Once children have mastered the 9 pre-writing shapes (see Stage 1: Pre-writing learning mats), they should be able to start practicing all of the letters of the alphabet.

Letter formation is the sequence of movements followed by the pencil to form a letter.  It is very important to ensure that your child is forming each letter correctly as practicing the correct movements over time will establish the movement in your child's motor memory making it second nature to write. Once the child's muscle memory* is established it can be very difficult to be undone.

*Muscle memory is the repetition of a task until the brain remembers how to do it automatically.