Encouraging early attempts at spelling & drawing

[AngelDog]

I'm after some tips. DS is 2.3 y.o. and has been really into letters for over a year. He loves trying to spell words with his magnetic letters.

What's the best way to encourage him to keep having a go without demoralising him by focussing on the fact he's not spelt them right? I'm a natural pedant so it's easy for me to focus on what's right/wrong about the words.

At the moment I tend to talk about the letters he's used, talk about where they are in the word and stress them in the word. e.g. when he wrote 'gd' for 'digger', I told him that yes, there was a 'd' which he'd got down, and a 'g' sound too. Then I would normally rearrange the letters / fill in the missing ones. I don't know whether doing that is frustrating for him though.

Most of what he wants to spell are familiar words that he often asks me to spell for him.

He's also been getting frustrated at wanting to be able to draw shapes but not being able to produce a shape he recognises. We were drawing hearts today and he would draw one side, then the other and (of course) produce two random squiggles. He'd then point at them and get cross because he was trying to identify the heart shape but couldn't. He then stopped wanting to try and only wanted me to draw them.

How can I encourage him to keep on going even though his competence lags behind his enthusiasm/understanding?

Disclaimer: I've not particularly tried to teach him letters or shapes: I've just chatted to him about the things that have interested him.

I think the spelling depends on the child. My dd1 didn't like to be wrong and it really hindered her if you didn't spell it correctly for her after she'd had a go-she could often see it was wrong anyway. So if she thought you wouln't correct her she wouldn't do it.

Dd2 and ds loved to have a go, and are proud of their efforts, they wouldn't have wanted me to arrange them correctly unless they had specifically asked. So I'd have said "well done, that says digger". It hasn't effected their future spelling or reading- but dd2 is a very natural speller now, and rarely gets a word wrong.

If he's going to get frustrated, then you can go alternatives. Stick with easy, like lines and circles-make them into faces etc, Or get him to trace over what you've drawn, you can draw it in yellow felt tip, then when he goe over in pencil his will be more obvious. You could also get him to trace onto traing paper.

Some of the "beginning to write" (WHSmiths sells them) books aimed at preschoolers have pencil control exercises. Sounds like he'd enjoy them. My older pair would work at them for hours at that age because they found it fun.

Thanks - that's interesting about the differences. :) I'll probe a bit and see which sort of approach works. How he spells things varies a lot - he can usually spell his own name, but today he wrote it backwards.

I'll look out for the books.