The Stages of Writing

For us, parents, it seems incredibly difficult to teach kids to write. We hardly know where to start from. However, writing is a process that breaks easily into several stages: scribbling, tracing, and independent writing.

Scribbling

Educators recommend parents to give kids paper and pen as early as they start walking and holding objects.  Let them scribble as much as possible and make scribbling their favorite pastime activity. Scribbling develops their fine motor skills, teaches them to hold a pen correctly, and lets them see their first masterpieces on paper. If you see your offspring suddenly “produced” a scribble which resembles a letter or a number, let them learn it!

Tracing

Tracing is yet another stage that leads kids to honing their writing skills. They learn a bunch of things when they trace a given example. First, they practice making straight or curved lines, then they learn where to start writing a letter from. They also notice how to position a letter between the two horizontal lines. At this stage it’s also important to let them associate the letters they learnt by heart with the letters they write. 

Writing Itself

The best way to write well is to practice. Only through continuous exercise and engaging stress-free writing activities you will help your kids learn how to write.