Drawing and Writing
Encourage your child to draw and write about interesting things. Ask your child to talk about their drawings and writing. Be interested in their stories and how they have chosen to draw or write them.
Write Every Day
• Have fun with drawing and writing. Ask your child to draw or write about things they like to do, make or play.
• Encourage your child to talk about their writing. This could include talking about their scribbles, drawings, letters or words.
• Use different materials to draw and write with, such as, chalk, paper and pencils, markers, pens and keyboards.
• Ask your child to write their name. Your child could also attempt to write the names of other people who are important to them.
• While your child is writing or drawing, talk about the picture and the sounds of the letters that he or she is attempting to write.
• Encourage your child to use their imagination and create stories. They could create a storybook by drawing pictures and writing words for the story.
• Support your child to write messages in their home language.
Drawing and Writing For A Purpose
• Encourage your child to draw or write a shopping list, or about their favourite person in the family, or their favourite book.
• Create a song or a poem and write the words or draw a picture to go with the song or poem.
• Ask your child to describe what they are drawing or writing about as they are creating it.
• Encourage them to write a letter to a friend or someone in the family about something interesting, funny or exciting that happened.
• Have a booklet, journal or diary that your child can write or draw in daily.
• Create a card or an invite for a celebration or a special event. You could also have your child write on present tags such as birthdays or Christmas.
Talk About Messages
• Ask your child to create a message they would like to send. It could be a poster such as, "Beware of the dog", or a letter to their teacher about the things they like to do.
• Use everyday words that are part of your child’s culture, experience and interests.
• Talk about stories or letters that your child has written or that you read together.
• When talking, support your child to talk in sentences using a variety of words.