Mark Making

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How do I Encourage My Child to Mark Make?

I was recently asked by a good friend how to encourage a 3 year old to mark make; so, I decided to write this post. I hope you find it helpful. Remember the key to mark making at this age is to allow your child to experiment. Experimentation is so important, it will allow your child to feel released and empowered in their movements and ability.

Meaningful Mark Making

At this age it is about your child making ‘meaningful marks’ … to themselves. In that, the marks mean something to them. For instance they might draw a little squiggle on the page and tell you that they have drawn you or that they have written their name.

Praise, Praise, Praise!

PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE! When your little one creates a mark and attaches meaning to it you have struck gold! It means that your child understands that marks carry meaning and they feel able to create meaning themselves. We want our children to enter the world of writing with a whole heap of confidence in their own ability. Make your child feel like they have just written Shakespeare when they attach meaning to their marks. Later, we will look at how we start to encourage young children to draw and write pictures/words that are meaningful to us. But for now, let’s focus on them!

What Does Mark Making Look Like?

This is a great example of my daughter’s mark making at the age of 3. We stuck down her photographs and she used a range of pens and stamps to mark make around the photos. She then attempted at writing phrases to describe what was happening in each photo. You can see that she understood that difference between writing and drawing as she chose a different type of pen to ‘write’ with. She carefully wrote her sentences and then told me what they meant. I absolutely love this piece of writing as it tells me so much about my little girl; her understanding of text, sentence construction and her self-belief to give things a go.

Fine Motor Development

It is absolutely essential that your child has lots of opportunities to develop their fine motor strength before you can execpt them to attempt mark making. Read the following posts before you continue if you are not sure whether you have give your child ample opportunity to develop their fine motor skills.

Language & Communication

Equally, it will be challenging for your child to compose a sentence and assign meaning to the marks they have written if they do not have well developed language and communication skills. Click on the link below to read find out more.

Five Easy Ways to Encourage Mark Making

Mark Making Idea 1, Cool New Pens

I am that person who goes into a stationary shop and spends ages choosing the perfect pen (it’s so hard when there are so many to choose from!) Pens are cool! Yup, I’m claiming it! I did an arts degree; every semester I would spend half of my student loan on new pens. “Oh, I need this shade for that and this thickness for that, oh and look at that colour, oh, I need that one too!” Pens are fun and the possibilities of what you can create with them are endless. Fortunately, most kids agree with me that pens are cool. Stick a pot of exciting pens in front of a child and I guarantee they will want to experiment with them – that is exactly what mark making is…it’s about experimentation, finding out what you are capable of achieving.

So my first tip is this; go on a shopping trip with your 3 year old and buy a load of cool new pens! Don’t just stick with the Crayola washable pens, no, no, no! Buy those, but also buy:

What types of pens to buy:

• highlighters
• biros (different colours)
• glitter pens
• gel pens
• pens of different thicknesses
• white board pens (different colours and thicknesses)

DON’T BUY PERMANENT PENS!

Why not splash out and buy a brand new pencil case as well? Giving your child ownership is a sure fire way of encouraging interest.

Mark Making Idea 2, Buy Paints

If your child isn’t keen on pens (???) Then why not try paint instead? If the thought of this stresses you out read my blog post on how to manage paint at home.

Try to provide opportunities for your child to mark make for a real event. Here my daughter is decorating envelopes for her 3rd birthday party. She loved creating these for her friends and had an enormous sense of pride when handing them out. Providing real opportunities is a great way to encourage mark making.

Mark Making Idea 3, Coloured Salt

Coloured salt is super fun and super sensory. Children love to write in coloured salt because it’s different and exciting.

How to Make Coloured Salt

1. Buy a really cheap bag of fine cooking salt.
2. Pour a generous amount into a sandwich bag.
3. Add some food colouring (I prefer the gel ones).
4. Make sure the sandwich bag is properly sealed.
5. Massage the salt and the dye together in the bag (great for fine motor development!)
6. Et Voila! You have coloured salt.
7. All you need to do now is to pour it into a clean baking tray and away you go.

Mark Making Idea 4, White Boards

White boards are great and children love them! They are easy to write on (not much friction) and any mistakes can be rubbed away quickly. They are a great paper saving tool and a perfect for building up writing confidence.

You can buy really inexpensive white boards from high street shops like Wilkos. Don’t forget to buy a range of white board pens as well, think about different thicknesses and colours.

Mark Making Idea 5, Availability

Possibly the most affective way of encouraging your three year old to mark make is to ensure that mark making materials are available all of the time. Ask yourself these questions:

Where do I keep pens and paper?

Are pens & paper kept at the right height so that (name of child) can get them when they want to?

Do I model mark making?

Do I encourage mark making when (name of child) is bored?

When I go on a car/train/plane journey do I pack pens and paper?

When at a restaurant do I bring the pens and paper along as well?

Do I celebrate (name of child) successes when mark making?

Am I empowering (name of child) to feel like a writer even at this young age?

Quick Action Points

Choose one mark making idea to try with your child this week.

Analyse your home environment and think about changes you can make to enable independent mark making.