Hi,
I know there were a few parents here, who tried out the How to Teach Your Baby to Write from the Doman site. I just wanted to get a feedback on whether or not I should purchase it for my 25 month old son. There is book, which I m also looking into, Raising Confident Readers: How to Teach Your Child to Read and Write–from Baby to Age 7 by Dr. Richard Gentry.
I would love to hear back from parents who have either used one or the other or both of the programs.
Is there no one who has either tried this, or can help guide me in when to start my 26 month old to write? I have seen some Kumon write erase books, has anyone tried them? are they good to start with?
I haven’t tried How to Teach Your Baby to Write but I have used Kumon workbooks and my daughters have enjoyed them very much.
I bought the teach your baby to write but my son taught himself before I got a chance to use it. Having said that I think if I had started the program at the time Doman recommends that he would have been writing better and earlier. We still use the lesson ideas in the Doman book.
They are not just about physical writing but also creative writing and this is the part we are able to most interest our son in - he enjoys dictating poems and stories to us so I definitely recommend it for the creative part.
Being a teacher I think Doman’s method will work very well and it is quite cheap.
Hope that helps
I never knew Doman had a book about writing. We use Kumon. I think it’s not exciting enough for my daughter, she does it once in a while. It gavre her great pencil control though at about 2yrs or 2.5 when we got My First Book of Tracing.
I never knew either that Doman had this book. I am intersted in learning more. Maybe I’ll check if our local library has it. Between the people above who have used it, what is the basis for the book? Do they have different techniques then found in other writing workbooks. Thanks,
Thanks for sharing this information. I did not know a book like this exists.
Its not a book per say but a packet from the Evan Thomas Institue that is sold on the Gentle Revolution website.
I haven’t used it but this is the description of the Teach Your Baby to Write :
“A booklet plus 26 enlarged alphabet letters that can be made into teaching materials, and two charts to use to teach writing.”
Does anyone know what age they recommend you start?
In the Book Young At Art, the author says that we should give our babies crayons to start writing and drawing at an early age. I noticed with my last child that she would take a pen or pencil, beginning at around 16 months or so, and make little symbols on paper. When I was working at my desk, I would give her paper and she would spend time writing. The update, now at 3 years old she has beautiful writing. I have always given her the opportunity to write and draw and it has really paid off. I am attaching some of her writing so you can see what I mean. This is a page from her phonics workbook that she did last week.
Your 3 year old wrote that?!
Wow thanks for sharing. when did you start formally teaching her to write?
I have just allowed her access to pens, paper, crayons and so forth. She wrote a perfect capital A when she was 2 years old. I can’t remember exactly how many months she was. I saved it because I couldn’t believe it. One day in church she had a notepad and was copying a verse that was painted on the wall. There are so many fun ways to teach writing. Copy work is one way. I like to do that with my children. I write out something, length depends on their age level, and then leave a blank line underneath so they can copy it. My kids also love writing on dry erase boards.
In all fairness, my 3 year old will be 4 in two days. But, yes, she did write that. She has beautiful handwriting and she really amazes me. I did notice from young that she didn’t scribble with a pen, she always made very careful shapes beginning at 16 months or so. I think opportunity is a huge part of it. Give them the opportunity to write from young.
Opportunity and luck. lol I will say my girls have drawn since they were capable of holding a crayon. My 12 yr old has wretched handwriting and no matter what I used it helped a little but not much.
My 11yr old has better handwriting . My 7yr old if she slows down has nice handwriting and my 4yr old well the jury is still out on that one. lol Its not anywhere near what your 3yr old can do but she is also left handed and I’m having a tough time teaching her to write because lefties write differently that’s for sure.
I’m not sure if its a matter of my oldest not wanting to take her time though. She likes to rush through everything.
Wow Krista! How wonderful that your daughter could write at the age of 2! Mine is now 2.2 years old and still scribbles. I think I have not given him enough opportunity to write.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I will definitely encourage my son to write more.
Elle
I don’t know anything about Doman writing but the Kumon Tracing and Uppercase books should be fine for a 25 month old. You can also buy Kumon erasable cards. Just introduce easy letters like I, L and H first. The Leapfrog Scribble and Write is really good as well. My first daughter was writing really well at 3 1/2 using Kumon and the Scribble and Write.
Thanks! That information is all very helpful.
I would recommend the Doman teaching booklet - I was really impressed with their viewpoint on writing and am just beginning to use some of the techniques with my brain-injured 3 year old. The methods and viewpoints are so not mainstream “how to learn to write” during school age, and only the last steps are when the child is performing the manual (advanced and challenging) task of using a writing utensil to express ideas. In my opinion, your child is of appropriate age for this. $15 isn’t a bad price either.