Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

DD seems to be really interetsed in writing numbers and letters, how can I help?

24 replies

Mum2Ela · 03/03/2006 11:07

She is 3.5 years but won't be going to school in September as she missed the cut-off by two days (grrr).

Atm she is really inetrested in writing and copying numbers and letters and I am aware (although I am not sure if I should be concerned) that she is the eldest in her peer group and so will be 5 when she starts school, and I don't want her to miss out on learning as she seems to be like a 'sponge' at the moment for wanting to learn.

Can anyone recommend any good books that perhaps she can copy words into / from, or that might help us? Pref that I can buy on-line!

x

OP posts:
Enid · 03/03/2006 11:09

my 3.5 year old loves doing Jolly Phonics at nursery and you can get the workbooks from Smiths - they have loads of 'dotty' letters that you can write over. She now knows all 26 + letter sounds. They do songs and actions at nursery to go with each sound but I think you can get stuff to teach you that at home.

Enid · 03/03/2006 11:10

We also have the big Jolly Phonics poster up in the kitchen and both her and 6 year old dd1 love looking at it!

Enid · 03/03/2006 11:11

WH Smiths that should be. I think you can get them from Amazon too.

Hattie05 · 03/03/2006 11:14

Hi, my dd just missed the cut off too and so will be one of the oldest. I think that is a good thing tbh, don't want to rush her into school.

Personally i wouldn't become too structured about letter and number writing. Let things happen in your normal daily play. My dd also loves 'writing' and so often any game will end up with writing e.g. shop assistants - writes the receipts, playing with doctors set - she fills out 'patient details' on a little clipboard.
I think this sort of play which leads into writing is far more fun than going out and buying a workbook. And hopefully 'fun' learning is longer lasting, than learn by repetition.

Original poster
Mum2Ela · 03/03/2006 11:16

Thanks Enid.

On Amazon they have books 1 - 7 here:
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1870946502/qid=1141384420/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/203-9176136-8015968

Is that the type of thing you mean? Would this be DD's level?

I'm not familiar with it as I don't think they do this type of thing yet in her nursery.

OP posts:
Original poster
Mum2Ela · 03/03/2006 11:18

Hattie05, I am glad too. I would so much rather her be the eldest than the very youngest.

I only want to help her as she can write her name, but atm we don't have any books for this type of thing so she'll spend hours 'writing' what she thinks are letters, but are just small odd shapes! I just thought that. for the times she is happy sitting by herself and 'writing' she would be better off having something to copy.

OP posts:
Enid · 03/03/2006 11:19

yes thats them

only the first three workbooks would be suitable for her at this stage and tbh you need to know what you are talking about - they call the letter S 'sammy snake says sssssssssss' for example and they never say 'Es' for the letter S, they always say the sound 'ssss'.

do you have a WH Smith? They have a great big selection of preschool workbooks in there, OR you could just start doing 'dotty' letters yourself for her to write over. Dd2 loves me doing that we could do it all day.

LIZS · 03/03/2006 11:25

The JP workbooks have a relatively small font size though so younger ones may well find it a bit frustrating if their fine motor skills still need honing. ds found them really frustarting and abandoned them. I'm also not sure the JP books work well in isolation as it is based upon the phonic reinforcement.

You can get basic "Handwriting" books which start with patterns and squiggles to help this - Galt do one and there is an I Can Learn series. . There are sites on the internet from where you could down load "worksheets" - I'll have a look for the addresses. dd loves practising her writing just by doing notes, lists, letters and so on.

Original poster
Mum2Ela · 03/03/2006 11:25

I'll have a look on the Smiths website now.

If we play I-Spy i'll say the letter, then the phonetic sound and then to word, so 'Dee - duh - dog' - that type of thing, so she is aware of the letter and sound.

I am hoping to get some books because I find it hard to sit and spend time doing things like this with her with DS (15 months) climbing all over me! Although its getting a bit easier now as he will sit in his highchair with a crayon and paper and sometimes actually won't eat the crayon! ;)

OP posts:
Original poster
Mum2Ela · 03/03/2006 11:26

LIZS that would be great if you could find some websites for me.

OP posts:
LIZS · 03/03/2006 11:27

have a look \link{http://penmanship.donnayoung.org/\here}

geissi · 03/03/2006 11:30

Willkinsons do books with dotted lines for practising letters as well they also do brilliant
foam letters for the bath wich stick to tiles and the side of the bath when wet for 1.99 my dd 4 y. old absolutly loves them. i have also seen them in morrisons but there was no price on them.

Enid · 03/03/2006 11:31

and these Galt ones are great
\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1870946502/qid=1141384420/sr=8-1/ref=sr8_xs_ap_i1xgl/203-9176136-8015968\scroll down to see them all}

LIZS · 03/03/2006 11:31

or \link{http://www.handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/manuscript/alphabets/\this one} There are some worksheets on this site with pictures of animals, shapes etc too.

Enid · 03/03/2006 11:32

sorry wrong link

\link{http://www.mailorderexpress.com/shop2/fhom.asp?url=www.mailorderexpress.com/cgi/pfind.pl?BPC%3D10/TOK%3D1/IMG%3D1/PB%3D1/PSRT%3Dnull/EXFIND%3Dgalt9/page%3Dresults.html\Galt books HERE}

Hulababy · 03/03/2006 11:33

DD also loves the Jolly Phonics books.

We also have loads of the little workbooks for counting, writing, colours, science, etc as Dd loves to do these. We take them out with us when we go for a meal or something as they keep her occupied at the table. She likes playing school.

For her name, DD learnt this by originally copying over the top of her name, which had been dotted out underneath. She then move don to copying the letters when they were written above where she was to write.

catrin · 03/03/2006 12:04

Mum2Ela
Don't worry about dd missing out!If she's that keen, she will learn anyway. Fun stuff you could do:
cook spaghetti and let her make shapes, numbers, letters etc with it - it sticks to paper while it is soggy ish;let her write shopping lists for you, using pics, letters, marks etc;water and paintbrushes on floor outside; cornflour and water mixed in a tray is great for writing in as is damp sand/mud; play Kim's game with letters/numbers; play hide and seek around the house with leters/numbers...
i could go on for hours (reception teacher i'm afraid!. I would suggest that fun with letters and numbers is easier for some children as once they realise there is a "right" way to write they get quite stressed about not doing it properly. Hope this is of some use rather than a bossy essay :)
PS - sometimes easier to be the oldest in the class rather than the youngest

catrin · 03/03/2006 12:06

Shockapologies for spelling of letters - am a teacher honestly!

Hattie05 · 03/03/2006 15:05

Catrin - thanks for that, you have built confidence in my theory! Smile

I totally know where you are coming from with frustrated that they can't write a letter correctly. Dd's name begins with A and she cannot grasp writing the lines at diagonal, so she often ends of drawing a rectangle iykwim and i can see that she knows its not correct and is frustrated.
I keep quiet and have never 'told' her it is wrong, but she can see when i write an A that she does it differently.
I had opted to keep quiet about it and praise what she does, and i'm hoping she will master it at some point by herself, but always wondering if i'm doing the right thing! Smile

saadia · 03/03/2006 15:56

Mum2Ela I just last week bought a book from WH Smiths for ds aimed at pre-school kids. It's a Gold Stars book called My Big Early Learning Book and it covers beginner writing and maths.

It is very simple and not taxing at all for children, I think your dd would enjoy it as they start off with lots of line drawing and dot-joining but in a fun way and with lots of pics to colour in. I would really recommend it.

Ds does a few pages a day. He is now 4 and I've been trying to start him in writing letters but realised I was expecting too much too soon so this book has really helped to set a gentler pace.

uwila · 03/03/2006 16:23

I got some books from Waterstone where DD can trace the broken lines. She is almost 3. Your DD may need something more advanced. There were quite a few to choose from.

PeachyClair · 03/03/2006 16:50

We had a book from Mothercare printed on blackboard so the child could trace the lines / letter / numbers wtith chalk.

Otherwise, I would use the letts type books- they progress naturally and my kids at least have liked them, especially the ones where you put stickers / gold stars at the end of completed pages.

Hallgerda · 03/03/2006 21:41

I wrote letters and numbers in yellow felt tip for my children to trace over in black.

Tommy · 03/03/2006 21:58

We bought \link{http://www.brightminds.co.uk/default.asp?part=A8843\this} for DS1 at Christmas and he really enjoys practising his letters on it. The website has loads of good products.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page