Works for Me Wednesday - Teaching Handwriting

Does your child hold their pencil too low?

Place a piece of masking tape or a band-aid where you want them to grip. Alternatively, purchase soft pencil grips. You can really jazz up the band-aid idea if you have character band-aids. (Snoopy, Little Mermaid...whatever works)

Does your child hold their pencil too high?

1. Try shorter pencils. (Seriously!)

2. Place a piece of masking tape or a band-aid where you want them grip or purchase soft pencil grips.

Does your child consistently fail to make letters touch the top and bottom lines on their paper? Do they have terrible handwriting?

1. Experiment with line sizes. Large lines don't work very well for my family, even in pre-school! I've noticed that handwriting improves greatly if we use a standard third grade line for beginning handwriting. So feel free to experiment. Use different size lines to discover what fits your child best.

2. Outline the top and bottom lines with a hard pressed crayon. The child will feel the line and will know to stop. I learned this tip from Joyce Herzog's book, "Learning in Spite of Labels." Awesome book and applicable whether your child has learning challenges or not!

Does your older child hate to write by hand?

Children who are in fourth grade and up and who do not like to write by hand should be taught typing skills. I have a ten year old who uses the computer for compositions. Then for handwriting practice, I have him copy a paragraph of his composition during the week. (One or two sentences at a time.)

Tips for Toddlers:

1. Teach proper pencil grip with crayons when your child is very young.

2. Teach left to right skills. "Draw five cookies in a row."

3. Encourage fine motor skills. Let your toddler pick up his own small veggies! Use playdough. Sort buttons. Encourage the use of safety scissors and let them cut to their hearts content. All of these seemingly mundane, day to day tasks, help build the precursor skills to better handwriting.

Favorite Handwriting Curriculum: Getty Dubay Italic Series Book A, B and C - After that we simply practice, practice, practice.

Blessings,



©2008 Y.M.F.