Writing

Post 263

Hand in hand with reading (the topic of last week’s post) is writing. So let’s focus on that. By now most Kindergarteners are writing letters. Hopefully, your school includes correct formation along with letter sounds and placement in a word. The concept that “letters have to be in the right order” should be ingrained their minds. I would guess that your little one is attempting to put words into sentences. That’s perfect! And don’t be concerned if your child is using what is called “invented spelling”. That’s when they write the sounds that they’re hearing in a word. It often looks a little strange and doesn’t include vowels (for example dg for dog or hpe for happy.) They are identifying letter sounds and recording them. For a five or six year old that’s two steps at the same time…a lot of work!

Teachers make sure there are lots of opportunities for writing during the school day. The most intensive is journal writing. Children are asked to write a sentence and then draw a picture to go with it. (“Words and pictures go together.”) There is also lots of writing during other subject lessons. Examples are science (observing and writing about how a plant grows), social studies (writing a friend’s name on a valentine), math (writing the number word for items counted), and theme projects (listing different types of bears studied). So your child IS constantly writing throughout the day.

As I mentioned in a post about beginning writing in the fall (post 257), “writers become writers by writing”. So don’t be too quick to correct spelling when you are reading something your child has written. If they ask you for help, definitely give it. But for right now phonetic spelling is fine. Your student is gradually learning rules such as “e at the end of a word makes a vowel say its name.” Your child is trying very hard to apply all those rules and having them keep erasing and fixing their work to make it perfect can be exhausting and very discouraging. The idea is for writing to be spontaneous and exciting. Perfection can come later. 🙂

Please be sure to let your little one know how proud you are of their efforts! Let them use their new skills to make lists for you at home, write notes to the special people in their life, put names on those valentine cards, etc.! And post some of those attempts wherever you show off your child’s schoolwork…the fridge, bulletin board, etc. That’s the best encouragement a child could have!

Take Care. 🙂