What to do with this activity?

From around the age of five, your child might be able to make marks on a page that begin to look like something planned. Show them how writing goes from the left to the right of a page, and how each line is underneath the last, until you reach the bottom of the page. If they haven't mastered any letters of the alphabet, have fun doing pretend writing. Making patterns that look like writing.

Making patterns develops your child's ease and control in writing. Have a look at the attached page above right (Download the PDF for this Activity). This shows the stages of writing that a child goes through before they can create the alphabet letters. 

If your child is ready, have fun copying or tracing letters of the alphabet. Find some traceable letter sheets to print from Activity Village. Don't get bogged down in explaining the big and little versions of the letter, just enjoy tracing them and colouring in the pictures.