Another great way to prepare your child for writing is tracing. I turned our ipad into a lightbox. My son hates writing but enjoyed this tablet lightbox tracing activity. He explains, “因為好酷啊!”. Of course there are apps that allow you to use a finger to trace the Chinese character, but I prefer pen on paper. It’s good for children to get use to holding a pen. Plus this way there are no distractions, flashy lights, advertisements, cartoons, etc.
Many households already have a tablet, in our case we have an iPad. I used Google Translate to pull up the Chinese characters I want him to learn. You can use any program as long as you can type the Chinese Characters. Expand the image until the text is the size you want. Tip: this works best if the text is white on a darker background.
Remember to lock the screen! If you have an iPad, use Guided Access to child proof the screen. All you need now is a sheet of paper and a pen. I prefer a washable marker because it won’t damage the screen even if they apply too much pressure.