Teaching Handwriting

I sat out this year to teach Selena how to write without a curriculum. At first Selena was very leery of trying, but I reinforced that it didn’t matter how it looked, I was just looking for her to try. Already knowing that Selena knew how to make most of her letters, it really was more of a building the self confidence, get the letters down on the paper, then refine it from there.

You will need to click on the images to really see her handwriting. This first one is the very first attempt this year at writing anything. You can see which letters she had a firm foundation for and which ones she really needed to work on. We continued this model through the first few months. Until finally her handwriting began to take on more precision on it’s own just from practicing daily.

As you can hopefully see by clicking on the above image that indeed her letters began to take form, though she struggled with placement on the lined paper. I bit my tongue many times at this point. I knew I had two ways to go at this point, continue to just let her build her confidence or try to force the issue to improve her letter placement. I chose to just let her continue to build her confidence.

 

We have now started to work on proper placement of her letters within the lines. The easiest way I have found to do this is to make our white board into lined paper. As Selena reads her school work, and selects the correct word, I write it on the whiteboard the way it should look on her page. She then using mine as an example writes the words on her page. We are using the same approach with learning to write numbers.

If you are like us and are struggling to find a handwriting curriculum that fits your child, don’t sweat it. You have the ability to teach your child how to write without one. You know how to write, so give it some time, wait until your child is ready then just let them explore. Stay relaxed, there is plenty of time for her to improve and perfect her writing skill. I am very proud of how hard Selena has worked, and how far she has come.

Lessons I’ve Learned

Do you have a self motivated learner who does not like repetitive work? I know I have one! We always knew she could write more then she was willing to show us, it was a matter of getting her to do so. We told her this year we were going to focus on handwriting, we didn’t expect it to be perfect, but we did expect her to try. With that said, I thought to myself now how do we make this happen?

Here are my suggestions for those who have a hesitant self learner, just not wanting to do repetitive work, yet wanting to learn to write. Keep in mind that this is a skill that some come to early and others need more time to develop.

1. Throw away all the curriculum that asks them to copy the letters, then repeat it over and over again in order to perfect them.
2. Find workbooks or make your own, involving reading and filling in the blanks with simple words, which get more difficult as they go along. Some might just start with filling in a missing letter, to a three letter word, then so on.
3. Don’t expect it to look perfect.
4. Praise when they try, not when it looks perfect, but when they try. This takes the pressure off for perfectionism.
5. As they begin to show much self improvement, then begin to show them the proper techniques.
6. Allow them time to explore, don’t worry about letter size, are they keeping it in the lines, or do all lines and circles connect…let them play.

Since we have figured this all out we have seen great improvements and more of a desire to try from Selena. Below are two work pages, the first when she began this year, and the second where she is now, notice the improvement?

She is now writing with so much more confidence, is now experimenting with letter sizing, and working her own way to a more perfect style. I am a  happy Mama, that we do not have tears, complaining, or the “I can’ts”

We are using the same method for our numbers, and let me say we are seeing the same results.