I've been working with my 4 year old, trying to get her ready for Kindergarten in September. I ordered the Kindergarten books from CLE, and we've been working our way through them. Here's my struggle... she has very little hand strength. She cannot consistently write any numbers. Is this normal for her age? Should she be able to write letters/numbers easily? I'm really nervous that she won't be ready for Kindergarten. (FYI... My husband isn't on board with homeschooling, so our kids go to public school). What can I do to build up her hand strength, other than just have her try over and over again to write the numbers? She loves to cut, lace, etc, but she's pretty good at those things.
Instead of "boring" stuff, have her color. Just color like crazy. Try to teacher to trace next to the printed lines with a darker line of color. Encourage her to use one crayon for a whole picture; varying the amount of pressure to achieve different tones. Etc, etc.
Cutting and pasting, lacing, tracing, building with blocks, modeling with clay/playdoh (clay is a bit stiffer, thus requiring more hand strength), screwing and unscrewing nuts and bolts of various sizes (either real ones of metal, or some kid-friendly plastic ones, some kind of build-it toys), finger painting and brush painting. Maybe fat crayons, markers, and pencils would be easier for her at this point? Sidewalk chalk is fun, and it's way chunky for little hands. Making biscuits by hand is always fun and you can eat the results, as with making cookies that you cut out and decorate (either real ones or playdoh ones). Dolls to dress - paper dolls or baby dolls or Dressy Bessy (whose clothes don't come off but you can zip, button, snap, tie, hook, etc.).
It's good to be working on it, but don't worry about it. Many kids are not printing at all when they enter K. It's really common for them to be recognizing but not printing very much. Some kids get it and are able to print very well entering K, but many are not. So don't panic, just be patient. Also, I'd agree with the others on doing more related activities but not focussing on the printing. You don't want your DD to feel like she's not good at printing or that its too hard for her. If you spend more time on other fine motor skills, and keep letter and number printing to short, fun lessons, you have a better chance of improving her skills without frustrating her.
I've been wondering the same thing. My 4 year old can't write at all really. I've worked with him but try not to push because I know eventually he will. One thing I did with my oldest was to put water in a bowl and have an empty bowl next to it. He would soak a sponge in the water and squeeze it into the empty bowl until it had all the water. He loved this and it really helped strengthen his hand muscles.
