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monica
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 7:47am | IP Logged
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i should change my screen name to "worry wart mom"  as my questions are always rookie mom questions. my ds 4yo has EXPLODED into a writer, artist, colorer, basically anything that lets him leave his mark on the world. he will do drawing, coloring, workbooks for hours if i dont drag him away to get some sunshine now and then. it is great, but i notice that he makes many of his numbers and letters starting from the bottom and moving up. how i make them, and how i see the handwriting materials telling kids to make them is from the top down. his writing is fine, for a 4 yo. and i am not really concerned about him making nice pretty letters now, but as he is just starting out, i dont want to let this turn into a habit that is hard to break down the road, when he starts writing for real. ok, now is the part where you all tell me that i am just worrying for nothing and he will learn it on his own. i try to model it for him and remind him to start from the top when i am right beside him, but when he is on his own, he naturally starts from the bottom.
thanks
monica 
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Erin
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 3:56pm | IP Logged
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Monica
From my own experience I won't tell you that he will learn on his own. I now sincerely regret not correcting my own dc when younger. Not too certain that I would correct at four as I wouldn't want to dampen the enthusiasm but I would go back and correct sometime when five or six before bad habits set in.
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Erin
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acystay
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 10:18pm | IP Logged
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I went too with the thought they will get it, but I started to realize that looking at dd handwriting it wasn't just there yet. Granted she is only 5. So I picked up hand writing without tears. I really like it. I got the mat, workbook, slate, wood pieces (so nice!), and lamenated cards to use with the wood pieces. I did get the CD too. There is a song about where to start your letters. It just works really nice to see it written out so easily to explain where things go and how to form the letters better. I just explained to my daughter that we got this to help her form her letters better. I don't critcise as she is doing. I just watch. Occasionally I may say remember this is a magic C letter or ooops, you forgot to go to the top again. She is getting better.
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: June 12 2007 at 8:35am | IP Logged
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I don't consistently correct until about age 6 1/2 or so. When my younger ones ask how to write a particular number or letter, I help them do it correctly and will remind them if they don't (still in that "teaching" moment). However, if they don't ask, I don't correct.
To a degree, I don't think that it's a big deal that they write "correctly" if they can learn to write legibly and quickly. I know adults who have beautiful printed handwriting who don't "start" at the top with every letter/number.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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graciefaith
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| Posted: June 15 2007 at 8:38am | IP Logged
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My husband has great handwriting but he starts at the bottom with most his letters. While it looks nice, he's very slow. lol I say dont let him start a bad habit you will have to break later on. I'm sure there are easy, fun and painless ways to teach him to form his letters correctly.
I'm not teaching my daughter manuscript but cursive instead. She is 4.5yo and she was already writing a few letters on her own. She sees her sister writing cursive all the time, on paper and on the whiteboard especially so she picked up on it. She wasnt forming her letters correctly either. We use SWR so i wrote each letter down on a 4x6 sandpaper card that i got for very cheap and she traces it with her finger while saying all the sounds that letter makes. Now of course you dont have to do all that, but my dd finds it fun just tracing the letters. Another fun way she likes is i write the letter on the whiteboard and she erases it by tracing it with her finger. Anyway, these are some ideas that i use when teaching handwriting. YOu can do these with manuscript so it's not just cursive. WE just happen to be doing cursive. It works out well and the girls love it. My older dd will even take the sandpaper letters out and trace them just for fun.
Oh, btw, right now im just working on large motor skills so she doesnt have to write on paper yet. She does sometimes and most of the time she writes random letters on the white board but i find working on their large motor skills first helps out a lot.
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Blessed wife and mom of 3 girls, Sept. '01, Dec. '02 and Oct. '07
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: what age to correct handwriting?
