Handwriting is something that takes children a while to master. 

It is a skill to coordinate a pen/pencil in a controlled manner to produce an exact result and one that develops over time and experience. 

To develop good handwriting, you require good fine-motor skills, hand/finger muscle strength and a good pen-grip/hold.

Being a trained teacher, since my children started holding and drawing with writing tools (pens, pencils, markers, crayons, paintbrushes), I have been encouraging them to adjust their grip to hold their writing implements with the three correct fingers that allow for good handwriting down the track.

Many children don't practice holding a pen using the correct 3 fingers until they get to school and then it's often a matter of trying to correct the natural hold that they have developed. 

Whilst children (and adults) are able to write using other various holds, the time-tested method below, once mastered, is the most comfortable way to write, allows for ease of movement and is the least likely to cause muscle strain or discomfort, especially when writing for lengthy periods of time.

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One of the things that children in Victoria, Australia are taught in their first year of Primary School, is writing between the lines in order to develop their handwriting. 

Once children have developed their fine motor skills, worked on learning letters and practiced writing on blank paper and with other mediums to develop their letter formation, they are usually introduced to handwriting paper with dotted-thirds to assist them in writing letters of consistent size and format.

A little trick I used in my classroom to help children learning to write in dotted-thirds was, "Clever Cat." 

Clever Cat's bottom sits on the solid base line and his body takes up the first gap. His head sits on top, occupying the second gap up between the dotted lines and his tail dangles below the solid line, extending to the first dotted line below.

Clever Cat for handwriting works as a fun visual aid to assist children in remembering where letters should sit between the lines and their sizing. 

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The other day, I was reminded by this post from TeachPreschool about the simplest, no-mess, no-fuss, fine motor activity that is, painting with water on a chalk board.

Sounds easy? You bet! And you'll probably be surprised by how long children will focus on an activity as simple as this.

So, you will need a chalkboard/blackboard, chalk, water and a paintbrush

Start by writing patterns, words, numbers etc. on the chalkboard with chalk for your child.,

Early handwriting practice normally starts with basic patterns like those you see above. Zigzags, waves, swirls, squiggles, dashes, dots, etc.

 Practicing fine motor skills and coordination to follow the chalk line with the water-dipped paintbrush.

These sort of flowing movements and control over lines etc. are the starting point for being able to write letters

Once your child has had a few goes of tracing your patterns and designs, let them try their own.

Here she discovered that the faster you go, the less accurate you are.

Practicing lower case letters for some added letter recognition

Handy Tips:

- Simplify this activity by simply playing "make the chalk disappear." Draw simple shapes and lines for your child to paint over. You could demonstrate how to paint just over the chalk or just let them remove it in any way they can

-Extend this activity by putting more of an emphasis on staying on the lines. If practicing handwriting letters, try indicating where your child should start painting the letter from so that they start to learn proper formation. For letter recognition, sing the alphabet song while painting to figure out which letter you're up to or let your child paint off all the letters they can name first etc.

- Make a maze on the chalkboard and paint your way through it

- Show your child how to wipe the excess water off the paintbrush before painting on the chalkboard so that the water doesn't run down your board.

- Try without chalk. Just painting on the blackboard with water is still tons of fun for kids!

- If you liked this idea, perhaps you would like our DIY Writing Board :)

- Looking for more Early Literacy Ideas? Have a look at our 5 Easy and FUN Ideas for encouraging drawing, writing and creating with your young child.

Debs :)

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