We are trying to teach my 5 year old writing skills. I think I spend half my day saying "down and around" or "up down up down" LOL

Does anyone have any tips?

Oh, and distractions! I spend the other half of my day saying things like "lets focus" "on the page" "eyes here" etc...

Tips for focusing attention are welcome as well!

No tips but we went through this last year. My DD could barely scribble her name when she started kindergarten but by Christmas, her printing was really good. It's amazing, they just seem to do things in their own time.

First of all, does your child hold the pencil correctly because that is the most important place to start. If so, are you using tracing worksheets? They are a valuable tool for learning to write correctly.

As for the attention and focusing, be sure to break up the writing sessions into small time chunks. Five year olds do not have a very long attention span, especially with something they are not necessarily interested in. And using some type of reward system always works well when trying to teach children any new skills.

Give the child a square to write in...have them practice their letters by touching top of the box, corners, sides. This builds an understanding of the spatial relationships. Also, there are many great printables out there for fun practice that have circles, waves, and zig zags. Try mixing it up a bit and add in some cutting skills--all prompt fine motor skills. I would strongly suggest investing in some play dough --even cooler if you find a recipe off pinterest and make it together--and "build" the letters with play dough snakes. My kindergartners LOOOOVE this activity, we did lines, circles, then moved to letters, and by the end of the year first names and sight words.

Another tip is to make your own 3 line paper, top line is blue for the sky, tall letters touch the sky, red fence, bottom line is green for the grass...this is part of handwriting without tears--just google it and there will be tons of info. Use what works for you...some of it is great stuff

I personally love this website: http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/ I make practice writing sheets for each child using their first names, targeted sight words, and eventually first and last names.

Another tip, try having your child "correct" their paper. Give them a cool pen or highlighter and compare their letters to the "real" letter and circle the one they feel is best. Let them give themself a sticker and hang the paper up on the fridge. My little ones would run at me with their papers to show me how perfect their letters were.

I hope some of this helps!

Infin- thanks! Great ideas and link!

ELF! Since you're in OC there is a store in our area that has some awesome educational supplies, it's called Lakeshore Learning Center. There are TONS of fun educational things you can buy there that can help! It's basically a teachers' supply store.

Um, I feel stupid! Its in fountain valley right? I forgot all about that place!

I agree with the traceable's. They are fantastic. Also breaking up the time spent practicing. 5 yr olds only have about 10-15 mins of attention span.

Do you have an easel? Maybe using a different work space, praticing different size letters would make it more fun.

We used to do shaving cream on the table. The girls could practice letters/numbers on the table with shaving cream. It was a blast for them. You can even do it at bath time on the walls.

Lakeshore is also on-line, of course

Lakeshorelearning.com

I always think it is more fun to see and play with the stuff in the store, but you can have a great time on-line, too!