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claireg
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| Posted: March 06 2013 at 11:49am | IP Logged
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My dd is almost 7 and in first grade. We are really struggling with poor handwriting. I don't know how to work on improving it, though. We are using the handwriting without tears program. For the past few months I really cut back on the amount of writing required of her, but now I feel like she's not writing enough for her grade level. She's not writing more than her handwriting lesson (one page per day) and a math worksheet. And I still can't get her best effort. I am very frustrated, and would appreciate your advice!
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: March 06 2013 at 12:38pm | IP Logged
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I read this somewhere (maybe here), but it's the approach I use with my struggling writers.
We still do copywork and other written work, but I have them focus on one thing each week in their writing. Such as, forming using the correct strokes to form a letter "M" or whatever letter is giving them fits (both capital and lower). So, during the week we spend a few minutes practicing how to make an "M" (I show them the correct way, then they copy). Whatever writing they do that week, I check for perfect letter M's and ignore everything else. Then the next week we add on another letter, so that I watch for perfect letter M's and letter O's. Gradually adding on each week until they have corrected any problem areas that exist. If I notice a certain letter slipping, then we start practicing and focusing on that letter for a week.
I hope this makes sense!
My first grader, a boy, does some handwriting each day from a workbook (basically copywork of words and phrases), but does not so much outside writing in other subjects. He may do a sentence or two in science once a week and then in history, but that's about it for now. He also has spelling words that he writes twice a week to help reinforce phonics/reading lessons.
Other times he writes for fun when they play hangman, or after drawing when he always signs his name. He does not write paragraphs or anything like that at this point.
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Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool
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jawgee
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| Posted: March 06 2013 at 4:03pm | IP Logged
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Just popping in to say that my first grader does one sentence a WEEK for handwriting. If I do much more than that he gets very frustrated. It takes a lot of concentration for him to focus on proper formation.
I work with him on one area of improvement each week - letter spacing, formation, etc.
So, anyway, I know he is writing much less than the ideal, but he is getting a good foundation and I know that he will continue to improve.
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Monica
C (12/2001), N (11/2005), M (5/2008), J (8/2009) and three angels
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Angel
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| Posted: March 07 2013 at 9:06am | IP Logged
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Fine motor skills at that age really vary a lot. It's important, I think, to distinguish what each individual child's "best effort" really is. Sometimes kids really lack the strength or coordination to make accurate letters, and doing a page of handwriting and a page of math really will wear out their hands.
My 7 year old/1st grade-ish twins (boys) are still working through the HWT K book -- for the second time. I am not freaking out about it, though, because I have dealt with this before in my oldest. He's 16 now, his handwriting is actually legible, and he actually prefers to hand write his papers first rather than type them. But for a really long time you would have thought I was torturing him with a red hot poker if I asked him to write *anything*.
If your dd has a problem with handwriting, it can actually be more effective (in my experience) to work on fine motor skills and hand strength than on actual handwriting. For kids who have trouble handwriting, pencil grips can make a big difference in how easy it is to actually grip the pencil the right way, making it more comfortable to write. We also use the HWT app on our iPad, and I think that has helped the kids a lot. (My 5 yo uses it to learn his letters; my twins used it to improve their handwriting. I do wish there was an app for lower case letters, too, though.)
Scissors, stickers, and squeeze balls can all help with fine motor skills and hand strength.
As they get older and their fine motor skills improve, they'll be able to write more. Right now I try to go easy on the writing with my twins because I know it's really difficult. One of my twins likes to do spelling, but since he is still struggling with capitals, I do not require him to do any written work using lower case. I save the instruction in letter formation for handwriting, and for the rest, we do a lot orally (as in math or phonics) or I don't worry about it too much. Otherwise, it just gets really frustrating and the boys miss the point of the lesson.
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Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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SallyT
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| Posted: March 07 2013 at 5:06pm | IP Logged
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Piggybacking on Angela's post, I second the pencil grips and the emphasis on fine motor skills. The Draw Write Now website has some excellent resources, as well as their books, which my now-10- and 9-year-olds really enjoyed. Coloring is also excellent fine-motor conditioning -- those Dover coloring books with intricate designs of various kinds have been great favorites with both my girls, particularly.
My children have also struggled with handwriting at this stage. My oldest daughter, who went to school in England for four years, from age 5 to age 9, had a terrible time with writing and the pressure to write correctly, and by the time she was 8 gripped the pencil so hard out of anxiety that she tore through the paper. My boys also have had fine-motor issues, and writing fluently came very, very slowly for them both. I expected very little for a long, long time. At this stage, my oldest is a college sophomore and doing well; my first son is a 9th grader; both of them write not beautifully, but legibly enough, and at great length. My now-10-year-old son is finally starting to stretch out more in terms of his physical, mechanical ability to produce longer pieces of written work. My 9-year-old daughter has had far less trouble with fine motor skills, but is always in a hurry and dashes things off, so my goal with her is always to sloooooow down and do a little bit well, rather than a lot in haste.
I would worry far less about whatever might be expected at grade level and, as Angela says, focus instead on the child's best effort. Charlotte Mason preferred to have children write one perfect A, rather than whole pages of A's, so quality over quantity might be a useful formula right now. For first grade, my MO has been to give small copywork assignments -- no more than 5 minutes a day, whatever the child can write well in that five minutes, with some guidance when a letter is poorly formed (say, writing one good version of that letter at the bottom). And that would be more or less it, depending on the child. By second grade I'd up the copywork somewhat, and by third it's more like ten minutes, and more to write in that ten minutes, as the child can manage it. And so on.
Again, so far, what we have produced here is not beautiful penmanship, but then genetic makeup is really against us. The only handwriting award I ever got in school was when I broke my right arm and had to use my left hand to write -- they gave me a medal for "effort." I guess they thought I hadn't been trying before . . . Anyway, what we end up with is some version of a serviceable, fluent hand, good for exhaustive note-taking and readable letter-writing (and college-entrance-exam essay-writing), and that's more or less been my goal.
Children do lag behind in certain areas at certain stages, and then catch up in great swoops, as their minds and bodies get better and better at working together. Everything Angela says about working orally and saving letter formation for a specific, limited time, makes a world of sense.
Hang in there!
Sally
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: improving handwriting
