Month: July 2013

Writing and Tracing Tips and Ideas

Sean Patrick has really just lately taken an interest in writing.

Compare his grasp here to the ones in the following picture and you will see that he is just getting used to the "alligator chomp."
Compare his grasp here to the ones in the following picture and you will see that he is just getting used to the “alligator chomp.”

We have done lots of pre-writing activities to work out his little muscles in his hands to ready him for writing…with Playdough, drawing in the dirt with sticks, driving his little cars all over different surfaces, chalking outside, coloring, tearing paper, etc.

But only lately has tracing HIS letter “S” really become a priority.

When I introduced him to holding his crayon with the “ALLIGATOR CHOMP” he became obsessed with it… he would literally tell random receptionists in offices that he could hold his crayon with the alligator chomp too.

This grip has to be modeled and you may have to take your little one’s hand to get them to have a feel for it, but first we did the alligator chomp without holding anything in our hands.

I have really started to take advantage of the love of his pencil grasp and his love for his letter S by trying out lots of different tracing activities.

I always model what he is going to do first, then I take his hand and we do it together (if he will let me – independence is important to him too), and then see what he can do on his own.

1) I wrote out his name while singing his song (I always do this first…. he knows his song).

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2) Then I showed him how to trace his S with a little saying “Make a ‘c’ and then back around” (talking out the process of making the letter is important).

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3) He then traced his “S” in every color … also called “rainbow writing”

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His little sister scribbled all over it but you can see that he had fun with his “S”

4) We then put a  paper over his name written in black marker so he could trace his name that way.

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5) Since he mostly focused on “S” we made an entire page of just “S” and he had so much fun with this.  He finally took off the top paper and started tracing his “S” with all the colors again, but side by side as shown in the following picture would be the next step after he masters tracing 🙂

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If you try this and it is not fun for your little one… then go back to some of the pre-writing activities I mentioned earlier.  You don’t want writing to be stressful for your little one… your little one will write when he/she is ready 🙂

Here is a short video demonstration:

If you have any questions or tips to add then please message or share them here in a comment on this post!

Trades of Hope Giveaway (Winners Announced!)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

 Rafflecopter has randomly selected the winners…. And they are:

Claire Kenney

and

Julie Briscoe

We will be sending you your beautiful Aqua Nepali Scarf soon after we touch base!  Enjoy it 🙂

For some unknown reason, we have not had a giveaway in far too long!

So, I was thrilled when Stephanie Ehlers contacted me and informed me about Trades of Hope.

trades of hope

Wow…. What a cause! The company was founded to rescue women around the world who are such victims of poverty that they are in the midst of trafficking or they orphan their children because they cannot feed them and they believe that is it their only way to survive…. What hope is there for people enslaved by their poverty ?
Unless, organizations like “Trades of Hope” are founded to step into communities to empower women out of hopelessness and into a promising future of honest work.

Here is a little of Stephanie’s story:

“I was able to go to Haiti in February and visit/work alongside our 3 groups of Artisans there. It was beyond amazing to experience the various workplaces, meet them and get a glimpse of their culture.  We believe people want an opportunity, not charity. By teaching them a skill that helps them make a living, we believe they will succeed longer, both financially and emotionally. These women get to be the heroine in their family, instead of teaching their children to beg, they are modeling for them that they can work, be proud of themselves and have self esteem (that doesn’t come when you are forced to beg or sell yourself to survive).”

Stephanie learning to make beads for the Trades of Hope bracelets while in Haiti.
Stephanie learning to make beads for the Trades of Hope bracelets while in Haiti.

When I hear about organizations like Trades of Hope, I think about the children who will no longer be witnesses of and products of that lifestyle… thanks, in part, to all the people who support the cause.
So, support those women, and moms, by entering this week’s giveaway!
There will be two winners!

One winner will receive the beautiful Aqua Nepal Scarf…

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and one will receive the Hope blooms scarf…

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Check out other items in Stephanie’s Trades of Hope Store because you may want some earrings or a bracelet to match 🙂

You can also contact Stephanie if you are interested in learning more about how to join the team!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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