Celebrate the scribble!
It may look like scribble to us, but early scribbling and ‘playing at writing’ is an important step on your child’s journey to becoming a writer.
Your child will know what these marks mean and will love to tell you about them!
Before being able to hold a small pencil, your child needs to develop strong gross motor skills such as muscles in their legs and upper arms.
Top tips:
- Celebrate the Scribble: have a special place to collect and display your child’s marks and drawings
- Listen to your child: let them talk about their marks and what they mean
- Let your child see you writing: use everyday opportunities like writing a ‘to do’ list to show your child writing in action, and explain to them why we write
- Involve your child: encourage them to join in with everyday writing activities such as ‘signing’ their name on a birthday card or adding items to your shopping list
- Introduce writing and mark making into everyday play: you could make a map with your child to go with their train set, create prices labels for food when you are playing ‘shops’ together, and tape some crayons to their toys (such as cars) so that when they play with them, they are also mark making
- Make it big outdoors: let you child use big paintbrushes with a bucket of water to make marks on the ground and fences, for a fun outdoor activity
- Make the most of every opportunity: encourage your child to use sticks to make marks in the mud when out on a walk, or in the sand when playing on the beach
