One of the reasons I fell in love with Ready-Made Preschool is because of their belief that preschoolers do not need to sit down with paper and pencil to practice writing their ABCs if the interest or ability to do so is just not there.

There are many ways a preschooler can practice writing their ABCs minus paper and pencil. This year Little Bug will be practicing ‘writing’ her letters through these seven fun ways:

1. Play dough mats from Homeschool Creations. Using play dough Little Bug forms the letters on the mat. I laminated these pages to make them more durable.

2. Drawing letters in shaving cream. This is messy, but it’s a fun way to learn to write letters! I just put a glob of shaving cream on the cookie sheet. Little Bug rubs it all over the cookie sheet and uses her pointer finger to form letters in the shaving cream.

3. Do-A-Dot Letters from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Using Do-A-Dot markers Little Bug forms the letters on the paper. We’ve been using Do-A-Dot markers since Little Bug was two and she still loves to use them!

4. Magnetic Alphabet Builders from Confessions of a Homeschooler. These were very easy to make. Just follow the instructions on Erica’s link. I made ours on foam paper and attached magnets to make them magnetic. These work great on our dry erase board!

5. Make letters in salt. I bought a container from Target to keep the salt contained. We open the box and Little Bug uses her pointer finger to form the letters in the salt! We go out on the back deck to decrease the clean up afterwards!

6. Finger Tracing Paint Bag from Confessions of a Homeschooler. This was also very easy to make! All you need is a gallon zip lock bag, tempura paint and packaging tape. Squirt paint in the bag and tape it closed. Tape the bag to the table. Little Bug uses her finger to draw letters in the paint!

7. Wikki Stix. These are so cool! The wikki stixs are sticky so they stick to the mat to form the letters.

- Elaine