Handwriting

 

HANDWRITING

Handwriting can be difficult for some children. I, personally, have trouble with the "act" of handwriting and so did my son; therefore, I have a lot of compassion for kids with this problem. If you have a child who has difficulty with handwriting, your emphasis should be on quality, not quantity. Take about 5-10 minutes per day to teach basic handwriting skills until they are mastered.

I do not recommend doing a lot of written work in other subjects each day if the child is struggling with handwriting. Instead do the other subjects orally or with hands-on projects. This will allow him to concentrate on learning about the subject being taught rather than being frustrated by more handwriting lessons. For those children who do not struggle with handwriting, allow them to write all they want. Encourage them to keep a journal, handwrite cards for friends, and experiment with other forms of handwriting such as calligraphy.

I suggest typing lessons as soon as your child can handle the keyboard - for most children, this is about age eight. Have your child who struggles with handwriting do his written work on the computer as soon as he has mastered the keyboard.

My favorite prepared curriculum for handwriting instruction is A Reason for Writing by Concerned Communications. I personally do not like to use slanted programs during the learning-to-read years. My reason is that I feel it is confusing to teach reading using books written in tradition manuscript text while teaching handwriting using a slanted text. This may not frustrate all children, but it will some. I recommend that you use only the books necessary to teach your child to write. You do not have to do handwriting every year. Once they have learned, use their compositions for handwriting practice. You also do not need the teacher's manuals. Here is the order I would use this series:

Learning the Alphabet, upper and lower case: A Reason for Handwriting, Kindergarten

Learning Manuscript: A Reason for Handwriting, Manuscript, Student Book A Grade 1

Transition between manuscript and cursive: A Reason for Handwriting, Transition, Student Book Grades 2-3

Learning Cursive: A Reason for Handwriting Student Workbook C, Cursive Grade 3

A new product on the market is Handwriting Without Tears. The main thing I like about HWT is the idea of writing on two lines instead of three. Many children have found this helpful. I've created these free, reproducible, two-line handwriting sheets for you to try on your child to see if it works for you. These are Acrobat Reader (pdf) documents. Thin lines. Med lines. Wide lines. Handwriting Without Tears also offers manipulative letters that might help the Kinesthetic child.

Different types of handwriting styles.

Other Handwriting worksheets1. Make your own Worksheets. Another worksheet maker with several styles.

More information about handwriting struggles.

Free handwriting worksheets at: http://penmanship.donnayoung.org/

(Back to top)

Back to Curriculum Recommendations

 

.

 

Copyright © 2004 - Oklahoma Homeschool