I’ve mentioned before that my son likes to do things his way. If I try to tell him how to write a letter the right way, he turns me off. Tells me I am wrong. Gets mad. Let’s just say it isn’t pretty.
I’ve drawn a lot of dotted letters for him to trace, gotten a few workbooks — which he loves. But then I started seeing this great idea pop up all over Pinterest: 
Writing the letters or numbers with a highlighter is a lot easier than writing them in little dots or dashes, and a lot more fun for the little guy to trace! (Have them trace the letters/numbers using a different color marker and watch the colors change as an added bonus!)
Then there are shapes. He can make a pretty good circle by himself, but squares, rectangles, and everything else tends to look like a circle, too.
Of course, you could draw those in highlighter, too. But the other day, as I was putting away our Play-Doh stuff, an idea hit me.
We have a bunch of cookie cutters in various shapes with our Play-Doh stuff, and they tend to not get used much.
What if we used them another way?
It’s funny. As soon as he saw that I had “forgotten” to put the shapes away, he was super interested in Mommy’s idea.
He practiced tracing inside the cookie cutter shapes (we turned them upside down so they were easier to trace) over and over. His pencil lines are super hard to see, but if you look hard, he has squares and triangles all over that paper!
Suddenly, learning how to draw shapes was a lot more fun!
Shared on Lemon Drop Pie,Ladybug Blessings, Someday Crafts, Milk and Cuddles, Works for Me Wednesday, Kids Activities Blog, Cheerios and Lattes, A Vision to Remember, Saturday Show and Tell, No Time for Flashcards, Creative Jewish Mom, I Heart Naptime, Sew Can Do, Delicate Construction, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, Naptime Crafters
Becky @ Your Modern Family says
I was a teacher for years & the highlighting never dawned on me. I will be doing this with our 4 year old today. I hate making those dots & it is hard for him to follow- this is so smart! Can’t wait to do this. 🙂
PS- did you pin it? You need to!
Here’s my pinterest page: http://pinterest.com/BeckyMans/
OneMommy says
You know, I am so bad at pinning stuff! 🙂 I will have to go do that!
Can’t wait to check out your pinterest stuff!
Jacklynn says
I love the cookie cutter idea 🙂 There are so many different cookie cutter shapes too not just the normal square, triangle, diamond ones, there are snowmen, Christmas trees, Elmo 🙂 What a fun little activity to do (and they don’t even realize they are learning).
OneMommy says
You’re right, you could certainly have them trace all kinds of different shaped cookie cutters! It’s good practice for hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity, and they don’t even know it! 🙂
OneMommy says
Thank you so much for the award! I look forward to checking out your blog!
OneMommy says
I love the Wizard of Oz reference! (My favorite movie)
Thanks for adding a link — I was just looking at that Luck O’ the Blogger linky! 🙂
OneMommy says
🙂
I was just thinking the same thing! I love my by blogging buddies are friends, too! I will be stopping over today to check out the Luck O’ The Blogger Linky!
Can’t wait to see what you link up on Thursday!
OneMommy says
See, I had tons of sheets ready with dots to follow; why I didn’t think of this earlier! 🙂 Pinterest is a wonderful things sometimes!
mommyondemand says
Thanks for those tips! Can;t wait till my son gets older .
New follower, stop by when you can.
OneMommy says
My son has been enjoying tracing cookie cutters all week! 🙂
Off to check out your blog! 🙂