How to make child write alphabets

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.

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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

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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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.

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

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.

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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How To Teach My 3 Year Old To Write the Alphabet?

Is your 3-year-old struggling to write letters of the alphabet?

Is your pre-schooler not showing any interest in the writing alphabet?

Actually, there is no hard and fast rule to teach writing alphabets to preschoolers but there are some self-tested tips and tricks that helped my 3-year-old to practice writing alphabets with fun.

In case if you are looking for an activity book that helps in alphabet writing – Just close your eyes and buy this Alphabet writing book for 3 year olds and you can thank me later. If you looking for digital products – just go for this alphabet learning pack.

Now let us get started on how to teach alphabet to your child.

1. Teach The Right Order To Write ABC To Kids

We followed a simple rule to begin writing with the standing lines, then slanting lines, half curves, and then full curves like

First Step: L, I, H, E, F, T

Second Step: V, X, N, M, W, A, Y, K, Z

Third Step: C, D, B, O, P

Fourth Step: U, J, Q, R, S, G

2. Simple Short Tricks To Follow

Remembering all 26 letters in order from A-Z would be very difficult for a beginner to remember, rather you can follow these verbal tricks to make them understand the flow of writing.

Letter H: Two standing lines connected with a sleeping line at the center, as two parallel lines joined with a bridge in the middle

Letter I: One vertical line drawn from top to bottom, like a person is standing wearing a hat at the top and shoes at the bottom Letter B: A standing line blowing two bubbles connected together.

3. Use Sensory Trays To Practice Writing

Another fun trick that helped my 4-year-old to practice writing the alphabet in a fun way was writing in the sensory tray. Give a big tray filled with mustard seeds/sand/salt/or rainbow rice and alphabet flashcards to trace uppercase or lowercase letters into the sensory tray with fingers.

You can get these physical flashcards or use this alphabet learning pack as it has everything you need in one place

Check out the best >>>Montessori Tray <<<Click here

4. Alphabet Worksheets Practice

Make a regular habit of writing alphabets on >>> worksheets <<< click here to get the Ultimate alphabet bundle, maybe one stroke at a time or one letter for a week.

This will teach them the right hold of the pencil without any fail.

5. Introduce Flashcards For Tracing Alphabets

Flashcards are a handy and pocket-friendly way to teach any fundamental concept in an experimental way. You can use our Alphabet Flashcards from Alphabet Bundle (available in two variants) to help kids teach tracing alphabets.

Click here and get the >>> Alphabet worksheets set <<<

Just download the flashcards, take printouts and get them laminated for reusability. You can use whiteboard markers to trace the letters.

6. Fun Ways To Teach Alphabet Writing To Kindergarten

If you ask me “How do I teach my 3-year-old to write the alphabet?” then you should look few below-mentioned skill-based learning activities that helped my 3-year-old to write in a fun way.

Work on Fine Motor Activities To Build Hand Strength For Writing

The muscles in tiny hands need extra strength to be built to teach them the right hold of a pencil/pen (tripod hold).

These are the few activities that will work wonders for pincer grasp development.

1. Alphabet Sponge Dab Activity

Give a white chart with some paints to your child, place alphabet sponges (you can also use magnetic letters) at one place, and let the child dip the letter sponge in paint and dab it on the chart. Click here to check Alphabet Sponges >>> Alphabet Sponges <<<

2. Trace The Letters With Pom Poms

We used our Alphabet playdough mats to trace the letters with pom-poms. You can also use buttons, any kind of beans from the kitchen. This helped my 2-year-old to learn about the actual flow of letter formation- i.e. start from the top do son, and then left to right.

Want to buy pom-poms at the best rate>>> Click Here <<<

This will help your child work on building a great pincer grasp that will enforce their small finger muscles to work with greater strength when they begin to write formally.

3. Alphabet Uppercase, Lowercase Letter Matching Clip Card Activity

This is one of the activities from our Alphabet Bundle which helped my son practice alphabet recognition in a fun way. Just took printouts, pasted them on cardboard cuttings, and the child has to clip the right letter with cloth pegs.

4. Lowercase Uppercase Alphabet Matching Cut & Paste Activity

This one is a great fine motor activity and will be every child’s favorite as it works on building great scissor skills. My son just loves cut and paste activities and learning things in a fun engaging way.

Work on these

We used different Alphabet Activities from our Alphabet Bundle for both Uppercase & Lowercase Letter Recognition. You know, before we expect a 3-year-old to write, we need to make them confident with alphabet recognition- both uppercase and lowercase.

Get your >>> Alphabet Bundle <<< Click here

1. Uppercase/Lowercase Alphabet Matching Clip Card Activity

Just 10 minute preparation time and endless fun added to our learning time. We used uppercase letter recognition activity with a twist of coloring.

2. Find & Color Letter Hunt Activity

Big sized alphabets on A4 size sheet with alphabets in random order. The child has to find and color the letter. We used this sheet for tracing uppercase letters.

Use Art Techniques To Improve Writing Skills In Kids

Paints are every child’s first love and if we use them in their learning it gives an excellent output. Check out this amazing Watercolor Resist Letter Painting

You will need:-

• White Watercolor Paper
• Paintbrush
• Watercolor Paints
• Water
• White Crayon

You can get watercolor paper on amazon. Watercolor paper is a thick absorbent sheet mostly made up of wood-pulp, or mixed with cotton fibers.

Improve Literacy Skills

You can use Rainbow Puzzle Card Game for matching uppercase and lowercase letters from our Alphabet Bundle. This way learn letter recognition very quickly in a fun way.

Teach Kids To Write With Blocks

Legos or blocks can be found in every house and you can put them to the best of their use to create letters.

Teach Multi-Sensory Writing

Make your own tactile cards using either glue gun/ wool/ beans or pipe cleaners and give the best sensory experience to explore the letters with their fingers. This will help kids understand the path of motion needed to write letters in the correct order.

Get the best Glue Gun here on Amazon <<<Click Here

Use Science Activity To Teach Alphabet Writing

We did a salt painting science experiment to inculcate fun into our alphabet learning. Take some cardstock paper cuttings, draw alphabets with white glue and sprinkle salt on them to form the letters. Give diluted watercolors with a dropper to the child and watch them pour these on the salt formations to reveal the colorful alphabets.

Plan Outdoor Alphabet Tracing Activities

If you are struggling with how to practice alphabet writing for kids, then you must try this Alphabet Tracing fun activity when you take your child outdoors.

Just draw letters on the ground with chalk and ask your toddler to collect some pebbles lying around and trace the alphabet. This way we can incorporate learning during playing time even.

5 Common Mistakes To Avoid While Teaching Writing To Kids

If you are really interested to teach alphabet writing to your toddlers smoothly, then you must avoid these common mistakes:

Mistake 1: Don’t Rush

The biggest mantra to achieve success for any challenge is patience. If your child is not showing interest in anything (even tracing) do not overemphasize it. Keep calm and do when your child shows cues to initiate writing. Kids need a lot of time to explore crayons, colors, paints, and other tools before they begin to start formal writing with a pencil.

Mistake 2: Don’t Miss The Cues Given By A Child To Write

Pencil/Crayon/Thick Markers/Chalk and Paper/Chart/Slate should always be easily accessible to the child. You never know when they are going to surprise you. It’s not like we ask them to write and they begin, in fact just observe them providing easy access to stationery supplies (colors, marker, paper, or whiteboard)

Like in our case, one day my son (2.5 years old) got a sketch pen and started doodling on the floor, instantly I gave him one big chart and observed- and to my surprise, he made H, L, T, X, 1, I, 7, 0 randomly on it. I was thrilled to see that urge to learn and write.

Mistake 3: Don’t Jump To Alphabet Worksheets Before Kids Are Ready

Many moms have a misconception that a preschooler should do writing on worksheets, I definitely agree that a few 3-year-old or 4-year-old kids can write smoothly on worksheets but if your child doesn’t, please do not panic. There are lots of surfaces and materials for them to explore to write.

Mistake 4: Teaching Writing ABC In Wrong Order

Do not always start to teach writing alphabets from A, B, C – Z, instead go with the flow from easiest to hardest:

E, F, H, I, L, T, V, W, X, K, M, N, Y, A, Z, C, O, G, Q, B, D, J, P, U, R, S

If we follow a structured approach we always get a positive outcome. Begin with standing, sleeping lines, then slant lines, and then continue to follow with curves.

Mistake 5: Don’t Neglect The Letter Formation Flow

Young writers usually get confused with the proper flow of writing, they begin to find the shortest way to write ABC which may lead to poor handwriting. Like always teach them to start from the top, go down, and then from left to right.

My 3 Year Old Runs Aways From Writing

If your child also walks out whenever you ask them to write then please focus on below-mentioned points before you expect big from them:

Make Reading/Recognition Practice A Daily Routine

Daily revision keeps the charm alive- likewise, I keep talking about numbers and Alphabets with him- like ” Do you know how 1 is formed? – A big standing line, How E is formed? – One Standing line, three sleeping lines (one at top, one at middle, and one at bottom) with proper actions using my hands/fingers.

In lowercase letters, b has a potbelly, while d has a big bum. p always looks to the right, while q to the left. This helps create a visual in their mind that they always try to copy.

Have A Defined Plan

I know your expectations are very high for a 3-year-old to begin writing, but let me tell you that without an actual plan you won’t be able to succeed. We all moms are too busy in our chores whether home or office that we somehow fail to make a plan.

All we need to teach them writing is an easy-to-follow step-by-step plan that we can follow without breaking our heads. Without letting your child drill into so many things, you can help your preschooler to write the alphabet in a fun way.

That’s the reason I have created my own One Letter A Week Alphabet Activity Plan that is very easy to implement and will show you simple ways of how to teach the alphabet to toddlers?

Invest In An Alphabet Curriculum

Teaching letters to preschoolers can be as tricky as climbing a mountain. But if we emphasize on right skills at the right age, it becomes very easy to lay a strong foundation to teach alphabets to preschoolers in a fun way.

Keeping that in mind, I am here to introduce our Alphabet Bundle that every parent should invest in to teach ABC to 2 year old. It is a jam-packed bundle of activities that covers all basic concepts that a preschooler needs to learn to read/write.

From pre-writing tasks to alphabet recognition, formation of letter sounds, beginning sound, middle sound, or ending sound to building simple CVC words, the bundle includes plenty of hands-on activities to keep our young minds engaged while they practice reading, writing, and mastering the alphabets.

Other Resources for teaching Letters of the Alphabet

Below we have put together a list of resources that will help you teach your child letters of the alphabet.

Books to teach Alphabets

• My First Padded Book of Alphabets
• ABC Boardbook for Children
• Dr. Seuss ABC Book
• Chicka Chicka ABCs

Alphabet sets- Magnetic/Non-Magnetic

• Play Panda Magnets ABC
• Play Poco Magnetic Fun with Alphabet
• Butterflyedufields ABCD Alphabets

Puzzles to Teach the Alphabet

• Twizzle Alphabet Blocks <<< Click Here
• PLAY POCO Alphabet Fun <<< Click Here
• Wooden Capital Alphabet Puzzles <<< Click Here

What Order To Teach Letters To Pre-Schoolers?

There are many different ways to teach the right order to write letters, but what made our writing journey smooth and effective is what I am going to share with you guys.

We started with some basic Strokes- Standing Lines, Slanting Lines, Sleeping Lines (L to R & then R to L), Curves (Up to Down, and vice-versa, the deep Up or Deep Down Curve), and then Half Circle ©, Full Circles (O) to learn the accurate format for writing Alphabets.

The right order to be followed when teaching a 3-year-old to write alphabet in an effective way should be like:

L, I, H, E, F, T

V, X, N, M, W, A, Y, K, Z

C, D, B, O, P U, J, Q, R, S, G

At What Age Should A Child Start Writing The Alphabets?

Writing is one developmental stage that varies from one child to another, some may begin to show interest in writing at a very early stage when they are around 3 years and some may fall escaping even after they turn 4.

Do not compare your child with others and stress yourself as a parent if your child is not showing any interest in writing. A lot depends on the approach we follow to work on building their fine motor skills.

Should A 3 Year Old Be Able To Write Letters?

It is not at all necessary to expect a 3-year-old to start writing, studies have shown that a 4-year-old child when he is ready to go to preschool is suitable to start with writing. Before that, we can work on building their pre-writing skills to enhance their tripod grip which most kids lack during their early years.

Our all-in-1 alphabet learning bundle is a powerful resource that will make your child confident in writing uppercase and lowercase letters without demanding your extra efforts.

From alphabet recognition to the connection between alphabet sounds and the letters they represent, the bundle has a jam-packed set of activities that focus on building multiple skills a kindergarten need to build during his early years.

All the worksheets have been thoughtfully designed by education experts to teach multiple strategies for teaching letters and their sounds. You just have to download and take printouts of the worksheets for hands-on learning.

step-by-step instructions with expert advice

And now the first letter, the first word, appears on a piece of paper. Uneven and uncertain. But long-awaited. How to teach a child to write? How can I help him develop writing skills at home? Answers-in our material

Alena Gerashchenko