Scribbling and drawing are early forms of writing and are meaningful to your child. When children are given a chance to draw pictures and tell stories, they’re also learning reading skills. They begin to understand that marks on the page can carry meaning. Some of the first stages of writings involving drawing pictures and telling stories about what the pictures represent.
Scribbling and drawing also help your child develop the fine motor skills they’ll need later to control a pencil to form letters. Allowing children to practice making lines, curves, and circles inspires them to write letters when they’re ready.
Here are some tips for writing with your child:
- Practice fingerplays like the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to strengthen hands and fingers.
- Draw using lines, squiggles, and shapes. These squiggles will later turn into letters.
- Have your child write a pretend shopping list of favorite healthy foods.
- Make letters out of play dough. Squish them up afterwards to help build hand muscles.
- Draw a picture together and have your child "autograph" the work.
- Display your child's artwork to build confidence.
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Great Books for Writing
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What Will My Story Be?
After spending an afternoon listening to her aunties tell her stories from their pasts, a young girl ruminates on all of the tales that she can create using her imagination and begins to feel as if the possibilities for her future are endless. Filled with Nidhi Chanani's signature vibrant illustrations, What Will My Story Be? is for anyone who finds inspiration in the quiet moments and cherishes the wisdom of the generations that came before them.
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Zoo-Mate Wanted
Sisters Leah and Lilly have only one thing in common: they share a room. One day, Leah's mess makes Lilly storm out. Only a wild animal could live with Leah. That's not a bad idea! Leah posts a wanted ad, and the search for the perfect new zoo-mate begins. For anyone who's struggled to get along with a sibling, this animal-centric picture book reminds us all why it's worth trying.
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Touch and Trace 123
Young readers will learn to count from 1 to 20 with this interactive touch-and-trace book of numbers from the My First Home Learning series.
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Lubna and Pebble
In an unforgettable story that subtly addresses the refugee crisis, a young girl must decide if friendship means giving up the one item that gives her comfort during a time of utter uncertainty. Lubna's best friend is a pebble. She found it on the beach when they arrived in the night, then she fell asleep in Daddy's salty arms. Lubna tells Pebble everything. About home. About her brothers. About the war. Pebble always listens to her stories and smiles when she feels afraid. But when a lost little boy arrives in the World of Tents, Lubna understands that he needs Pebble even more than she does . . .
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Love, Agnes
Agnes has a beak that can crush bones and arms and stretch wide as a car--but that doesn't make her a monster! After she comes across a postcard, Agnes, a giant Pacific octopus, strikes up a correspondence with various other creatures below--and above--the waves. Readers will delight in this unlikely introduction to the octopus life cycle.
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Kiyoshi's Walk
Where do poems come from? This beautiful picture book about a young aspiring poet and his grandfather shows that the answer lies all around us--if we take the time to look.
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Counting with a Ladybug
Follow tactile finger trails and cut-out shapes in this sturdy counting book for kids that helps develop your child's fine motor and number skills.
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We're Going on a Bear Hunt: My First 123
Follow the path and get counting with a first numbers adventure based on the best-loved world of the We're Going on a Bear Hunt.
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Play with Paint!
When it comes to painting, there are so many possibilities! Mix colors, swish your brush around, and see what sorts of marks you can make with just your hand and a bit of paint in this adorable board book!
Creative play meets self-expression in this board book perfect for budding-artist babies! -
I Dream in Color
Do you dream in color? With the help of Crayola colors, this book explores big dreams and the colors that inspire them, from the “silver” of a spaceship and big dreams of being an astronaut, to the “sunset orange” of a landscape and big dreams of being an artist, and more. Whatever you dream about—whether it’s becoming a veterinarian, a baker, and beyond—this book is a sweet reminder that your dreams can be as big, bright, and beautiful as your imagination!
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Gurple and Preen
When Gurple and Preen crash land onto a strange alien planet, they must work together to build something new from their mistake in order to save their mission.
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When Pencil Met the Markers
This hilarious and clever picture book allows Pencil and Eraser to show Purple Marker—and the rest of us—how to turn our messes into successes and do what makes us happy.
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The Ugly Doodles
This hilarious and adorable picture book about creativity, fear of failure, and embracing your imperfections is perfect for kids and budding artists of all ages.
After an inspiring visit to the local art museum, Raven Rembrandt is eager to create her own beautiful masterpieces. But the only thing she can seem to draw are ugly doodles -- and they won't go away, no matter how hard she tries to discard them! After a few increasingly inventive attempts to get rid of them, Raven realizes that the only way to learn to love her art is to just create.
Valeria Wicker's endearing and quirky art style adds humor to her sweet and whimsical story about overcoming a fear of imperfection and failure. -
Poem in My Pocket
Rhyming, fanciful allegory of the creative writing process. When a child’s carefully written poem slips out of a ripped pocket, its words join randomly with other words to form funny riffs and puns all over a busy city street. The child scrambles to capture the loose words and arrange them back into poem form, only to lose them again as a storm swoops in. Eventually, the words plant themselves in the muddy ground, growing into something that might be even better than the original poem: a Poet-Tree. A poem is never really lost. The words may just need a little room to play.
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Line and Scribble
Line and Scribble is a picture book that celebrates imagination and friendship through simple shapes.
Line and Scribble do things differently. Line goes straight while Scribble wanders. Line walks a tightrope as Scribble bursts into fireworks. Line likes to draw with a ruler, and Scribble, well . . . doesn't.
But no matter how different they may seem, Line and Scribble always have enough in common to be best friends.