Creativity 521 #100 - Fun ways to learn to write your name

I've reached the 100th post in my Creativity 521 series! Woohoo! Now, that is definitely a milestone for the blog and I'm glad that after so many years, I'm still keeping up with the series. Has it always been easy? No, sometimes I don't have any inspiration on what I should or what I can do with the kids. Does it take up a lot of time? Of course, from researching on the web, gathering materials to trying to craft with the elder two while a needy baby clings onto me can be quite a complex affair. Plus, I still have to upload, edit the pictures and subsequently blog about it. Sometimes, I seriously wonder why I even bother to keep it going since I don't think it interests a lot of readers.

That said, I've always believed that a blog can thrive and sustain only when you write on things that you are passionate about, not things that will attract eyeballs but do not interest you much. Besides, Creativity 521 is the reason why I get motivated every fortnightly to fork out some time to do some easy but fun-filled art and craft projects with the kids.

In this week's Creativity 521, I did something that I've been wanting to do - teach my little girl to write her Chinese name! Yes, since she doesn't attend any Chinese lesson, I always feel like I've shortchanged her because we just do not seem to be able to find time to sit down and practise any writing. While she has mastered writing her English name earlier on this year, I just didn't have time to teach her the same for her Chinese name.

So, what better way to learn then through fun and play, right? Here's sharing 5 ways we did in order for her to learn to write her Chinese name!

1) Using objects

I wrote her Chinese name on a piece of drawing block and got her to use small pebbles to form the words, making sure that she learnt the strokes in the process. I find it important for her to understand and remember the stroke sequence correctly from the very start. If you are unsure of the strokes for any word, you can check it up here.

So, as she arranged the pebbles one by one, she was tasked to say out the stroke too, like 点，横， 撇， 点， 竖, 竖钩。 You can use any small items such as pebbles, stones, buttons, beans, uncooked pasta and so on.

2) Rainbow tracing

I made dotted lines for her name and the strokes corresponded to the colours of the rainbow. Yup, which means she could practise saying the colours of the rainbow in the process. 红橙黄绿蓝靛紫! 

It was also a good chance for her to recognise the names of the colours in chinese and match to the corresponding markers.

3) Cotton bud painting

What better way than to involve paint? For a start, we kept it easy and fuss free by doing cotton bud painting.

Once again, I tasked her to trace out the word and name the strokes in the process.

4) Finger painting

Now, it gets even better if you get to dirty your hands, right? So, I drew bubble words on the drawing block and asked her to write her name by painting with her finger.

In fact, she was the one who asked me "Mama, can I have a rainbow name, please?" Sure, why not? I thought this was the prettiest artwork of all!

5) Sand writing

Lastly, I asked her to practise writing freehand but to make it more fun, she was to write in sand!

We used our kinetic sand, a tray and a chopstick for this. How easy, right?

So, we did these 5 activities in under an hour and I think it has helped her tremendously in learning to write her name. She can now write her surname on her own, at least, and is also slowly but surely learning to write the other two characters too. Woohoo!

Won't you have a go at letting your child learn to write his/her chinese name through fun activities too?

For more DIY tutorials and craft inspiration, visit my gallery here.