Children do not learn writing in a day, but it happens in stages. Tiny kids start scribbling unintelligible shapes or letters. Moving forward, children develop letter like shapes and then learn random strings of letters. Whatever be the stage of their writing, it is important for every teacher to recognize the effort of the child and understand that every paper or crayon can have value. Here are the two ways to nurture the writer in your daycare kids namely writing time and dictation.
Allocate a separate time for writing
You can call writing time as ‘Writer’s Workshop’. During the specially designated time at the daycare center, give the children exclusive time to try writing and also fun materials to try writing. Papers of different shapes and sizes, fat sized pencils and smelly markers. Motivate the child to write or draw and spend some time to discuss what the child has accomplished on the paper. Though what the child has scribbled is understandable only to the child, it is important to make the child feel like an expert with whatever has been accomplished. As the child picks up writing in a better way, you can start focusing on sounds and letters. It is best to pen words like the child’s name, mom, dad and love to begin with. Display the work of the child for anyone to appreciate and make the child feel proud of its work.
Dictation is a great strategy
Writing down what the child dictates is the best way to model several important elements of written language. Include this dictation activity into the schedule of your daily activates at the daycare center. Just ask the child to focus on some very common aspects of daily life to dictate and as you write, let the child sit next to you and watch how you do it. This is a great occasion to familiarize the child with the different conventions of the written language like capitalization, spacing and punctuation. It is important to keep the dictation sentences short. Use the best of your handwriting as these pieces of writing could be the very first written things the child may get to read. After writing, ask the child to re-read the sentences along with you.
It is never too early to start motivating the child to write. When implemented thoughtfully, writing time can be the most exciting component of a daycare center’s daily schedule besides being a highly productive one too. Invest in a good child care payment software so that your management is automated and you can get more time to focus on other important chores.
