Continuing my first post in this series...
I'm starting to teach my daughter how to write. Since she's just 2 years old, I'm concentrating more on her hand control than on actual writing of letters and numbers. Here are the things I've tried so far, and progress has been good:
(1) Magna Doodle - drawing board and stylus toy that allows children to scribble and erase as much as they want. These come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes and are easily available these days. Nearly all toy stores carry it! I chose a brand with a stylus that had a rounded tip so as to lessen the risk of poking one's eyes.
(2) Coloring Books and Baby's First Crayons - since I don't expect my daughter to color between the lines yet, I just let her loose on coloring books of her favorite characters using big crayons suited for little fingers (be sure to check for the NON-TOXIC label!). There are a lot of jumbo coloring books available at affordable prices. I prefer the Copy The Color books so she can at least practice color identification while scribbling wildly with her crayons.
(3) Dry Erase Writing Books - write, erase, write again! Choose versions that have basic writing exercises in the first few pages - these are pages full of straight and curved lines going up and down and left and right. I guided my daughter through these exercises (i.e., held her hand and helped her write) everyday until she was able to trace on her own. It's slow-going, but she's getting there. Once she gets the hang of it, we'll proceed to (5).
(4) Hand exercises - I have her crumple paper (I use old magazines for this), play with clay and puzzles, put beads on a stick, etc. regularly
(5) Once she manages to trace lines on her own, we'll move on to mazes and connect-the-dots, and then to the letters and numbers :)
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