Kindergarten: Writing Milestones

Encourage Your Kindergartner

• Encourage your child to express ideas and emotions by writing them down. Offer your help when she needs it. A birthday card, a letter, and even a grocery list are all ways of communicating thoughts and emotions. When you show your child how useful and necessary writing is in many different situations, you encourage her to use writing to both imagine and communicate. 

• Don't worry about correct spelling. Your kindergartner is just beginning to learn about the relationship between letters and sounds. At this age, children generally know how to spell some common words correctly, such as "go" and "love," but they "invent spell" most words, using their knowledge of letter sounds to record what they hear. Celebrate your child's first attempts at spelling! The kindergartner who spells "Elephant" as "LFNT" is thinking carefully about sounds and letters.

• Encourage your child to read her own writing. Many kindergartners are proud to read their work to a caring adult. Although parents are not always able to decipher their kindergartner's writing, children are generally able to "read" their writing based on the letters they wrote and their memory of what they intended to write. You can compliment and encourage your child for reading his own writing by saying, "I like how you used such interesting words." Not all children like to read their writing, however, so be sensitive to your child's desire to keep his writing private if he likes.

• Provide a wide variety of pens and papers. Children are motivated to write more often if a variety of materials with which to experiment is handy. Markers, colored pencils, sidewalk chalk, glitter pens, neon pens on black paper, chalk and easel, colored paper, and old greeting cards are all appealing writing materials for 5-year-olds. They also enjoy keeping their materials in a special box or drawer. 

• Show your child how YOU write. One of the most important ways to help your kindergartner develop as a writer is by writing yourself and talking about the process with your child. As you address an envelope, you might explain why you are writing the name and address of the recipient on the front of the letter. Write grocery lists by saying the items aloud and then writing them. You can even enlist your child's help in figuring out the first letter to write in "bananas" and "milk" as you make the grocery list together.

Copyright 2002-2007 Public Broadcasting Service. Reprinted from www.pbsparents.org with persmission of the Public Broadcasting Service.

For other reading and language articles, please see http://www.pbs.org/parents/readinglanguage/