My
7 year old was having a terrible time with handwriting. He would get so
frustrated every time he had to practice. I had tried handwriting
worksheets. But that was upsetting for both of us. Then I switched to
copywork and that was working a little better, but handwriting time
still wasn’t that great.
Don’t Re-Invent the Wheel
I started thinking back to when I was teaching my oldest to write. And I wondered why those frustrations never came up. Yes, all children are different, but; handwriting really was a non-issue with my eldest. Then I realized that with him there was no “formal” handwriting training. I just started having him write things for me once he showed an interest in it. So, a few months ago I switched to using the five ideas listed below with both my 6 and 7 year old. And everyone is much happier now.
Informal Handwriting in Your Homeschool
1. Have the children write lists for you. For example, you can ask them to write a list of school supplies they need, your grocery list, or a list for Daddy that he’ll need when he goes to the hardware store. They may even come up with lists of their own.
2. Write letters to family members. My children are always excited to write to Grandma and Grandpa, who live in a different state.
3. Send postcards if handwritten letters are too much for your child right now. To help ease my son into informal handwriting, I had him write on a postcard to his grandparents. He only wrote “I love you” and signed his name. But I told him to take his time and do his best work since it was for his grandparents. And he did.
4. Have the children write titles for or label the pictures or artwork that they make. Again, this isn’t a lot of writing but it’s still practice.
5. Give the children “how many words in ____________” activity sheets. For example, in my son’s comic coloring and activity book their is a page that asks how many words can be made from the word “Spider Man”. My son spent a great deal of time coming up with words and writing them down.
I Still Have Standards
My only requirements with this method is that the children hold their pencils correctly and that they must write to the best of their ability. If they don’t know how to spell a word or how to form certain letters correctly then I’ll write it out for them and then have them copy it onto whatever they are working on. I still check all of their writing and have them rewrite letters, if they aren’t formed correctly. But since the children are now writing something fun or useful, the frustration has disappeared.
Serfronya Wallace
The six loves of Serfronya Wallace's life are God, her husband, and her 4 children - whom she homeschools. Serfronya enjoys sharing educational tips and writing about her family's homeschooling journey at Cookie's Domain.
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Don’t Re-Invent the Wheel
I started thinking back to when I was teaching my oldest to write. And I wondered why those frustrations never came up. Yes, all children are different, but; handwriting really was a non-issue with my eldest. Then I realized that with him there was no “formal” handwriting training. I just started having him write things for me once he showed an interest in it. So, a few months ago I switched to using the five ideas listed below with both my 6 and 7 year old. And everyone is much happier now.
Informal Handwriting in Your Homeschool
1. Have the children write lists for you. For example, you can ask them to write a list of school supplies they need, your grocery list, or a list for Daddy that he’ll need when he goes to the hardware store. They may even come up with lists of their own.
2. Write letters to family members. My children are always excited to write to Grandma and Grandpa, who live in a different state.
3. Send postcards if handwritten letters are too much for your child right now. To help ease my son into informal handwriting, I had him write on a postcard to his grandparents. He only wrote “I love you” and signed his name. But I told him to take his time and do his best work since it was for his grandparents. And he did.
4. Have the children write titles for or label the pictures or artwork that they make. Again, this isn’t a lot of writing but it’s still practice.
5. Give the children “how many words in ____________” activity sheets. For example, in my son’s comic coloring and activity book their is a page that asks how many words can be made from the word “Spider Man”. My son spent a great deal of time coming up with words and writing them down.
I Still Have Standards
My only requirements with this method is that the children hold their pencils correctly and that they must write to the best of their ability. If they don’t know how to spell a word or how to form certain letters correctly then I’ll write it out for them and then have them copy it onto whatever they are working on. I still check all of their writing and have them rewrite letters, if they aren’t formed correctly. But since the children are now writing something fun or useful, the frustration has disappeared.
Serfronya Wallace
The six loves of Serfronya Wallace's life are God, her husband, and her 4 children - whom she homeschools. Serfronya enjoys sharing educational tips and writing about her family's homeschooling journey at Cookie's Domain.
2 comments:
Great advice--thanks for this post.
Those are some great tips! :) My boys, ages 7 and 12, both hate handwriting. We are computer junkies here and since they have both had a computer since before they could hold a crayon, they are much more comfortable typing something rather than writing it, lol.
We really made progress with the "describe the picture they drew" thing. I found some great journals (at Walmart I think) where the top half of the page was blank, for drawing, and the bottom half of the page was lined, for writing. That was great for them and we had a rule where you had to draw something different each day and you had to write at least one sentence about it. Granted, there were days when I got "It's an apple," lol, but it was successful for a time. :D
Again, great advice. Thanks for sharing!
Katie
Mom to a 7 year old boy who would rather eat brussel sprouts (Ack!) and take a bath (Gasp!), than do handwriting worksheets.
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