Nope, that’s not a typo. It’s a clue to today’s blog post: writing. With Valentine’s Day coming there’s a good chance your child will be coloring or painting or cutting out hearts, especially if they are older than 2 years of age. With the excitement about making and giving valentines it’s a good time to encourage your child to write his/her name. This is a very helpful skill for kindergarten readiness. (At school, children will be encouraged to use a capital letter to start a name and lower case for the other letters.)
There are different ways to promote learning to print a name. You may print your child’s name and give him/her a washable marker to trace right over. The marker is like a car and it tries to drive right over the letter road. Or 
your child may like to watch you make part of a letter and copy what you did. Some children may only manage a few random squiggles but it’s a beginning. Some children (about the age of 4) can make some recognizable letters.
Kids will have lots of different ways that they hold a pencil, crayon or marker. Your child may be comfortable with a grownup hand guiding the pencil or may be quite independent and want to try all alone. Because fine motor control is only just developing at this stage it will be a very challenging activity. Some children may also not yet be right or left hand dominant and will switch hands depending on the side of the page. Keep the activity enjoyable for your little one with lots of positive feedback. Can you and your child hand-le this?