Teaching a three yr old to write his name. What is the best way to teach him how to write his name?

Question

Before my three year old can move on to preschool, he will be required to write his name. what are some good systems that we can use to teach him to write his name?

Answer 1

Make the letters for him all dotted and have him trace over them. Or, show him one letter repeatedly and have him practice copying each line of it until he's got it down pat.

Answer 2

As a teacher, I think a 2 year old is a bit young for this writing. Better that she sing the ABCs and enjoy coloring. Eventually, you can have her trace the letters. By the way, when you do teach her to write her name, teach her to use a capital at the beginning and lower case with the rest. Enjoy her while she is little and don't worry about writing yet!

Answer 3

If the child has just turned 3, he won't have the fine-motor skills to control a pencil. After all, deveopmentally he will use a palmar grip and scribble-- perfectly normal for a 3 year-old.
If he is almost 4, you can teach him how to hold a crayon or fat pencil properly, but don't expect real letters just yet. Real letters aren't possible until he can color inside the lines in a coloring book.
Find a different preschool; this one clearly doesn't take a child's developmental milestones into account and will be pushing him to do things he isn't ready to do. This will turn him off of school, and you will have a major problem later on. At 3, his "work" is to play and explore the world, NOT academics!!!

Answer 4

Three is too young to begin formal writing and any preschool that requires that kids can do that before entering is not a place I'd send my cat. Give him play-dough and paper and fat crayons to experiment with and use his small muscles. Casually point out the letters of his name on signs and posters. Get him those magnetic letters for the fridge. But do not expect him to sit down and write. Even some fours are not ready yet.

Answer 5

Well 1st of all, I have NEVER heard of not being allowed to go to preschool until a child can write his/her name. How sad that you are feeling pressured to make your precious little one do something that he may or may not be ready for! I was a teacher for several years before leaving to stay home full-time with our children, and I can say this from experience- a child who is constantly pressured at a young age to perform academically will burn out eventually! If he is interested in learning to write his name, then great! Sit down with him, observe which hand he is dominant in, and have him practice holding a writing instrument (crayon, marker, whatever). It is a good idea to know before hand what handwriting style is used in the school system he will be eventually attending. That way, he will not have to be re-taught how to write the letters. A good way for your child to get used to forming the letters properly is to hold their hand while they write the letters so that they get the feel for it. Then, you can write his name and have him attempt to copy it. I would say too that no more than 5-10 min. be spent on this. Please don't be offended by my opinion- like I said, I have seen MANY children get burned out at such a young age because they have been pressured at 2 and 3 (sometimes younger) to get ahead academically! Our babies are little for only a brief time!

Answer 6

It helps if he's seen his name a lot first, and seen how others write it. Does he already recognize it when others write it? If not, make a big to-do of writing his name on all of his artwork, a sign for his door, a place marker at the dinner table, etc. Either way, let him see you write his name a bunch of times (in those kind of fun situations): write it slowly, talking about the letters and how they sound and how you're drawing them while he's watching (and then let him color nearby it). After he's seen this a lot (not all in one sitting, I mean over a period of weeks), try writing his name lightly in pencil and let him trace over it in marker. Talk him through how to draw the lines. When he's got the hang of that, he'll be ready to write it himself. Unless his name is super long, in which case you may want to start thinking up nicknames. :-)

Answer 7

Tracing the dotted lines is a great idea. I would also try other things like side walk chalk or small chalkboard, markers, painting it, crayons.
If you allow things like video games, the Leap Frog leapster hand held game has a game called "letter on the loose" you use a little "pencil" to trace the letters. It's a great game.
Use all these things to keep it interesting but don't push. That is pretty young to be expected to write his name. I have never heard of that.

Answer 8

I’m surprised they want him to be able to write his name at such a young age! Most children his age have not even figured out if they are right or left hand dominant. Children his age are just beginning to recognize their name, very few learning how to write. Whatever you do don’t push it are you’ll get yourself into a power struggle!
Here are some ideas how to help:

Write his name (uppercase first letter followed by lowercase letters) on some card stock (or paper or cardboard) and put it on his bedroom door, bathroom door, and a few places he will be able to see it often so he can learn to recognize it.

If he is not holding the pencils and pens in an orthodox way, take them away for now. You don’t want him to get used to holding a pencil in an unorthodox way or else he will develop poor writing skills. It is pretty common for children at his age not to hold pencils and pens properly. He needs some time to develop some hand strength to hold a pencil. Find some ways to strengthen his hand. Get him some small manipulative toys like Lego’s and Knex. These are great for developing hand strength. Have him use other manipulatives like play dough, tweezers, hammer small nails in a tree stump, knobbed puzzles, and use a small scrub brush to scrub potatoes, windows, tables. Anything with small pieces that he has to grasp are great. Instead of having him learn writing using pencils or pens have him trace letters in a small dish of sand or cornmeal. Write out some letters for him to trace in the cornmeal. This helps eliminate frustration because with a simple shake it can be erased. He can also practice this on a chalkboard. Make sure you are teaching uppercase first letter followed by lowercase.

Once he has developed some hand strength, get him some pencil grips like these http://learninggear.stores.yahoo.net/grips.html It is a rubber mold where a child can find the exact position of where to place their fingers. Stay away from the triangular pencil grips. They do not help children learn where to position their fingers. The molded grips will help him to learn how to hold a pencil in an orthodox way. You can start by moving his fingers to the right position and place your hand over his. You can then draw his name using a yellow highlighter on some card stock or cardboard for you child to trace. This will be much easier to follow than trying to follow dot to dot (when following dot to dot children start and stop to then next dot instead of one fluid motion). Once he has mastered the positioning of his fingers, you can take the pencil grip away.

Give it some time and don’t push it. If he resist, let it go.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Answer 9

buy your son a wriitng tablet, and take his name and you write it for him and then slowly teach him to trace over the letters,and work with him on this each day and be patient with him now,for it will take time,and he will gradulaay write his own name,and you can also purchase some index cards and put his name all over the house and point to it and tell him to repeat it to you and that will help him to.I wish you good luck.

Answer 10

have plenty of pictures with his name on everywhere so he can see it and get used to seeing it writtern down.
teach him to say the phonetic sounds in his mame eg fuh, ruh, eh, duh (FRED) and the names of the letters eff are, ee, dee.

always leave paper and crayons where he can get to them and praise any picture or letters he does make

write his name and get him to copy it, saying each letter as he goes

get one of those magnetic doodle boards for him to practice on.

make a game, if he gets anything new, quick, put your name on before big brother or daddy or the dog or teddy decides they like it