The Write Start (13 page)

For Scholars:
Scholars are ready for a challenge. Toss all twenty-six letters into the bag and let them rummage about until they find one they can identify. You can even turn this into a game with several players. Each player reaches into the bag and tries to feel and find a letter. If they get it right, they keep the letter. If they mistake one letter for another, they place it back in the bag. The bag gets passed from one player to the next until there are no more letters left inside. The player who has accumulated the most letters by the end of the game is the winner.

3

Mystery Letters

“W
RITING
”
letters on kids’ backs is another one of those activities that help them visualize letter formation without the help of their visual sense. (Unless your child is a Cirque du Soleil wannabe, it’s pretty much impossible for them to peek at what you’re writing back there.) It’s therefore an ideal activity for facilitating that internal awareness of letter formation. In my house, we have also found it to be an ideal activity for bedtime, when the lights are turned down anyway and the soft touch and quiet nature of this activity invites both concentration and calm.

 

M
ATERIALS

 

∗
None! Just a quiet spot.

 

H
OW-TO

 

Simply trace a letter of the alphabet on your child’s back and wait to see if he or she can guess the letter. If your child can’t identify the letter, try it one or two more times before revealing the mystery letter. Start with capital letters first, because they have simpler shapes. When your child has mastered all the capitals, you can introduce lowercase letters.

 

Variations

For Scribblers:
When you’re first starting out, just alternate between writing two distinctly different letters (like
X
and
O
) and see whether your children can differentiate one from the other.

For Spellers:
Try writing a few familiar letters on their backs (such as the letters in their names) and see if they can identify them.

For Storytellers:
Work your way up to including all the letters of the alphabet and finally words and little messages, such as “sweet dreams” and “I love you” (using a pat on the back to indicate a space between words).

For Scholars:
This is a fun and motivating way for Scholars to review spelling or vocabulary words. It’s especially effective at bedtime, as the mind tends to rehearse and retain the information it processed right before it went to sleep.

4

A-B-Centerpiece

G
ROWING UP,
during large family meals at Grandma’s house, we kids were not put at a kiddie table (though the idea was mentioned quite a bit). Instead we sat with the grownups, until long after we finished eating and had lost interest in the adult conversation.

What kept us all at the table? And relatively quiet? A magnetic letter board scrounged from Grandma’s half-empty toy box. Although many of the letters were missing, we spelled out silly messages to each other, often improvising by substituting one letter for another (a
Z
on its side can stand in for an
N
in a pinch, for example) or inventing creative spellings.

Believe it or not, this tradition continued into our young adulthood—our messages becoming cleverer using our college-level vocabulary. We even brought dinner dates to the table and inaugurated them into our silly word play.

Inspired by those gatherings at Grandma’s house, I made sure to incorporate a hands-on alphabet into my own family’s mealtime routine early on. You never know what will be spelled out at our table: names, food requests, dinner reviews (although I plead ignorance if anyone asks me how to spell “yuk”). There’s even the occasional silly sentiment, to remind me of the good old days at Grandma’s.

 

M
ATERIALS

 

∗
a full set of three-dimensional alphabet manipulatives (such as alphabet puzzle pieces, magnetic alphabet letters, alphabet blocks, Scrabble tiles, dry alphabet pasta, or alphabet beads)

 

H
OW-TO

 

1.  Set out the alphabet letters in an appropriate container in the middle of your table for your kids to discover.

2.  Model using the letters by spelling out messages to your kids (such as, “Good morning kiddo!” or “Eat your veggies”), and then read and reinforce any messages they write back.

 

Variations

For Scribblers:
For the littlest letter-learners, put a bowl of alphabet puzzle pieces (one of each letter) in the middle of the table. Encourage them to pick up the letters one at a time and “try out” the sound, or match them up to objects (“
B
is for banana”). Help your child to start identifying the different letters.

For Spellers:
Children who are more familiar with letters and are starting to combine them to make words need more letters to work with. A basket of alphabet blocks helps children start to “build” their ideas.

For Storytellers:
For children who are stringing their thoughts together into sentences, try setting out a dish of magnetic alphabet letters and a cookie sheet.

For Scholars:
Interesting alphabet letters can motivate older children to practice their spelling words at the table. Try setting out a candy dish full of small, dry alphabet pasta; a trifle dish full of Scrabble tiles; or a plate full of alphabet beads and laces.

And here’s a little ABC 411, FYI. Did you know that the most frequently used alphabet letters are:
E, T, A, I, N, O,
and
S
? Make sure you have some extras of these letters on hand!

5

A-maze-ing You

W
HETHER YOU’RE TEACHING
a child how to hold a pencil for the first time, helping an emerging writer improve an awkward grip, or encouraging young writers-in-residence to refine their grasps (for increased legibility, speed, and endurance), mazes provide great pencil-holding practice. Think of mazes as driver’s ed for little hands. Staying on track, following the lines and curves, and planning ahead are as good exercises in motor control as you can get—and a great workout for children at every writing stage.

I prefer mazes to be of the homemade variety, able to be personalized on a whim. I make a simple drawing (no artistic skill required here, I’m talking stick figures and basic shapes) at the upper left-hand corner of the page, and then another at the bottom right-hand corner. (Whatever my son is interested in at the moment inspires the starting point and the destination. It may be a race car and a finish line, a rocket ship and a moon, a little boy and an ice cream cone; you get the idea.) Then I draw a labyrinth of lines back and forth across the page from the starting point to the goal. This never fails to amuse and occupy. In fact, it is the perfect activity for down time in restaurants, doctors’ office waiting rooms, or (gasp) the Department of Motor Vehicles (think of it as a mini road test!).

 

M
ATERIALS

 

∗
paper

∗
pencil, crayons, or markers

 

H
OW-TO

 

1.  Draw a maze on a piece of paper, then hand it over for your child to complete. Ask for some kid input when creating the challenge to motivate your little problem solver.