How to Create a Portable Writing Center for Your Preschool Aged Child

I wanted my three year old daughter to start working on her pre-writing skills. I know many old children use the concept of a writing center. I took this concept and made it age appropriate for my daughter. I have limited space in my home, so I created a portable writing center for her. I am going to share ideas on how you can create your own portable writing center to encourage your toddler or preschooler to write.

I took a large, sturdy gift box to store the writing center in. To decorate it, I wrote my Childs name in a computer word processing program and attached it to the front of the box. On the lid of the box, I printed out and attached an ABC chart. You could make own or find a free printable one on the internet. You could also choose to attach a list of site words instead of the alphabet.

Inside the box I put a pencil, pen, crayons and dry erase markers. I found a small dry erase board that I put in the box for my child to practice writing on. You could also use a chalkboard and chalk. I included some alphabet cards that can be traced with a dry erase marker. You could also print your own cards from the computer and get them laminated.

In addition to the dry erase board & the ABC cards, I wanted to provide my child many things to write on. I put in a copybook for her to doodle in. I included some blank greeting cards and envelopes. I also included some great pintables I found off of the internet. The website, DLTK, has a great selection featuring Thomas, Blue, Dragon Tales and even holiday themed papers. Children really get excited to write on paper with their favorite characters. I also included the pretend check printable from DLTK.

I also included some dot to dot pages, mazes and tracing workbook pages. I found my workbooks for a dollar a piece at my local tree store. I saw they carry workbooks for pre-K through second grade and they are an excellent value.

This concept of the portable writing center is really fun because you can bring it anywhere. Sometimes my daughter plays on the floor and does her writing. Other times she will sit at our desk, or work at the kitchen table. It's nice to be able to bring it with us around the house because she can play writing and I can get work done around the home. I am always finding new notepads or new pre-writing ideas to swap in and out of the box. It was inexpensive and easy to create, yet it has provided hours of fun for my daughter. And as a bonus, she is excited about writing and can even write a few letters at only three years of age!