Educators and parents don’t seem to be able to agree on what type of writing tools are best for kids in the preschool years. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so it’s crucial that students take use of resources tailored to their individual needs. It’s a hotly debated topic whether or not preschoolers should use regular-sized pencils.
Kids in pre-k should use chunky pencils when they start learning to write. Because of the maturity of their hand muscles, they will be a much better fit than little pencils. The results you get from writing will improve, and you’ll have an easier time writing thanks to them. The outcomes they create will be superior as well.
It’s an excellent summary, but there’s obviously much more to the story. Before settling on a standard pencil, kids should experiment with other writing tools. True, but how exactly? For how much longer can they get away with using those enormous pencils? Why should they even bother using them? Here is the reason for choosing pencil for preschoolers.
Strength Training
Here we have the most vital one. A child’s hands go through a lot of change from the time they are born and the time they are at least seven years old. Significant changes occur in the muscles, bones, and pretty much the rest of the body.
Children are more likely to keep their grip on a thick object than a thin one. Using a larger pencil also helps in keeping up with the rest of the class.
It’s common for fine motor skills to develop at a slower pace than gross motor skills. If you’re interested in reading more about the 11 key differences between fine motor and gross motor skills, I’ve written a piece detailing them here.
Doing activities at a massive scale
Little children learning to make marks or write letters benefit from visualising on a grand scale. Massive surfaces, such as wallpaper, the floor, or large chalkboards, are a brilliant idea that should be put into action. Writing on such vast surfaces calls for the employment of enormous writing utensils, such as pens, huge chalks, giant pencils, and other writing implements of a similar nature.
Children’s big motor skills will develop alongside their fine motor skills as they experiment with and master the use of heavy tools and large, open play spaces.
Efforts to Reduce Anguish and Stress
Using pencils that are too thin might be uncomfortable for younger children. They’ll whine about how painful it is on their hand and wonder why anybody would want to put themselves through that.
It is crucial that kids always use thick pencils while writing since unpleasant writing implements might cause them to dislike writing for the rest of their lives.
