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MarilynW
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| Posted: April 02 2009 at 3:41pm | IP Logged
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I am thinking of investing in the Phonics Readers for my K/1 little guy, and I know that the handwriting books for K and 1 go along with these. Does anyone recommend them? Would they go well with the readers? I am looking for some workbook type things that he can work on alone when I am busy with the new baby.
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Marilyn
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SeaStar
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| Posted: April 02 2009 at 5:15pm | IP Logged
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I use the CHC phonics and the handwriting books with my ds. Both have gone over very well. He likes the writing books- they are spiral bound at the top and the pages flip up and over. Somehow that is so much fun for him to flip over another page done.
The writing lessons alternate nicely between short and longer, and they do follow the books. I have been happy with them. But to spice things up we now are also doing some work with Draw Write Now. The writing is fine, but learning to draw this way has HUGELY boosted my ds's art confidence. We use Artistic Pursuits, which we all enjoy, but the DWN has shown him that he really can draw nice pictures. He loves it.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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ALmom
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| Posted: April 02 2009 at 11:05pm | IP Logged
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Marilyn:
My one caution with the CHC handwriting books is that the print size and spacing is rather small for the age and the amount of space given for them to write in is inconsistent. Some pages seem almost adequate and others are very tiny. It might not be a big deal for you, but for us it was very disappointing to see.
Otherwise they really are lovely and I wish we could use them.
Janet
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Maryan
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| Posted: April 03 2009 at 7:52am | IP Logged
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I agree with Janet -- especially for boys. I really like them, but I actually switched back to HWT for my K boy and am keeping the K handwriting book for next year.
A child that spends a lot of time on handwriting or is very good with their pincer grip would be fine.
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Maryan
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Lil's Mom
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| Posted: April 03 2009 at 8:35am | IP Logged
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Hi, Marilyn and Janet!
Actually, I think Janet is referring to the old series that CHC no longer sells...the spaces were kind of small. But CHC recognized this, I think, and created a whole new series last year with the line spacing being age appropriate. They are well done.
If you aren't sure whether you are looking at the old or new series, their new books have a full color cover, with a stenographer's spiral binding at the top. It's called Catholic Heritage Handwriting. Hope that helps clear up the confusion.
Lil's Mom
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: April 03 2009 at 12:25pm | IP Logged
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My son loves them (he'll be 5 on Good Friday) and they do go along perfectly with the LSLF. The spacing seems fine, so it does sound like a difference between old/new (I've not seen the old ones for comparison).
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SeaStar
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| Posted: April 03 2009 at 5:09pm | IP Logged
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I agree- we have had no spacing issues at all. In fact, there seems like more than enough room.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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Maryan
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| Posted: April 03 2009 at 6:59pm | IP Logged
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I misread Janet. I thought she was saying that there was not enough space for practice -- meaning that they didn't practice the letter enough.
I have the new version and for my K boy it jumps too fast. To be specific: The first three pages are great. We work on curves and the straight lines needed to make letters.
But then it jumps to Aa and Mm on one sheet. On the next page we write "at" "sat" and "Mass." For Mass, there is just room to write it once. I found that it jumped too quickly and wasn't systematic enough. That said we do not have their readers and were just using this for handwriting.
Week 2, lesson 2 --- we were writing "Stop." I think "s" is a harder letter to begin handwriting.
So that's why I went back to HWOT and saved this for book for the end of the year. It's very short and wouldn't have lasted us a whole year anyway.
If I had pushed him as a preschooler to write all his letters, this would be a good kindergarten book, but as I've had more success with my guys holding off a bit (so they don't get so frustrated), this K handwriting wasn't basic enough for me. 
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Maryan
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Maryan
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| Posted: April 03 2009 at 7:09pm | IP Logged
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Oh... and he couldn't do these pages alone -- well, he did. I showed him the letters, he traced them and then I left him to practice. And then developed some bad habits because there wasn't enough practice for that individual letter because you were writing words. For example, "p" was learned as a word "pot." So he had to write "pot" each time... instead of just "p." But he would forget about the basement, etc by the time he got back to writing "p" again.
So that was part of the reason for the switch. I knew HWOT would devote a whole page to each letter. I could sit and present how to do one letter, watch, and then just let him do it. The only reason that I get workbooks is to occupy someone while I'm working with someone else.
It seems to be popular with several other ladies, but I just thought I'd give you my specifics for why I appreciated a different program for my 5 yo.
Now that we've done, HWOT -- I'm starting to assign pages to him again. But it just didn't work for the start of K. (I don't have CHC plans, so I don't know if that was the intention.) ETA: ANd I should say my 5 yo thinks it's a fun book -- it just wasn't helping him to write correctly from the start. He liked HWOT and is happy to go back to CHC as well.
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
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ALmom
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| Posted: April 03 2009 at 9:56pm | IP Logged
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I originally had the older ones and liked the Catholic flavor, but print size was an issue for us. We went to the handwriting books that Kolbe uses (which now have a Catholic version somewhere, I think) but when another mom here got the new spiral bound handwriting books, I looked at those, too, thinking maybe we could go back to them. The print size was still an issue - not in the first part of the book. If the whole book was like that, we might have been able to swing it. If you flip through it, there are some pages that allow ample space to write and others where the size is rather small. I'm talking the lines themselves being 1" or 2" or whatever from top to bottom. (I use handwriting books labeled K for older children so some of the other things aren't as much issues for me cause I teach letter formation in sand or on the chalkboard first. My K aren't writing or reading). However, I found that I really appreciated the more systematic approach of some of the other programs. Even the Kolbe HW books have a problem with print size in my opinion and I've just decided that I look at letter formation I want to teach, skip the books until they can practice independently and we write on large white paper, on the chalkboard, in sand/cornmeal/kitty litter (clean of course) with the finger, on a white board - even in extra large sized tablets with the lines and dotted middle line. I just cannot use the HW books until 3rd or 4th grade.
Of course if you keep switching programs, you end up confusing children because different programs have slightly different ways to teach the same letter formation - more of an issue in cursive.
Janet
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Sarah M
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| Posted: April 13 2009 at 9:30pm | IP Logged
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Ditto what Maryan said. We were not very happy with CHC's handwriting book (grade 1)- I bought the new one they just came out with this last year. I felt like it moved so quickly that I had to be watching over dd every minute to make sure she wasn't practicing the letters wrong. We've been thrilled with Handwriting Without Tears, though! Both of my dd's love it and ask to do it nearly every day. My oldest dd is a perfectionist, though, and that was probably a big factor in why CHC's book doesn't work for us. In HWOT there is a lot less room for "mistakes", so dd doesn't feel so much pressure. Just my .02!
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Lil's Mom
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| Posted: April 15 2009 at 9:06am | IP Logged
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In looking over CHC's website, if a child hasn't had any formal letter practice, their Letter Practice for Little Folks is the place to start for preK or early kindergarten. That's the first handwriting book that CHC starts with. The kindergarten book would come next. It WOULD move too quickly for a child that handn't started with the preK book, but is age-appropriate for kids who have already been introduced to handwriting books.
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MarilynW
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| Posted: April 16 2009 at 7:39pm | IP Logged
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Thanks everyone. We have them now and my 5 yo ds loves them. They tie in well to the readers. (My ds has done handwriting before - he did HWOT) The spacing is fine and i love the quality of the sheets and the fact that there is only printing on one side.
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Marilyn
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: CHC Heritage Handwriting Series
