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My son celebrated his 4th birthday last month and suddenly became interested in letters. So I decided to get my act together and do something to help him learn how to recognize, spell and write his name. Names are special. The first word a child learns is his name, so it’s a great place to start learning to identify and write letters.
Have you ever thought what’s really involved in learning to write your name?
It’s quite complicated. Kids have to…
- Know what their name looks like
- Understand that it’s made up of letters that are placed in a particular sequence
- Use a tripod grip to control a pencil
- Learn how to form letters correctly
- Synthesize what they’ve learned in order to write their name accurately and independently
Name writing is essentially a three-step learning process, but the steps can overlap. Kids learn to first recognize, then spell, and finally write their names independently. I’ve put together a list of fun and engaging ways to help your child move through this process.
These are activities I’ve used with my son and recommend to other preschoolers. However, every child is different, so some activities may appeal to your child more than others.
Step One: Recognize Name
First, help your child learn to recognize his name. Label his belongings. The more he sees his name, the more he’ll be able to identify it as his own. The following hands-on activities will help him start to recognize his name.
Watercolor Resist
This idea will surprise your child and get him grinning ear to ear. Secretly write his name on a piece of paper with white crayon. Then demonstrate how to paint across the paper with watercolors (affiliate link) to reveal something hidden. If your little one is anything like mine, he’ll be instantly captivated.
Puzzle
There is only one way to put together a name puzzle, so kids are guaranteed to see their name spelled correctly.
A simple name puzzle can take less than a minute to make. Just write or print your child’s name on cardstock. Then cut it into pieces. Laminate the pieces for more durability.
Another idea is to make a puzzle out of large craft sticks (affiliate link) and a favorite photo. Cut the photo into strips and glue onto the sticks. Write the letters of your child’s name on each stick.
When she puts her picture puzzle together, her name will be spelled at the bottom. For my son’s name puzzle, I used Photoshop to add his name to the photo before I printed it.
Bracelet
If your child can recognize letters easily, you can give her a bowl of letter beads (affiliate link) and let her find the letters of her name. Or, pull out the letters she’ll need beforehand. The tricky part is stringing the beads on the chenille stem correctly, so the letters aren’t backwards.
We only had lower case beads at the time, but these beads are also available in upper case letters (affiliate link).
Do-a-Dot
I’ve seen this activity on Pinterest, but somehow my son figured it out before I could get the materials organized and show him how to do it. How did he read my mind? All you need are some do-a-dot markers (affiliate link) and a printout of your child’s name.
Gems
Glass gems (affiliate link) make beautiful names. If you have an assortment of colors your child can sort them, making each letter of his name a different color. This is great for fine motor practice. It takes a lot of concentration and precision to place each bead on the line.
Step Two: Spell Name
These name spelling activities consist of hands-on building and constructing. They don’t require a writing utensil. Print your child’s name on an index card to use as a model.
I purchased a font called Neatly Printed by Kimberly Geswein to print my son’s name. I like this font because it looks like handwriting, similar to the classic Zaner-Bloser style. You can download it for personal use for FREE!
Shells
If you live near the ocean like I do, you probably have a collection of shells from your beach adventures. I raided our stash to make these name shells. On the biggest shell, I wrote my son’s name using a black Sharpie. Then I found smaller shells to write the individual letters of his name. I mixed them up and put them on a tray. He knew exactly what to do.
No shells nearby? No problem. Collect a bunch of small rocks on your next nature walk. They’ll work just as well.
Letter Magnets
Kids love magnets. For this name spelling activity I used the magnetic whiteboard from our Melissa & Doug pattern block kit (affiliate link) and our Melissa & Doug letter magnets (affiliate link).
You can also use your refrigerator. Hang up the paper version of your child’s name and then cover the refrigerator with letter magnets. See if he can find the letters to his name amidst the chaos.
Letter Stamps
Melissa and Doug also make a letter stamp kit (affiliate link) that contains both upper and lower case letters that are perfect for name stamping.
To guide my son, I pointed to the first letter in his name and asked him to find the stamp that matched that letter. I helped him move from left to right through each letter of his name.
Step Three: Write Name
These activities require an understanding of how to form letters. Start by using fingers and work up to using writing utensils. This is a good time to start working on pencil grip, so your child doesn’t develop bad habits.
Salt Tray
Salt trays are simple to make and fun for kids who prefer tactile activities. You need a wooden tray (affiliate link) or box lid, and a container of salt. You can change it up by coloring your salt with a few drops of food coloring or by adding a colorful paper background to your tray. When your child draws in the salt it will reveal the colors hidden underneath.
Disappearing Chalk
Write your child’s name on a small chalkboard (affiliate link) like this one. Using a paintbrush, your child can trace each letter of her name. Watch it magically disappear!
This was one of Miles’s favorite activities. He started writing his own name when I wasn’t around, so he could paint it over and over again. He can’t resist water.
Paint Sticks
If your child enjoys glue sticks, she’ll love writing with these paint sticks (affiliate link). Using a name printout as a guide, your child can trace each letter to create a colorful name.
Highlighter & Pencil
Write your child’s name using a highlighter. Have her trace the letters with a pencil. If she has trouble remembering where to begin, put a little star or dot at the starting points of each letter.
This is an advanced name writing activity for preschoolers; it’s better suited for kindergarten.
Tracing with a pencil requires a lot of fine motor control. Make sure your child has had time to practice writing her name on blank paper first. Guide her in how to form the letters correctly.
Emphasize top to bottom, left to right.
You may get some resistance, like I did with my son. He was writing his “e” and “s” from the bottom up. I tried not to push when he insisted on doing things his way. I kept verbalizing how to start at the top and go down and over time he gave my method a chance. Now he writes most of the letters in his name correctly. Upper case “M” is still a work in progress.
Conclusion
Kids are fascinated with their names. It’s amazing how much knowledge and skill our little ones need just to write their names.
By working through the three-step process and using fun and engaging ways to help kids learn how to recognize, spell and write their names, they’ll be successful in no time at all. And you and your kids will be so proud of their names!
Your Turn
How do you like to teach name writing? What other suggestions do you have?
