Little Kid is resistant to writing. He struggles with fine motor. He has problems with pressure and force and so many different aspects of writing that I wanted to reduce the variables and just work on letter formation.
We use Handwriting without Tears which is developed by an Occupational Therapist and follows hand development. Additionally, by learning our capitals to write, it doesn’t cross over with our lower case reading and allows him to focus on hand control alone. Letters start on the “smiley face side” or the “not smiley face side.”
And with HWT, children learn to write with the frame of a small chalkboard which puts boundaries on the letter and give them a straight edge to push against. I liked that and wanted to have a “frame” on our sand writing as well. (Not to mention keeping the sand corralled.)
Materials Needed: Dollar Tree Zen Garden, a smiley face sticker, chopstick or other stick, paper cut to size, fat writing utensil (crayon or marker), Dollar Tree cookie tray, foam or construction paper for a liner.
How to:
(Stage 1) Place a SMALL amount of sand in the garden. It should barely cover the bottom. You want to see the letters come through well. Allow child to use his finger or perhaps one of the rocks to write.
(Stage 2) Encourage child to use chopstick or the back end of the rake that came with the set to write in the sand.
(Stage 3) Put paper cut to size in the garden. (Oooh, laminated paper and a wipe off marker would be brilliant…must try today.) Make sure it’s tight so the writing implement doesn’t make it scoot or dig under, hence the need for something FAT to write with.
