Writing is a process that includes everything from handwriting skill to sentence construction to planning and drafting a story. We've found apps that help young children along several steps of the writing process. Several apps literally turn your iPad into a handwriting tablet for practice. We bet your child won't complain about practicing letters with technological fun like this!

Click through to the next slide to browse our recommended writing apps, and follow our links for other reviews.

ABC Cursive Writing turns your iPad into a handwriting tablet for practicing cursive. Students have the options of practicing single letters — upper case or lower case, whole words, sentences, and numbers. Parents can also create word sets. Each letter of each word set is presented to the child to pracitce in order. While a stylus is not required to use this app, using one will allow a child to practice using a pen to write in cursive.

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iCanWrite is a letter tracing app. Students can work from preset groups of letters or you can enter groups for them to use. Letters are shown one at a time with a demonstration. Once the letter is traced correctly, the next letter is shown. At the end of the sequence the results are shown as handwriting to give a great sense of achievement.

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iWriteWords helps to teach kids how to write the letters of the alphabet, numbers up to 20, and simple words using a dot-to-dot approach. It helps if kids already know how to count and read numbers up to 10 in order to play this game. For more information, read an additional review of iWrite Words from Common Sense Media.

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Kids Writing Pad is a basic large-lined writing pad useful for practicing numbers and letters. It has a middle dotted line between two solid lines like most primary school paper so children can practice having the appropriate parts of the letters or numbers in the right areas. Children can also choose the color of their pencil, use an eraser, or touch the big eraser to erase the entire page.

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Popplet is a productivity app that also works as a mind mapping tool. Use the app to begin structuring the writing process. The app can also be used to create graphic organizers, classroom visuals, organize material according to text structures (list, sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect), and to practice sentence combining and complex sentence creation by connecting individual "Popples." For more information read an additional review of Popplet from Therapy App 411.

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SentenceBuilder is an app that helps children learn to build grammatically correct sentences about a given picture. Special attention is paid to the connector words. For more information read an additional review of SentenceBuilder from iEducation Apps Review.

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Story Builder is a multi-purpose app designed to teach story structure. In the process, students learn sentence structure, sequencing, and inferencing. The app develops comprehension by asking children to respond to questions about a picture, helping them to structure the story. The child's answers are recorded within the app. Then the the answers are put together to form a story. There are multiple levels included in the app; level two requires inference skills. For more information, read an additional review of Story Builder from Common Sense Media.

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TeachMe: 1st Grade is an app that focuses on writing, spelling, and math. With this app, children answer questions and solve problems using their own handwriting. The app then reads the answers using a writing recognition engine. If your child needs help, TeachMe: 1st Grade will show them how to write the correct answer including the proper stroke order. Parents can select which subjects display, set difficulty level, choose specific questions, and even review performance history for each subject to check how their child is doing. For more information read an additional review of TeachMe: 1st Grade.

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Toontastic is a creative learning tool that empowers kids to draw, animate, and share their own stories through imaginative play. Toontastic teaches key storytelling principles. Children are walked through creating the story arc: setup, conflict, challenge, climax, or resolution. Creating a story is as easy as putting on a puppet show — children simply press the record button, move the characters onscreen, and tell their stories. Once they're're done, Toontastic will play back their animation and voice as a cartoon for them to share with friends and family. For more information watch Toontastic in action.

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