Letter formation, help please!

[HaveAHappyNewJung]

This should perhaps be in preschool ed, but following on from the "patronising school shite" thread:

yesterday my DD (3.6) came out of her daycare session with some 'writing' - a staff member had written a sentence in big yellow letters and DD had written over the top in biro.

I was really proud as it was startlingly neat and accurate, and a massive improvement as she did similar before Xmas where she mostly just circled individual letters.

BUT obviously I have no idea if she formed the letters correctly (she's right handed btw) - so my question is, now that she's got better pen control and may be doing more of these activities - is it time to teach proper letter formation before she gets into bad habits?

She can do her initial J properly as well as s, w and o but I've never pushed it.

How do we go about it? I'm sure she will enjoy it as she likes doing 'homework' like mummy and I'll make it fun. She loves mazes and drawing over dotted lines (I've got workbooks packed away and I guess she's now ready for them) - but I've also heard it's important not to solely rely on dotted letters as they need to do it without.

I am so confused... What do I do?

I think that it's much more important that she does the things like mazes, drawing, patterns, bead threading, playdough etc. to develop her fine motor control than practises letter formation. Schools vary in their handwriting style - some do full cursive (with lead in and exit strokes), while some do cursive (exit strokes only).

I teach in a school which uses full cursive formation from Reception. Many of our children come in with fairly ingrained poor formation of letters and it's taken until now to re-teach appropriate formation.

I would just give your dd lots and lots of opportunities to make marks in different ways, with different pens, different surfaces, different reasons; lots of small equipment to use, such as beads, lego, playmobil etc. and leave the actual letter formation until she starts at school.

Ok, but wouldn't it be harmful if she was writing letters in a drastically wrong way as she would have to unlearn it?

You would need to know which style the school uses in reception to be sure that you aren't teaching a drastically wrong way and I assume she hasn't got a school place yet?

No, we've just applied though. Overwhelmingly likely to get into catchment school but will ask at both options as I'm planning on being a volunteer there too :)

I was in no hurry to teach her this, we've only done a tiny bit of literacy stuff (JP songs etc) in a very relaxed way - but I am aware that in terms of education, daycare centres aren't always careful about teaching 'the right way' so I was a bit concerned she might be sitting there going over the letters backwards!

It would be my concern too

Should I ask them (and her other preschool) then? Or would I look like a nutter?

Quick final question if I may. DD is desperate to do writing tomorrow - so should I use blank paper, or dotted letters, or both? :)

She's got the same poster they have at school btw, she hasnt seen it so I was going to show her it tomorrow and put it on her wall, and ask her to choose which letter she wants to do.

I would only use dotted letters if you are sitting with her to make sure she is starting in the correct place and going in the right direction (hard to tell once it's traced over)

Great thank you :) she is so excited - she sees me do my studying and her (half) siblings doing homework and is determined to fit in bless her.

DS is 4.5 and has been attending primary school full time since last sept. His teacher remarked to DH that DS was not yet writing his name, in response to his asking about his progress. I realise that children develope at different rates. DS is linking letters with sounds, he enjoys flash card activities and the Cbeebies Fun with Phonics DVD, although he is not so keen on joining the dots activities, but will do drawing and colouring. Should I be concerned at this stage, as his teacher has drawn our attention to it? Are there other things that I could be doing to encourage him to write his name?