Comments on: Part 1: How to Make a Reusable Tracing Book for a Toddler

By: ddonahue

ddonahue — Thu, 21 May 2009 05:37:33 +0000

Excellent idea. I work in a day care and I have several children who want to practice writing. I usually give them blank paper and a pen but now I will give them the tracing pages. They will be so proud of themselves!

By: ttolson

ttolson — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:49:47 +0000

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this idea. This is not really a worksheet. It is a manipulative that should be used in preschool for motor skills if nothing else. I get all of your children in Kindergarten who can’t hold pencil or write anything and they are expected to write a sentence and a two or three sentence story by the time they leave K. It’s because they haven’t been taught to trace or write that they can’t master writing letters and words

By: ephelba

ephelba — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:52:03 +0000

I did this in college with plain paper so I could do my physics and math homework with out killing so many trees.
Put some blank paper in there and let them go crazy go nuts.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:46:50 +0000

If you are going to have your child begin to make or practice letters, it is vital to teach the correct letter formation. Some kids want to do this as young as 3, some have no interest until you begin teaching them to write their names in preparation for preschool or kindergarten. Whichever, whenever, as soon as they are wanting to write their abc’s, get a practice book of some sort and begin teaching them to form the letters correctly. If you don’t, they will start letters at the bottom, in the middle, or wherever and teach themselves a multitude of bad habits that we kindergarten teachers will then have to try to re-teach them out of. The proper printed letter forms are vital to later success in script or cursive writing and you do your child no favors to allow them to just “wing it” when learning to print their abc’s. And please, when teaching them to print their names, use a capital only at the beginning of the name and the rest lowercase letters. It’s a huge help to their teacher, again, not to have to teach them all over again how to write their name properly when they arrive at school.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:16:22 +0000

on second thought… it does take a bit of pressure to make the mark so it might not be right for a 2yo.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:40:46 +0000

Liv–try a China marker. It’s a super waxy pencil that wipes off with a paper towel (without the powdery residue of the dry-erase marker). I just tested it on a sheet protector and it works great!

By: AJ

AJ — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:23:41 +0000

Liv, crayons have poor visibility on the plastic (very light) and are a lot harder to clean off. You could simply print tracing pages and use crayon directly on them without a plastic sleeve. That’s still 100% better in your situation than a retail reusable book that requires pen. You’re paying for the cost of the paper, but using very little printer ink.

By: liv

liv — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:15:55 +0000

would crayons work instead of dry erase markers? i don’t trust my 2 yo with dry erase markers, and that stuff is a PITA to wash out of clothing. i don’t want to buy the heavy duty protectors to find that crayon doesn’t rub off of it. :)

By: Angela

Angela — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:54:22 +0000

Thanks so much for including the print style fonts. We have been looking for a font with "normal" lower case a and 4 for sometime. I have already downloaded and installed them to update our number and alphabet charts we use with our daughter.

This is a really fun idea for practicing pencil skills plus much cheaper than buying a workbook that gets used and then you have to do something else with it to justify the cost. Thanks for searching out all the resources for other parents.

By: Kini

Kini — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 02:07:18 +0000

I think the tracing pages are an awesome activity. I totally agree that if they are not interested, let them be. Find something the DOES interest them and is FUN for them. I have two daughters, one just turned 12, the other is 3.5. The youngest imitates the oldest all the time. She wants to read, write, go to the "big" school, and do all the things the big one does. That is why I think the notebook is a great idea...because it is something that does interest my little one. Not only can she spell her name, she can write it (first and last name). We never forced her to learn, she sees her sister doing it and wants to also.

Things can be a chore, a drag, miserable. Or, they can be cool, creative, and FUN.

Have Fun!