How to learn writing alphabets

5 Tips on Learning New Letters

Learning a new alphabet, syllabic system, or writing system can be very difficult. The level of difficulty depends on how complex the writing system is that you are trying to learn.

Learning to write in English is not terribly difficult for those who speak languages that use Latin letters (aka ABCs).

But to learn to write in a language that is completely different from your own – such as Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Arabic, or Hebrew – is a very different matter and requires attention, time, and patience. In this article we’ll walk you through some simple steps you can take to learn the alphabet faster.

The tips are listed below that can help you to learn both the alphabet of a new language and how to write in that language.

1. Don’t Learn the Entire Alphabet all at Once

You’re not going to learn all the letters of the alphabet in one go: each has their own letter sounds, letter names, uppercase and lowercase letters. The easier way is to divide the alphabet into several sections and try to learn just a few letters at a time. Don’t try to memorize the entire alphabet all at once.

Pay special attention to letters that look similar to letters you know but that have a different sound.

2. Associate Unfamiliar Letters with Things that You Know

Letter recognition can be difficult as first, so try to associate letters with things you know; some letters may look like letters in your alphabet, or they may look like numbers. Others may remind you of things, animals, or people: try to do this in a fun way that’s memorable!

Books that teach children to read using this method, so it would be very beneficial to use it in reaching your goal of learning a new language.

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3. “Practice Makes Perfect”

Practice your writing skills as much as possible using alphabet activities and flashcards. Look up lesson plans and see how teachers help students learn the alphabet. Learn the standard way of writing letters – that is, learn the shapes, forms, and order of strokes when writing each letter, both capital letters and lower case. This will help you to learn the alphabet more quickly and write the letters properly. Write the letters as much as you can.

If you can, attend calligraphy classes. This will be especially helpful if you are learning Chinese or Japanese. A calligraphy course will help you to improve your handwriting and understand the handwriting of others.

4. Transliteration, or Writing Foreign Words in Your Own Alphabet

Practice writing letters or words of the new language using your own alphabet. Then reverse the process, and try to transliterate the words you have written using the new alphabet.

You can also practice your writing skills by keeping a daily journal or exchanging letters with friends who know the language.

You can find friends to write to who are also interested in learning a language and helping others to learn their native language on mylanguageexchange.com.

5. Reading

A huge part of learning letters and familiarizing yourself with a language is learning how to read, so try to read simple texts in the language you are learning as often as possible. Even if you don’t know all of the letters or symbols, you can still learn new words, and you can try to guess the meaning of the rest.

Look for the names of places or people that you know as well as words that are shared between your language and the one you are learning. They can be relatively easy to understand.

Prepare to speak confidently

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You’ll probably discover that when you first start, you’ll have to pronounce each letter separately before you can pronounce entire words. In time, you’ll begin to recognize the words themselves, and you’ll need to sound each letter only when you get to unfamiliar words.

This is probably the method you used when you learned to read in your own language.

Label the objects around you (at home or at work) with words from the new language along with the words from your native language. This will help you to quickly learn the letters of the new alphabet as well as new words.

Try reading everything you see out loud. There are many online newspapers and magazines in different languages.

If you have a friend or acquaintance whose native language is the one you’re learning and is willing to help you, ask him to read aloud to you. When you are trying to read yourself, ask your friend to listen and correct you when you make mistakes.

Be prepared for painstaking work. Also, be patient and remember that, while tutors and native-speaking friends can help, only you can learn the language.

Good luck!

Teaching Preschoolers to Write Letters At Home – Blue and Hazel

Are you wondering how to teach your preschooler to write letters of the alphabet? You can do it! We do this as part of our homeschool preschool and continue practicing for homeschool kindergarten.

Maybe your child is already scribbling down nonsense and calling them letters? That’s a good sign they are ready for more. I’ll share what we’ve done/are doing and my kids’ ages. Each one has been on their own timeline, and I think it’s important not to push that too much.

Writing starts way before letters are formed (think coloring/scribbling), and it will continue to be perfected long after preschool. Writing letters is a process that takes lots of practice! Hopefully this post gives you the confidence to start helping your child learn to write their name and the whole alphabet.

This post contains affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

What age do kids learn to write letters?

Personally, I’m a fan of waiting till at least age 4 or 5 to begin learning to write letters. But it really depends on your kids eagerness to begin.

My oldest son learned at age 5.5 ,my daughter was ready by age 4, and my 3rd (a boy) is 4.5 and just starting to show signs he is ready. I’ll probably wait with him till he turns 5 because there is NO RUSH.

If anything, starting too soon and expecting too much too soon can put some serious negative pressure on them when they just aren’t ready yet. I’ve learned this the hard way. Instead, focus on hand strength and coordination through coloring, legos, drawing, and Play Doh.

Learning to write all the letters in their first and last name is one of my goals by the end of our homeschool preschool. Kids begin to do a lot more writing in Kindergarten so it is helpful if they can write some letters by then.

Signs that your child is ready to learn to write letters

Before a child learns to write, they are going to come to the conclusion that letters have meaning.

They see it in books, when you write, on road signs, through shows and apps, and through seeing their name on everything. If you feel unsure if your preschooler is ready to write, ask yourself:

Can they recognize letter names when they see them?
Are they interested or asking how to write a letter? That was my hint!
Do they pretend to write making scribbles or symbols for their “letters”?
Do they know how to hold a pencil correctly from drawing and coloring?
Are they experimenting trying to write letters in their name, even if it’s upside down and backwards?

I love this post on the stages of learning to write and draw. You will be able to see what stage your child is at and if they are developmentally ready!

How to teach a preschooler to write letters

Once your preschooler can recognize certain letters, it will make teaching writing easier. They’ll know what it is supposed to look like, and be familiar with it’s name and general appearance.

I tell everyone to use Busy Toddler’s Playing Preschool for a fun and worksheet free way to do preschool at home. It’s my favorite route to exposing them to the alphabet, songs, books, and more. Each day is short and mapped out for you! Here’s my full review on Busy Toddler’s preschool curriculum.

But to teach letters, I like to casually show them “their special letter”, which is the first letter of their name. Point out letters on cereal boxes and coloring books. Here are a few ways I like to begin teaching them to write letters at home.

1. Do TONS of pre-writing activities before attempting to write letters.

As preschoolers get older, they go from making marks on paper to being able to make circles and lines (or round faces with stick legs)!

Eventually, they can also draw shapes like triangles that use tilted lines. My favorite prewriting booklet is the purple Doodle booklet by The Good And The Beautiful. My kids both loved it. In fact, my reluctant oldest child even enjoyed doodling with this, after we backed off of formal handwriting. I saw he wasn’t ready and needed more hand coordination and strength!

2. Strengthen their hands

Anything that works on fine motor skills will help with hand writing later on, like:

Drawing
Coloring
Tracing straight lines, tilted lines, and shapes like circles
Painting
Threading fruit loops
Do A Dot Letter Stamping
Drawing in salt, dirt, sand, or flour
Using scissors
Picking up pom pom balls with tongs
Tracing fingers over glitter glue letters

3. Show them how to write the letters using sensory activities

Sensory letter writing is a fun way to make letters without having to use a pencil and paper yet. Think forming letters in the dirt or sand.

They can learn the motions and it’s fun! It’s helpful for kids to see you forming a letter, and to have an example to look at. Note that just because they watched you write the letter B top to bottom doesn’t mean they’ll think to do it that way.

There are lots of fun ways to get preschoolers to start forming letters on their own! Some I’ve seen are:

Forming letters out of shaving cream or sprinkles in a pan.
Write out a letter with glue and let your kid place noodles or beans on the glue.
Bath paint on the wall writing out the letter with their finger

3. Write on blank paper

Since kids tend to start out writing BIG letters, I’ve found it’s easier to start on one letter at a time on a large blank piece of paper.

I usually write out the uppercase or lowercase letter somewhere on the blank paper so they have an example to look at. They can take a different colored marker and trace over your letter.

4. Trace letters on paper

I highly recommend buying/printing some pre-traced pages for each letter so that you don’t have to do it by hand!

Practicing on lined tracing paper teaches them to pay attention to proportions within the lines, and it’s what they’ll be using in kindergarten.

This is a tracing notebook we have used. I like this book because the letters are already there to trace, which saves me from having to make a ton of dotted letters by hand. And, the first page of each letter has arrows and numbers to show the hand strokes.

A lot of lined notebooks have just one letter for kids to trace and a bunch of blank lines for them to fill in the letter by memory. These are too advanced to start with, because they haven’t had enough practice yet to remember the motions.

My son needed to trace at least 10 of the same letter before really being able to draw it from memory. If blank lined paper is all you have, then you can fill in letters by hand. I dotted in one full line of capital B and one line of lowercase b.

Or, write the letters for them in pencil and have them trace over them with a marker.

A printable tracing workbook designed to be used side by side with the “Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons”

Update January 2020: We recently tried these new printable letter tracing pages with 100 pages of practice with my 4. 5 year old.

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I drew in about 10 dotted uppercase and lowercase letter b for him to trace. Then he filled in the rest by memory. It’s important to watch kids practice so you can keep them from forming letters the wrong way (like bottom to top).

Teach preschoolers to write their name

If you want to motivate your preschooler to write, then start with fun ways to teach them the letters in their name!

Kindergarten classes like to have kids able to write their name coming into kindergarten with the first letter being a capitol and the rest of their name in lowercase.

I found these awesome FREE printable name tracing worksheets and loved how easy it was to customize the font, size, you can even save the file to print over and over, or just bookmark the page.

We also love these dry erase letter tracing cards! They come in uppercase and lowercase. Note that if your child has two of the same letters in their name these ones only come with one of each.

My kids love tracing on these reusable dry erase cards! Awesome way to practice tracing letters.

Be encouraging

While it’s easy to want your kid to do it right (and I do think the hand strokes are important), handwriting takes A LOT of practice. If they feel criticized and corrected instead of encouraged, they could easily be too frustrated to keep going.

I tried to use phrases like “That’s almost it! Make sure the b touches the middle line next time” or “Good start! Now try again making the loop a little more round.” I found encouragement worked better for my son (who gets discouraged easily) rather than saying, “don’t do that” or “the loops aren’t round enough.”

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Should you start with uppercase or lowercase letters?

Don’t worry too much about this.

Some people start with all uppercase letters first and lowercase letters second, since uppercase letters are a bit easier.

It’s a good time to introduce that names are always spelled with a capital letter if that’s new to your preschooler. It’s also good when reading out loud to make the connection that every sentence starts with a capital letter.

Just want a handwriting curriculum?

I hope you see that for preschool level…you truly can teach your kid to write their name and learn to form letters.

But if you are like me and want something you can whip out once a day to practice that’s planned out for you…we are LOVING Handwriting Without Tears. It’s a SOLID program used by homeschoolers and in elementary schools.

This is their pre-k version called Kickstart Kindergarten. We buy the workbook and chalkboard. Nothing else, and you don’t need the teacher’s guide.

DO buy their official chalkboard and a pack of chalk snapped into 1 inch pieces. The smaller pieces encourage proper grip, and the chalkboard helps them write the BIG version of the letter and focus on which stokes come first.

Then, using a tiny sponge cut up, they’ll erase it using the same chalk strokes getting to form the letter twice.

We are now using Handwriting Without Tears as our main way to teach letter formation

I actually am having my now 1st and 2nd grader go back and do the kindergarten and 1st grade levels.

Somehow they’d slipped into some wonky habits and were doing a lot of bottom to top letters, which isn’t great for neatness or speed or cursive later on.

They do 1-2 pages a day. The orange kindergarten book was so easy for my 1st grader she flew through it in 1 month. The boxes and letters are larger in that book than the 1st grade book. And there’s more repetition for each letter.

I feel good knowing they are reviewing letter formation, and it’s helping me to teach them things like bumping the top line and bottom line. Plus, I’m loving the memorable phrases like “Frog jump” for letters you have to pick up your pencil. Or “Magic c” for letters that begin with that curve.

I’ll probably gently introduce my 4.5 year old to letter tracing letters this year using sensory bins and play…and start him on Kick Start Kindergarten next year around age 5 or 5.5 towards the end of preschool. He has to be ready though, or I’ll wait. Sometimes preschool is just too early, especially for boys!

Handwriting mistakes to avoid

Forcing your kid to write before they are ready.

Sometimes kids are capable but uninterested.

My philosophy is that if they are not interested, but capable, I don’t force it unless it’s something I deem necessary. I want my kids to be writing letters by Kindergarten (age 5.5-6). But, if they are 4 and uninterested, then wait 6 months and try again!

The majority of writing begins in the Kindergarten years anyway.

Doing worksheets before any pre-writing activities.

If they are interested in letters but can’t seem to follow directions to trace or copy, then back up and do some fun pre-writing activities.

I didn’t realize that “pre-writing” was an official thing, because kids naturally do some of these things first. Think drawing shapes and lines (my 3.5 year old currently draws mama as a big round circle with about 5 lines of hair).

Also coloring, holding a paintbrush, beading, drawing letters in the air, or anything that strengthens hand muscles and makes writing easier later on is considered pre-writing.

Letting them write or trace the wrong way.

It can be a lot more work to correct a bad habit than to make sure they learn the strokes correctly the first time. I’m living this. You can’t hand them a worksheet and walk away. You’ll have to stay at watch till a habit is formed.

One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen all my kids try to do is write from bottom to top.

Some examples are writing the letter O starting at the bottom instead of top, or my son wanting to write the tail of the lowercase “g” in his name before circle on top.

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How to teach a left handed child to write

My oldest is a clear lefty and my middle is a righty. There is not a huge difference when teaching them to write letters, so don’t be too intimidated!

Make sure they have a proper pencil grip. I have them pinch the pencil with their thumb and index finger, resting the pen on their middle finer.
Hold the pencil close to the tip for better control, but far enough away that they can still see what they are writing without having to bend their wrist all wonky.
Tip the paper a tad, so the bottom right corner of the page is bit down. This is opposite of the way I tilt my page being right handed.

This is an excellent in depth post on Tips for teaching left handed kids to write if you want to read more.

You can teach your child to write at home

If you are beginning your homeschool journey and feel overwhelmed, know that you have what it takes to teach your child to write their letters! Homeschoolers have the freedom to go at their own pace, and it’s a great way to spend one on one time with your child.

If your child will be attending kindergarten, then there will be PLENTY of letter practice there. Or, consider doing kindergarten at home! Kindergarten teachers know that some kids can write many letters and others only some or none at all. They really try to meet kids where they are at!

Either way, helping your child to learn their letters at home will help them so much! What is one thing you worry about when it comes to teaching handwriting? Let me know in the comments!

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Learning to write block letters of the Russian alphabet.

Trainer

Electronic library

Raising children, today's parents educate the future history of our country, and hence the history of the world.
- A.S. Makarenko

Learning to write block letters of the Russian alphabet. Trainer

This section contains a simulator that teaches preschoolers 5-6 years old how to write the correct block letters of the Russian alphabet. The simulator consists of a collection of developing children's recipes, arranged in alphabetical order on colored tabs.

Red tabs contain copybooks for studying vowels, blue tabs for studying consonants, gray tabs for studying separating marks. The green tab contains developmental tasks and exercises for consolidating and practical application of writing skills in block letters. nine0003

Printing is part of learning to read and write early. This lesson develops attention, fine motor skills, graphic skills, promotes better memorization of the alphabet and improves literacy.

Performing developmental tasks and exercises, the child will get acquainted with block letters, learn how to write them, and also learn the Russian alphabet.

You can print as many copybooks as you need to repeatedly practice writing letters, reinforce your skills, and get a successful learning outcome. nine0003

Here various methods of teaching writing in block letters are proposed, which allows you to individually select the most suitable option for your child or put into practice all the proposed methods, making the learning process more interesting and varied for a preschooler.

Tips for working with spelling:

Let's learn the vowels first. They are simpler and easier to pronounce and remember, at this stage of learning there are no problems even for children with speech disorders. Letters denoting the same vowel sound are recommended to be studied in pairs A - I, O - E, U - Yu, E - E, Y - I.
After vowels, we study consonants. The sequence of study does not matter. As a rule, the letter P and other letters, the pronunciation of which is still difficult for the baby, are studied at the end. It is not recommended to study paired consonants in a row (B - P, G - K, D - T, Z - C, V - F, F - W) - it is difficult for a child at this age not to confuse them by ear.
There are different approaches to the order of learning the letters, so you can use another, in your opinion, the most acceptable variant of the sequence of letters. nine0018
Practice with your child for no more than 15 to 20 minutes.
When completing tasks, the preschooler should hold the pen or pencil correctly, without straining the fingers too much.
It is very important to properly organize the child's workplace: be sure to pay attention to whether it is comfortable for the child to sit at the table, and also where the light source is located. For right-handers, the lamp should be on the left side, and for left-handers, on the right.
Don't forget to praise your child, even if he doesn't do well on tasks. From classes, a preschooler should receive only positive emotions. This is a prerequisite for further successful learning. nine0018
Remember that learning should be in the form of an exciting game. In no case should a child be forced to fill out prescriptions - this can consolidate an aversion to learning to read and write for many years.

* Methods V.G. were used to create the simulator. Dmitrieva , O.S. Zhukova , M.O. Georgieva , M.P. Tumanovskaya .

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"Our dad likes to live at work, but he comes to us to eat and sleep"

- Sonya, 4 years old

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	Preparing for school
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Neurologopedic prescriptions. Learning to read and developing speech nine0018
Become a letter! Dynamic pauses in teaching literacy to preschoolers and younger schoolchildren
Speed reading for kids and more
All basic English vocabulary. Reference book in the form of memory cards

How to learn to write in a foreign language and learn the alphabet on your own: useful tips

Learning a new alphabet, syllabary, or other writing system can be overwhelming. The difficulty of this task depends on the complexity of the writing system you are trying to master.

If we talk about English, then learning to write will not be difficult for people, than the language has a similar writing style, that is, it uses Latin letters.

But learning to write in a language completely different from your own, such as Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Arabic or Hebrew, is a completely different matter that requires attention, time and patience. nine0003

Below are some helpful tips on how to learn to write in a foreign language and learn the alphabet on your own.

Do not learn the whole alphabet at once

Divide the study of the alphabet into parts. Try to learn a few letters per lesson. Do not memorize the entire unfamiliar alphabet in one breath.

Pay special attention to letters that look similar in appearance, but which sound like letters you already know but sound different, such as the letter “r” in Russian and English. nine0003

Related article:
An unusual way to effectively memorize words in English

Find an association between an unknown letter and a well-known object

Try to associate the shape of a letter with a familiar object: some new letters may look like letters or numbers in your native alphabet , others may remind you of the appearance of animals, objects, or people.

Books that teach children to read use this method, so it will be very helpful if you apply it to your goal of learning a new language. nine0003

Article in the topic:
Teaching English to a child

"The skill of the master sets"

Practice your writing skills as often as possible. Learn the standard way of writing letters: that is, memorize the shape, direction and order of strokes in writing a particular letter. This will help you memorize the new alphabet faster and learn how to write letters correctly. Write letters as much as possible.

If you have the opportunity, take a calligraphy course. This is especially useful if you are learning Chinese or Japanese. The calligraphy course will allow you to improve your handwriting and understand other people's handwriting. nine0003

Related article:
8 precious tips to improve your writing skills in English

Transliterate or spell foreign words in your native alphabet

Practice writing the letters of a new alphabet or words by transliterating them in your native alphabet. Then vice versa: try to transliterate them back into the letters of the new alphabet.

You can also practice your writing skills by journaling or chatting with friends who speak the language. nine0003

You can find pen pals interested in learning languages and helping others learn their native language at mylanguageexchange.com .

Article in the topic:
9 English words that came from other languages

Reading

Try to read simple texts written in the language you are learning as often as possible. Even if you don't know all the letters or symbols, you can pick out some of the words and guess the rest. nine0003

Look for names of famous people or places, as well as loanwords from your native language, as they are relatively easy to decipher.

At first you will probably find that you have to say each letter individually before you know or pronounce the whole word. Over time, you will be able to recognize words by their shape, and you will need to pronounce each letter only in completely unfamiliar words.