I made arrangements for my children before school starts these two days, but I didn't expect the teacher to make a video conference overseas, and I had to complete an offline home visit online (my brother's head teacher is still stranded abroad and can't come back).

In the meeting, the teacher revealed to me the study plan of the kindergarten large class, one of which is very crucial, which is to help children prepare for writing and writing in primary school, which is the key practice link of "pre-writing ability". In the IB system, large classes are equivalent to preparatory classes for primary schools, so from the age of 4 to the age of 6, there will be a lot of writing exercises to help children make a better transition to primary school.

I shared earlier that when Joshua was in a large class, the pre-writing exercises that children needed to do in one year included 18 A4-sized booklets, and I was surprised to get so many things before the end of the term.

My younger brother, who just started school yesterday, introduced his writing practice at school with a novel he created after school. Teachers also hope that parents can help their children prepare for written writing with the school. This includes a lot of fine motor exercises, as well as the overall control of writing norms, etc. Children who fully master the pre-writing ability can be more detailed, efficient and fast in written work in primary school.

So today I want to talk to you about what this "pre-writing ability" is that has a great influence on children's learning efficiency and speed in primary school. This time, I invited my friend @ 嗮嗮嗮嗮 to talk about this ability in detail with the example of her 3-year-old tomato.

Little Tomato is a child who grew up with Joshua and Eric. I have had a lot of discussions with Yiyi about "pre-writing ability" during this period. For the first time, Little Tomato appeared in a real person, and he was very excited at a young age.

What you don't know about writing

"Pre-writing ability" refers to games and learning activities before formal and systematic writing.

It is clearly defined as "games and learning activities in which preschool children use pen, ink, paper and other writing substitutes as tools to express and transmit information through drawing and scribbling, and to share and exchange their thoughts, feelings and experiences with their peers and adults around them."

There is a core point here, which is to express your thoughts, feelings and experiences by drawing and scribbling with pen, ink, paper and other writing substitutes.

So don't think that just giving children pen and paper to scribble in kindergarten is learning ahead of time. In fact, the real practice of pre-writing ability begins with the child's ability to doodle, which can last for 4 years until the child can control it stably.

In the Guide to Learning and Development for Children Aged 3-6 issued by the Ministry of Education, it is mentioned that preschool children need to have "written wishes and preliminary skills". ▼

You see, the guidance and suggestions given in the guide are all improved step by step from the age of 3.

Even before a child can really write with a pen at the age of 1 or 2, many writing abilities have been exercised and developed.

If we can cooperate with children's sensitive period and let them master the basic "pre-writing ability", school-age writing can be much less painful and tormented.

Although pre-writing ability runs through children's early 4 years, it is not an easy task.

The reason why writing is difficult for children is precisely because it is a very comprehensive matter: it involves maintaining a stable posture, requiring just the right strength, and working closely with hands and brain, each of which is not so easy.

So why do you need a lot of exercises to help improve? On the whole, it is to help children accumulate basic skills in the following three directions:

Strength and control: fine movements and big movements

Coordination ability: hand-eye coordination

Visual perception ability: judging structure and spatial positioning

These basic skills are transformed into various games, from small to small.

Let's first sort by age according to the instructions in the guide and see what children need to do together, so as to better accumulate this ability in daily life.

Before the introduction, I would like to remind you that although the activities here are divided by age, they are not strict. Children's abilities and preferences are different. Many activities are only about the initial age. If children like them, they can play all the time.

-2 years old: finger kneading, hand-eye coordination

In the first few years of life, children's small muscles have begun to exercise themselves, and their coordination has been steadily improved. As long as they pay a little attention, they can harvest a small hand baby, and then their writing has a foundation.

Self-care

In fact, the best enlightenment comes from life. Give children enough independent space and give them many opportunities to try, and the ability and coordination of fingers will gradually improve.

eat finger food

eating finger food is the simplest finger exercise.

since the introduction of complementary food, our family has been providing baby with finger food. At first, it was easy to catch large carrots and potatoes, and then it became smaller and smaller. The meat has also changed from a block to a big chicken leg, which makes it a little more difficult. ▼

For my small foodie tomato, every meal is very hard in order to get what he likes. ▼

In this process, I will find that the baby's finger grasping ability has been improving. From grasping with the whole palm at first, it can be pinched with three fingers or even two fingers gradually. ▼

1

2

3

4

Palmer grip → palm grip → side-wound finger grip → pincer grip

Moreover, the accuracy of feeding into the mouth is also improving, and it will not paste the face, which is the improvement of hand-eye coordination ability.

using a spoon

an advanced version of finger food is using a spoon. It's not easy to put the spoon firmly into your mouth without overturning. Among them, if the child makes a mistake, it is the only way for the baby to grow up without worrying about stopping him or erasing it.

I recommend that you start by scooping yogurt. The sticky texture and irresistible delicious food are generally loved by children. ▼

After a few months of patience, children can naturally eat very clean with their little hands.

Paper games

Tearing paper

Children have a love for paper napkins. Extract one by one, and then shred one by one.

Tearing paper requires the cooperation of children's thumb, forefinger and middle finger, and also needs the cooperation of both hands, which is a good way to exercise fine movements and coordination. ▼

If you want to advance, you can tear harder paper, or draw a pattern on the paper and tear out the desired shape. Being able to "follow the line" is a very important pre-writing ability.

Sticking stickers

Probably few children don't like stickers. There are traces left by children's stickers everywhere in my house. Tearing off the sticker completely is quite a test of children's fine movements. My tomato once had a big fight with me for 3 rounds because it couldn't tear off the sticker properly.

If children don't mind, they can choose an electrostatic sticker that can be stuck repeatedly without leaving marks. It's plastic and not easy to tear. ▼

But there are always some children who prefer the real sticky feeling, so they can also buy some sticker game books. The only risk is that children may prefer to stick on the wall.

Pen-holding exercise: doodling

Children around 2 years old may enter the sensitive period of doodling and like painting very much. At this time, they can spread white paper and create with the baby.

As long as the baby is interested, graffiti can continue. At first, there is no need to correct the child's pen grip, as long as TA likes this way of "leaving traces on paper". ▼

2-4 years old: Finger strength and coordination

The only shortcut to improve children's finger strength, flexibility and coordination is to practice more. Don't get me wrong, it's not writing all the time with a pen, but it's done in daily activities and games, which is not boring at all.

Self-care and care for others

For 2-and 3-year-old children who are bursting with self-awareness, the most common exercise is to "do your own things and help with things at home".

because at this age, they like to explore the boundaries of their own abilities, and the sense of ability generated by work will make them "addicted" and their finger performance will naturally go Up!

Wear clothes, socks and shoes

Children wear clothes and shoes by themselves, which is very helpful for their coordination and fine movements.

When the child starts, everyone must resist the impulse of "pointing fingers". As long as TA doesn't ask for help, just watch quietly. It may be a long time at first. When the tomato learned to button, I endured extreme pain, but soon he became proficient. ▼

Simple housework

In addition to self-care, children can also be assigned some simple housework, such as "helping the kitchen".

peeling, choosing vegetables, peeling broad beans, or cutting fruits with a safe fruit knife are all good ways to exercise children's finger strength and muscle control. ▼

Among his peers, tomato's hands-on ability is not bad, not only because he has practiced a lot, but also because he has gained a lot of sense of accomplishment from it, so he trusts his hands more and is willing to challenge more complicated things.

Paper Games

Most children like to play with paper. After two years old, they can advance from tearing paper to paper-cutting and origami. Besides exercising children's finger ability, it is also of great help to their "spatial cognition" ability.

Paper-cutting

Scissors were introduced to our family very early. At first, we used a scissor-shaped clip in the Learning resources tool set to practice the cooperation between thumb and forefinger. ▼

Later, I tried many different kinds of children's scissors. However, it is not recommended to use pure plastic scissors without blades for children, because they are too difficult to use and children are easily frustrated.

at first, we used scissors to cut our nails when we were babies, and later, we used children's scissors from IKEA, as long as they are round-headed and fit the size of a baby's palm. ▼

I started with random cutting, then I can cut horizontal and vertical lines, and then I can cut a specific shape, and I have learned the ability to "follow the line".

Tomatoes are a big fan of scissors. Later, he cut the flowers in our house. ▼

origami

In addition to exercising hand muscles, origami also tests children's spatial cognitive ability. As we all know, to write well, we must have a good sense of space and know how to arrange strokes and structures. And origami is the ability to practice this part.

When folding paper, guiding children to observe the changes after flipping and folding will give them a very intuitive experience of "space".

Building games

All kinds of building games, such as magnetic films, Lego and plasticine, can be played. The same is to practice strength and cooperation, depending on what children like to play. What tomatoes like best is the nail board. If you don't work hard, it is not easy to finish a work. ▼

If children are competent enough, let them try to look at drawings, learn to analyze the structural relationship between components, and understand symmetry, verticality and parallelism, which is also very helpful for children to understand fonts and structures in the future.

With these comprehensive exercises, children's own ability has been improved, and it is much easier to hold a pen, so it becomes natural to add some pen-holding exercises accordingly.

Pen-holding exercises

By the age of three or four, children's muscle control ability has improved, and they can go from unconstrained graffiti to red painting and coloring that need more control.

What needs to be reminded here is that as they get older, they should start to consciously manage their pen-holding posture and guide them to hold the pen in a way that conforms to their age characteristics. It is much easier to be correct at the beginning than to form bad habits and gradually change them later. This is the law of holding a pen that Bud shared (click to view: "Pay attention to the posture of holding a pen from the beginning of graffiti. Is your child correct?" 》), you can look at it in combination. ▼

tracing the red

tracing the red is actually learning to draw all kinds of lines, laying the foundation for the later writing of Chinese characters.

The Happy Learning to Write, which we introduced yesterday, contains super rich red tracing exercises. The advanced level is particularly reasonable, and all the writing methods that children can use have been practiced step by step.

The first four volumes start with simple dots and lines. ▼

Then introduce curves and polylines. ▼

And finally, there will be comprehensive shape exercises. ▼

With these foundations, children have formed a muscle memory for drawing various lines, so they won't feel unfamiliar when writing Chinese characters later.

Coloring

Coloring requires children to control the brush strokes and not exceed the boundaries, which is also a good pre-writing exercise. ▼

Some mothers worry that coloring will make their children lose their creativity in doodling, but I think this is actually two things. Coloring is not real creation, but more like some kind of writing training. If you want children to create, you can just throw away the manuscript and draw directly.

If these activities are done continuously, the small muscles in children's hands will become more and more energetic and "obedient", and then by the age of 4-6, they will be able to enter more targeted "pre-writing exercises".

4-6 years old: Simple writing exercises

Because Chinese characters have strokes and strokes.