is a tedious activity if it does not have any purpose. In order to build interest in writing activities to improve handwriting in children, associate the writing with things related to their interests. This could write a story about their favourite book or book they read recently, a movie that they saw, their favourite superhero, a sports person, and whatnot! The only thing the parent has to keep in mind is that it should be of the kid's interest and not theirs. Let them write whatever they want, and the mission is accomplished for the day.
3.Encourage Drawing Skills
Writing is not the only exercise that improves a child's handwriting. There are many activities, and drawing falls foremost among them. The versatile movements of the hand and wrist play an essential role in developing good handwriting in children. Make sure the kid likes to draw before pushing them to do the task, as unnecessary pressure to do what they dislike will negatively affect children.
4. Letter Writing
The old letter-writing style is an exciting way to encourage handwriting practice in children. Ask them to write letters to their loved ones, friends, cousins, or distant relatives they connect with. If the child wishes to send it through the post, please do not hesitate to do so. This act can encourage him or her to write more letters, and handwriting practice is done in disguise. Please provide them with envelopes, correctly ruled papers, and four lined pages to begin their letter writing during the initial days. Then, request the receiver to send replies in a letter form on the other end. Remember the smile we all had on our faces when we used to get letters?
5. Learning Letter Formation Using Magnetic Alphabet Cards
This handwriting practice does not require a pencil and paper. Instead, it uses techniques like that of sandpaper alphabet cards. This helps kids in letter formation and has to be introduced during the initial years of writing rather than later. Children's usage of magnetic alphabet cards has to be monitored by an adult continuously. It helps build children's confidence because their mistakes are not as apparent as in writing with a pencil.
It is a set of laminated cards with uppercase letters on one side and the lowercase. Arrows guide the child up and down in writing each letter correctly. There is a magnetic sticker behind and the child can manipulate the magnetic button up and down the dotted lines toward the arrows. Help the child to first trace with fingers.
6. Pencil Control Worksheets
Prepare worksheets for the child to practise pencil control. For example, draw shapes like squares and ask the child to draw a giant square covering it and go on. It resembles doodling to a great extent and continues the task by taking turns. A child learns pencil grip by copying a perfect square drawn near his attempt to draw a square. Another activity is rolling dice, counting the number, and drawing lines in a square, taking turns. This can help them have awareness of spacing and pencil control. There are a lot of worksheets available on the internet, which you can take printouts and make the child do.
7. Sensory Handwriting Practices
These are tremendously helpful for younger children to improve their sensory skills, which in turn helps in developing good handwriting. Handwriting practices do not necessarily require a paper and pencil all the time. The sensory handwriting practices can be done using sand trays and fingertips, shaving foam bags and erasable markers, or a plate spread with any grain available at home. This relieves the boredom of writing conventionally.
8. Draw and Write About a Monster
You can ask the child to draw a monster or anything that they feel like and then describe in writing about it. This can be done as a graded activity since grading each time effectively improves positively.
9. Write a Comic Book or Creative Journal
Children enjoy reading and writing comics. This is a way to accomplish handwriting practice in disguise. Writing a comic or even a creative journal helps in handwriting practice and enhances the creativity of a child.
10.Writing a Song
Writing the lyrics of a song that they often hum is a way to make the child indulge in handwriting practise involuntarily. Keep a songbook for the child to write the lyrics of the songs he or she finds interesting. This is most practical for a child with musical sense and an inclination towards songs and tunes. Writing one song per day will accomplish his or her handwriting practice daily.
11. Clever Cat Trick
Clever cat is a writing prop used by teachers and parents to assist children in spacing letters properly during the initial years of writing. Props like these build enthusiasm and confidence in children to write appropriately. Clever cat is a sitting cat figure drawn on a popsicle stick or a craft stick whose head, body and a dangling tail are drawn to indicate the spacing of uppercase and lowercase letters in a notebook. Clever cat popsicle sticks can be used as an aid to the spacing between words as well.
12. Spirograph
A spirograph is a learning toy that helps children develop their writing skills tremendously. Pencil control, bilateral hand coordination and creativity are some of the benefits of a spirograph. In addition, these fun art pieces are motivating and fun for kids.
13. Story Writing Game
This game goes like a chain. Instead of creating and telling stories by taking turns, this game creates and writes stories in a chain manner. This is a fun family game that can be great during weekends. Parents are to get actively involved during the game to sustain interest among children. One member starts the story, and it has to be continued by the next member and thus the story goes on and on from where the previous player had stopped.
14. Functional Handwriting Tasks at Home
Kids frown when they have to write repeatedly without any particular aim. Functional handwriting tasks at home give their writing a purpose, and during the process, they also get handwriting practice. A functional handwriting task is meaningful and helpful for children that can motivate them to pick up a pencil and write instantly. These are some functional handwriting tasks that can be adopted at home.
- Writing the family grocery list
- Writing out the expenses and family bills regularly
- Writing a family calendar with sports schedules, outings, and family night events.
- Writing out the phone messages from an answering machine
- Writing the schedule for a week
- Writing out favourite TV programs with the day and time of each
- Write out a holiday or birthday gift wish list
- Writing checklist of things needed for a vacation
15. Diary Writing
The age-old practice of diary writing is an effective way to improve writing skills and get handwriting practice for children's fun. Preschool in Abu Dhabi promotes diary writing habit that improves handwriting and allows children to analyse their day-to-day activities and ponder on things and happenings that need attention in their lives. Help your child start writing a diary of daily events by providing him or her necessary guidelines and appropriate stationery. Give them a lock to keep their diary personal if they wish to.
Conclusion
There are many more fun activities to improve handwriting in children. The above given are a few of them. When things get complicated and none of the above points works with your child, try enrolling him or her for handwriting classes like handwriting courses for kids in Mussafah to help them in the journey towards good handwriting.
