The Importance of Mark Making at Home

Writing isn’t something children should only begin at school or when they are able to hold a pencil  “correctly”. Mark making starts from a very young age. 

Encourage your children to make their mark! 
From a young age children have a natural desire to explore and experiment. They adore sensory and physical experiences, so why not get them mark making as much and as early as possible? 

This can be anything from:

• gliding pens across a white board
• smearing paint onto paper
• scraping chalk into pavement or blackboards
• sand or glitter running through their fingers.

Mark making is much more than just a “a scribble” or “ having the perfect grip”. 
A child  begins to make sense of the world through mark making. It is a child’s journey towards their writing. One day it will suddenly *click* and your child will realise that they control the marks they make and each mark has meaning. This is a wonderful journey to watch. Your child will begin to thrive for sure!

Model Model Model
The only way a child will explore mark making from a young age is if it is modelled, they have the materials to explore and if it is fun!

Children will begin sharing their thoughts and feelings while mark making. One of my favourite things to do with Ted (my eldest son) is to give him a large area to draw on such as a chalkboard, a roll of paper or the bottom of the tuff tray, along with a variety of pens, chalks and crayons. Lay the items in front of your child and watch the magic begin. The more we have done this the more detailed and interesting his marks have got. He is now able to tell me stories as he writes explaining and sharing what he has drawn.

Today’s drawing session with Ted on the side of his dolls house using chalk (see picture below): “Here is my angry snake with two pointy teeth. It will eat all these. Here is the dragon and fire in the big dark cave”. Looking at the marks he made I could see long lines, a few circle type squiggles and lots of dots where he bashed the pen so hard the chalk was splatting over the picture on our faces. I sat, I watched, I listened and told him how amazing his drawing was. He was very proud and couldn’t wait to show his Daddy when he finished work. 

Holding a Pen Correctly 
‘correctly’ meaning whichever grip best suits them and feels most natural at that time in their journey! If it looks like they are struggling and it isn’t comfortable- help them try something else. If not, leave them to it! 

Holding a pen and controlling it with such precision is VERY hard, especially for little hands that do not have the muscle strength needed just yet! It also involves hand-eye coordination- a lot more than just scribbling! It helps to strengthen their muscles in their tiny fingers and hands by developing their fine motor skills. Without lots of fine-motor based activities children will not be ready to make small controlled movements whilst holding a pen/pencil/crayon etc.

Here are some activities you can try at home to strengthen their muscles

The Whole Arm:

• Large painting and drawing at easels 
• Using equipment such as rakes, brooms and shovels
• Bouncing and throwing a ball
• Climbing – anything that uses upper body strength
• Anything that involves pushing, pulling and large arm movements

Whole Hand:

• Spooning activities e.g  beans/rice/marbles/pom-poms and a spoon. Move the objects from one bowl to the other.
• Using a spray bottle to water plants/paint- splat different sounds/numbers and children have to say what they see
• Playdough, rolling, using cutters etc.
• Pouring activities, moving water from one object to another

Pincer Grip (thumb, index and middle finger)

• Using tweezers and tongs to transfer small objects
• Threading beads onto a lace
• Building blocks including Lego
• Making small objects with Playdough

Some of mine and Ted’s favourite fine motor activities:

• threading cheerios on dry spaghetti
• helping to peg out the washing
• balancing marbles onto golf tees
• dressing teddies in clothes with buttons/ zips
• board games that use small pieces
• picking seeds out of fruit or veg
• playing different instruments
• telling stories with finger puppets

2020
I feel that the world we are living in and the technological available, means we do not write as much as we should! Being a teacher I model writing daily, however, for people who work in an office at a laptop all day could go weeks without writing. I mean shopping lists can be typed on our phones or verbally said out loud to Alexia! If you are one of these people make a point of writing your shopping list, modelling out loud to your children so that they soon learn that writing has meaning and purpose!

Mark making should not be stressful, it should be fun!  

When?
It can be spontaneous or you can have special time for it. Eg: writing easter cards to the family. I often involve Ted in my writing-“right Ted I need to write a list for shopping can you help me? I need eggs and milk, what do you need? Can you write that down for me please”. It might be squiggles and lines but here we are writing for a purpose and giving meaning to the marks we make!

Where? Everywhere!
Mark making can happen anywhere and at any time. It doesn’t have to be pen and paper at a table.  We often make marks outside using sticks, rocks or whatever we find. Use mud, use sand at the beach, use the water from puddles.

There is nothing wrong with being sat down and having a ‘writing station’. Many early years settings will have ‘writing tables/ stations’ so you could set up a table/ area at home too. Include pots/ baskets and storage full of paper, pens, notepads, hole punch and string, chalk and chalkboards, stencils etc. Whatever you feel will inspire your child. This way it is always accessible to them, not just when you decide to finally get the bits off the top shelf in the kitchen cupboard on a rainy day.

Chalkola
Recently we were kindly gifted a beautiful set of 30 chalk pens and a cute wooden chalk board from a company called ‘Chalkola’. This inspired me to set up more opportunities for writing around the house. I bought some ‘Black Board Magnetic Chalk Paint’ from B&Q and painted a wall in the kitchen and the top of Ted’s table in the playroom. I modelled using these areas by drawing pictures, telling stories, writing down items I needed to buy and writing notes to daddy in front of Ted. I left baskets with chalk pens and magnetic letters in those areas and within minutes Ted was mark marking independently. Having an area for him to draw in the kitchen means I can keep an eye on him while cooking/washing up. Chalk pens are also great on glass and easily wipe clean. We have been drawing rainbows on our front windows which Ted has enjoyed. The chalk pens work well in the tuff tray, we have drawn racing tracks and practised writing our numbers. These chalk pens are thick which is great for little hands. There is every colour, bright and pastel. They are very good quality! Please do have a look at their amazing products at www.chalkola.com if you would like to purchase any of their products then use the discount code ‘KAYLEIGH10’ to receive 10% off your order. Alternatively they sell their products on Amazon- again you can use ‘CHALKOLA10’ for a 10% discount.

I REALLY hope this has been useful and some of these ideas inspire you! Please do message me if you have any questions or to share your ideas that we can try at home too!

Let’s keep passion for writing alive!

love Kayleigh