Any preferred ways to work with your toddler? Tools or helpful curriculum?

Handwriting or composition?

If you are talking about handwriting, I have found some great sites where you can print sheets including blank lined sheets.

The way DD's school introduces it is a lot of time following the zig-zag lines and then building from there. Another option is finding wipe off books with mazes and allow him to do them repeatedly and his control will come in no time. Of course, I am making assumptions that he doesn't control at this point and he might be miles ahead of this process. If he is than I suggest printing out the letter samples. We did the letters of DD's name which excited her, but some people just start with the beginning of the alphabet and go from there.

The site I have bookmarked and use regularly is http://www.handwritingforkids.com/, but there are many out there.

Whiteboards with or without lines are really handy for littles. They can practice for hours without wsting tons of paper. Because they can erase it themselves, they have more control over the process. They can erase what they don't like and start again.

I like Handwriting Without Tears. It's been great for my ds with fine motor issues and also for my girls who have fairly advanced fine motor skills. You can see sample pages on their web site.

Other ideas for strengthening the small muscles used for writing: painting with brushes, sponges, cut up potatoes, etc.
playing with hard clay (playdough is too soft to do much good)
modeling with beeswax
tearing up newspaper, wadding it into balls
lacing cards


hth!

Lorel

I'm not sure so much practicing helps if fine motor skills are not good enough yet. DD only writes few letters and those are not very clear either. She can write using computer, magnets or blocks so it is just the fine motor part that is missing. When she writes her name the first and last letters are clear to me (probably not for others) and the middle letters have no resemblance of what they should be. I know they practice writing letters in the preschool she will go after turning 3 next summer, I like that there would be something she does not already know I think she might be only bit above average with her fine motor skills (meaning I know kids who can do what she can).

I just let her draw, color, paint as much she likes (which is a lot) and sometimes she wants to draw letters or numbers then the next day she wants to color princesses...

Handwriting.

He spends a lot of time with paper and pens each night. He also likes for me to draw shapes and then he colors them in. I am looking for something more structured that we can do together and he can do by himself.

Thanks for the ideas.

He found a chalkboard last week at a restaurant and went nuts over it..writing and then erasing. I'd forgotten about that.

Austin,

Your comment about DS spending a lot of time with paper and pencil made me smile. I have full heartedly gone back into my art and am taking advantage of time when she is in school to go to some live model sessions. Seeing mommy's hobby has sparked DD with her drawing and she was super excited when we found a sketch package clearanced at a local hobby store. It came with a good range of pencils, paper stump, sharpener, sketch pad and a case to carry it in. So now she has her own sketch pencils and draws all the time. I love her robots. The only problem we had was she went through the little sketch pad quickly so I went to an office supply store and picked up a package of scratch pads. So now she has plenty of paper and they are the perfect size for her to carry around and draw/write on. We are never without them, even in the car. The hardest part is deciding which ones to keep and/or throw away. Each picture is unique and full of personality.

Spring is almost here and I promised her when everything is in full bloom we would head over to the university, taking our sketch pads and draw. She can't wait.

Teaching Tips is a free email newsletter by Marie Hablitzel and Kim Stitzer, authors of the eight-book Draw-Write-Now� series

DrawYourWorld.com.

This has some cute ideas to try. I have not done any yet as I just signed up. I like the idea of something inspiring coming in my email occassionally.