how can i help my child be interested in learning to write??

[ilovedjasondonovan]

Because she's a very stubborn 4yr old (June bday) who just doesn't want to learn.

She knows all her letters, can read, good at numbers etc, but will she even try to write. Not a chance.

She's now in reception, so should I just leave it to them to encourage her or is there anything I can do to help her want to try at home. Normally she just looks at me and says no thanks when I try to get her to write some letters.

I'm guessing one day at school it'll just click and then I won't beable to stop her, but just incase that doesn't happen.....

I would say that she is just too young. Leave it to reception and encourage if she wants to do any at home.

My ds1 was a reluctant writer. He is now in y3 and although his written work is a bit messy, he is rapidly improving. It is frustrating when they won't try, but 4 is very young for writing. I would concentrate on developing her fine motor skills (Lego, Hama beads, play dough, threading) and let the school work on the writing. However, You may find that they won't push writing at all in reception - and this is fine. She will pick it up in y1 or y2.

I have a little boy in reception. He cannot read or anything, but the teacher told us not to worry about writing. Thye just need to draw at this stage. The teacher suggested drawing with chalk on pavement.

Don't worry about the writing per se but encourage mark making- ie drawing, scribbling/doodling- anything she likes that encourages holding a pencil and making marks. This is the pre writing stage. And yes as pp says it doesn't have to be a pencil, can be chalk outside, whatever she likes doing like that.

I wouldn't worry too much. It is normal to just enjoy scribbling and drawing at this stage and there is plenty of time for writing to develop naturally with the school's help. DD at a similar age really enjoyed writing for a purpose, though. So I would read the meter and get her to write the numbers down and then go to the computer and show her how to put them in, or get her to make me a shopping list (if she has an idea of how to make words she can absolutely write bred froot paypu or you can tell her what letters to write if she isn't at that stage yet). It doesn't matter if it isn't legible, it's just giving her good reasons to want to be able to write so she can feel grown up and do grown up tasks with her writing and help mummy etc. At 6 DD still really loves writing my shopping list with me and ticking each item off as we go round the shop.

My DS is 5 and we don't do writing at home unless it's homework. There are some great Usborne doodle books for doodling though which help with fine motor skills.