Hi! You should definitely show him his name! Showing his name in print and teaching him how to write the letters is a much different skill than listening to and explaining the sounds in his name. I don't know his age, but you can do the first--showing him his name in print--at any point. If you want to teach him how to write his name, use the letter formation cues and 1) model how to say the cue and make your pencil do exactly what your mouth is saying) and 2), if need be, do hand-over hand to help him write the letters and you say the cues together. You can practice one letter at a time and add the next letter in after he's good at the capital C.
If he's 5 or 6 (or a very bright 4 and ready, which he may be since he knows all the sounds), you can start talking to him about the sounds the letters in his name are making. You can say, "Letter c usually says /c/, /c/, /c/, but sometimes it says /s/, /s/, /s/. Which one is it saying in your name?" And just keep it simple with the y. Say, "Letter y has many sounds, and sometimes it says /i/, /i/, /i/. I like to say "behaving" or "misbehaving" about letters and their sounds. For example, the first two letters in his name are sort of misbehaving; the last three are behaving and doing the right thing.
Let me know if this helps or if you have further questions. Thanks for asking!
Thank you so much Randee for your encouragement and for the tips. My son is 4 months away from turning 4 - he's very attuned to sounds so I am going to give this all a go! :)
I love this - but don't know where to start with introducing my son's name (Cyrus) as it is so irregular! Would this be broken down as Sy - r - u- s? My son knows all the alphabet letter sounds and a few digraphs and that is where we are at. But I've avoided spelling his name out :/
I explain in several of my writing posts and videos and you can see it in action. We start journal writing in October and everyone has plain white paper. After they can write a complete sentence or two, I will give them lined paper in their next journal. The lined paper is created by me and the lines go horizontally across the paper in the landscape position and are one inch apart. Later in the spring I will give kids lines that are a little closer together if they are ready for it and are writing a lot. I never use a middle dotted line because I think it’s really distracting and it’s not necessary in order to write tall letters and short letters.
Hi! I am using your letter formation cues this year and LOVE them! I am wondering if you have something similar that you use for numeral formation? Thanks!
Trying again, just in case you missed it the first time: please email me at missbusybeekindergarten@gmail.com and I will send you the number poems. They are really helpful.
I have a student who writes neat but her formation is inefficient. She must have gotten a lot of affirmation in preschool for her handwriting because she has resisted my prompts on letter formation. Do you have any tips for students who do this? thanks
That's a tough one! I have students like that, too. I pressure them and expect changes for a while but if they are not willing to change then I move on to more important things. I do the same with pencil grasp. We work on the correct grasp really hard for about six weeks. Anyone who doesn't get it by then I focus on individually. After a few weeks, if they haven't changed their grasp, I flat out ask them, "Are you going to try to hold your pencil correctly or not? Because we've worked on it a long time and if you're not going to try, then I'm not going to keep working with you on it. YOU have to make it happen, not me." There are some things that aren't THAT important and pencil grasp and letter formation are two of them.
Hi! You should definitely show him his name! Showing his name in print and teaching him how to write the letters is a much different skill than listening to and explaining the sounds in his name. I don't know his age, but you can do the first--showing him his name in print--at any point. If you want to teach him how to write his name, use the letter formation cues and 1) model how to say the cue and make your pencil do exactly what your mouth is saying) and 2), if need be, do hand-over hand to help him write the letters and you say the cues together. You can practice one letter at a time and add the next letter in after he's good at the capital C.
If he's 5 or 6 (or a very bright 4 and ready, which he may be since he knows all the sounds), you can start talking to him about the sounds the letters in his name are making. You can say, "Letter c usually says /c/, /c/, /c/, but sometimes it says /s/, /s/, /s/. Which one is it saying in your name?" And just keep it simple with the y. Say, "Letter y has many sounds, and sometimes it says /i/, /i/, /i/. I like to say "behaving" or "misbehaving" about letters and their sounds. For example, the first two letters in his name are sort of misbehaving; the last three are behaving and doing the right thing.
Let me know if this helps or if you have further questions. Thanks for asking!
Thank you so much Randee for your encouragement and for the tips. My son is 4 months away from turning 4 - he's very attuned to sounds so I am going to give this all a go! :)
Good to hear! And, you are welcome!
I love this - but don't know where to start with introducing my son's name (Cyrus) as it is so irregular! Would this be broken down as Sy - r - u- s? My son knows all the alphabet letter sounds and a few digraphs and that is where we are at. But I've avoided spelling his name out :/
I explain in several of my writing posts and videos and you can see it in action. We start journal writing in October and everyone has plain white paper. After they can write a complete sentence or two, I will give them lined paper in their next journal. The lined paper is created by me and the lines go horizontally across the paper in the landscape position and are one inch apart. Later in the spring I will give kids lines that are a little closer together if they are ready for it and are writing a lot. I never use a middle dotted line because I think it’s really distracting and it’s not necessary in order to write tall letters and short letters.
When do you introduce writing within the lines for your Kinders? I noticed you use a lot of unlined paper.
Hi! I am using your letter formation cues this year and LOVE them! I am wondering if you have something similar that you use for numeral formation? Thanks!
Trying again, just in case you missed it the first time: please email me at missbusybeekindergarten@gmail.com and I will send you the number poems. They are really helpful.
Good to hear! I do have number formation poems. Please email me at missbusybeekindergarten@gmail.com and I will attach them when I email you back.
I have a student who writes neat but her formation is inefficient. She must have gotten a lot of affirmation in preschool for her handwriting because she has resisted my prompts on letter formation. Do you have any tips for students who do this? thanks
That's a tough one! I have students like that, too. I pressure them and expect changes for a while but if they are not willing to change then I move on to more important things. I do the same with pencil grasp. We work on the correct grasp really hard for about six weeks. Anyone who doesn't get it by then I focus on individually. After a few weeks, if they haven't changed their grasp, I flat out ask them, "Are you going to try to hold your pencil correctly or not? Because we've worked on it a long time and if you're not going to try, then I'm not going to keep working with you on it. YOU have to make it happen, not me." There are some things that aren't THAT important and pencil grasp and letter formation are two of them.
thank you so much, that helps, I think that is a good strategy.