Being a Role Model and Creating a Purpose

When children see adults use writing, they begin to understand its function or purpose. Involving your child in a writing or drawing task further teaches them about how writing is used in everyday life. At the same time, the child will be developing their fine motor and pre-writing skills needed to be independent when writing and drawing at a later stage.

How you involve your child will vary according to your child’s developmental stage. In the beginning your child will be simply making marks on paper, often known as scribbling. The adult does a lot of modelling and talking during this early stage, providing the child with the language to match the child’s writing attempts. 

As the child develops, they can become more involved and spend more time on the task by drawing objects, writing strings of letters, copying letters and names, writing letters to match the sounds heard in a word, or even independently trying to spell words. 

Tapping into something your child is interested in will further promote their engagement.

Here are just a few ideas to try:

• Writing messages or pictures for family members to see when they arrive home. This could be a picture on the front door, or even a chalk message on the driveway that can be hosed off at the end of the day. 
• Helping with the shopping list, then referring to it during the shopping trip.
• Creating a ‘To Do List’ of jobs to do around the house, or morning routines to be followed. Children love ticking or crossing these off as they are completed. A series of pictures works well for younger children.
• Sending a letter or card to a friend or family member with buying a stamp and posting as part of the experience. 
• Creating a Memory Scrapbook that the child regularly adds to. Memories can include Kindy pictures, photos and captions, writing their name or creating a special drawing. The book becomes a connection tool as the child shares with family, friends, or educators. Remember to add the date for each entry.
• Creating maps of the house, garden, or local area, adding pictures and labels. Treasure maps and scavenger hunts are also great fun.
• Adding names or labels to items in the home, e.g. bedroom, door, wall, fridge. This also helps establish early reading concepts.
• Recording or drawing the weather on a calendar each day. This could be home made, or a bought one that the children colour or draw or write on each day to show the weather.