STAGES OF PRINTING
Learning to print starts long before the child ever picks up a crayon. It starts with reading in your circle time. There isn’t a better time to get the infants involved than when you read to the older children. When a child participates in circle time, they learn to listen, to sit still, and to understand the spoken word. Children learn that their ideas have value to the other children in the group and to you as a caregiver. They learn to wait their turn while others are talking and at the same time their vocabulary, memory, and sequencing skills grow. Children learn the names of others and they learn to cooperate and be considerate of them as well.
First Stage: The first time you give a color sheet to a toddler and they show interest is when you start. Never push! Praise whatever they do, the darkness and amount they color. When children scribble and draw, they learn how to hold a pencil or other drawing tool. They learn how to control the pressure on the drawing tool and they improve hand-eye coordination. They exercise creativity and imagination. They learn about color, shape and size. They learn that their ideas have value and that they can express themselves through drawings as well as with words when describing what they drew. They soon will start staying in the lines. This is a good time to help them hold the marker or crayon correctly but never correct they’re drawing pictures in any way.
Second Stage: Have them trace broken lines and get them to use different angles. This sharpens their development for fine motor skills. A book called Giant Basic Skills Preschool Workbook, from My Bear Books is a great resource for pictures. It has lots of material on hand-eye coordination. After they master this step it’s time to move on to their name.
Third Stage: I print out their name three or four times on a paper and copy a bunch for each child. I use upper case for the first letter in their name and lower case for the remaining letters in their name. This is what our school district wants us to teach children entering K grade. I say each letter out load so they know the letters of their name. It’s also a good idea to put their names on all of their projects, coloring and artwork. They listen when you do each child’s name and they try to read them. Eventually they will recognize their name as well as their friend’s names. Don’t forget the praise and rewards. I use stickers, hugs and verbal praise. Once they have mastered this make sure to post it so the parents see it the minute they walk into your day care. It not only makes the child feel great but it puts their parents on cloud nine as well.
Fourth Stage: I then have the children start working with three sheets. Upper case letters, lower case letters, and numbers one through ten. Start with dot to dot characters that they can trace. The first time they try this task, I help them form the letters by holding onto the marker with them and showing them a simple way to remember to form each letter. We use washable markers and the bright colors really make the children’s printing bold and stand out for them. Crayons just aren’t dark enough and moving up to markers is a real motivating factor for the kids in my day care. It’s one of the first times my little ones get to use the “big kids stuff.” Occasionally a parent will voice a little displeasure about the marker stains on their child’s hands, but this quickly vanishes when they see the new skills developed.
