Jump to content

Menu

How much writing in kindergarten?


ashamama
 Share

Recommended Posts

I was looking for examples of how much writing your kindergarteners do (did?) in day? I am trying to figure out if we should incorporate more writing into our day or if we are doing enough. We have been through handwriting without teas and are working toward more independent writing. My boy is very reluctant to write so getting an idea of what he should be doing is very helpful. Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well with my boys, we did very little writing in K. Pretty much the only writing we did was one sheet a day of letters and about 3 spelling words. We do some FIAR lapbooks, and if they want(Ed) to write some info on their mini-books, they did. If not, I did it for them. My oldest did do writing on his own when he wanted.

 

In 1st grade I added 1 sentence a day copy work, 5 spelling words a day. Again he could write down what he wanted for history/science or I would write for him.

 

Now, in second grade he writes 1-3 sentences of copy work a day. We do 10 spelling words. He gives me a narration for history and/or science and I take one sentence of that for him to write down. I have been very pleased with his writing this year and he is slowly building up stamina.

 

In K we focused more on the mechanics (letter formation, spacing & spelling) than on quantity.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine did a "journal" page everyday. At the beginning they just drew a picture (anything they wanted). As the year progressed we worked together to label the drawings with beginning sounds then progressed to words then short sentences. Both my boys took easily to writing so by the end of K they could write a few sentences about their picture. I took the same strategy in my K classroom and every single kid left writing at least 2 sentences (which were sometimes full stories other times The dog is brown. The dog is big). I moved each along to the next step at their own pace. Some could write a lot early on, some took all year and a lot of hand holding. I never pushed if they weren't ready for the next step. They were allowed to copy from books if needed and a few chose to do that once in awhile. I also provided sentence starters if they needed them (I like to... I saw a...). I'm sure some disagree with that strategy but I saw a lot of success.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ten minutes total, covering dictation, copy work, and letter practice. The rest is through narration, where I write it down for him. Even that is very little.

 

Our goal this year is to simply maintain concentration for ten minutes. I don't want to encourage sloppy work or poor habits. I don't care if the ten minutes is spent on three letters or a whole page, he just needs to work wholeheartedly.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine only does what is required in Sing, Spell, Read, & Write K and his math book. That means writing his first name twice (once in each book), around 15 letters, and roughly 15-20 numbers. Those numbers include both the ones he traces and writes on his own. He's my sixth kindergartener and I am confident this will be adequate preparation for first grade. :)

 

My very efficient writers were ready for simple copywork in K, but only one of my boys were. This little guy may be by the end of the year, but certainly not now.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My ods did:

20 spelling words 4 days per week

About 2-3 short sentences for LA 4 days per week

 

We also did lots of drawing and coloring with colored pencils for history/science, plus the occasional copywork sentence.

For math we used math mammoth 4 days per week and I didn't scribe so that helped build some stamina too.

 

I always tried to alternate fine motor activities with other stuff so as to get frequent practice without fatiguing.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the beginning of his K year, I had mine do a page from a basic workbook (my state requires that I teach a specific style of letter formation) once or twice a week. There was very little benefit to this in terms of developing his handwriting abilities, but it was a gentle introduction to seatwork.

 

I kept strewing activities which built his core and upper body strength, and never ever interrupted his Lego sessions, and it all came together for him very quickly after some months of plodding along. Now he's approaching 6 years of age and the end of K, and writes a little bit each day - either a sentence of copywork, or writing numerals for a mathy activity. DS doesn't draw or colour for fun, so I am fairly intentional about actively facilitating him having a pencil in hand at some point each day. In some ways this is more about me establishing my habits as a homeschooling parent, than about DS actually learning to write. The latter is a beneficial side effect of the former. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This makes me feel much better! If he spends 10 minutes writing, he can get through a lot of writing, but we spend so much time before he puts the pencil to the paper and gets started. Handwriting without tears is too easy for him now, and he can do worksheets that require writing (like filling in the blank etc.) He copies well, but actual writing from his brain to the page is a real struggle. We attempted a journal over the summer and it was a disaster that would result in at least an hour of scream/crying. Writing is the only part that he struggles with. He will sit and focus for reading, math, science, history, etc. He has no patience for writing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just focused on learning the strokes for upper and lower case ABCs, writing on the lines properly, and spacing. Usually on a dry erase flip board that has the letters and strokes printed on 3 wide lines (dotted line in the middle) with space to copy the letters beside it. Sometimes I added one of those letter handwriting pages that you find in generic K age workbooks that sometimes included 3 letter words. For an older Ker or one already comfortable with the letter formation, I would consider 1-2 sentences in Draw.Write.Now. My children were ready for Draw.Write.Now at age 6, so more like 1st grade for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was looking for examples of how much writing your kindergarteners do (did?) in day? I am trying to figure out if we should incorporate more writing into our day or if we are doing enough. We have been through handwriting without teas and are working toward more independent writing. My boy is very reluctant to write so getting an idea of what he should be doing is very helpful. Thanks!

 

I would expect a little 5yo person to be "reluctant to write." At his age, I wouldn't expect more than a little bit of copywork *at most.*

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

He copies well, but actual writing from his brain to the page is a real struggle. We attempted a journal over the summer and it was a disaster that would result in at least an hour of scream/crying.

Hey,

 

I'm no expert, but SWB is, and she tells me this is very normal. I think you'd benefit from her lecture on teaching writing in the elementary grades. You can buy it as an mp3 file from the Peace Hill Press site. It's just a few dollars.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I asked way too much of M, and now I know better.  I just have j do copywork - one short to medium length sentence.  He also does MM 1A and EtC 4, which both require a tiny bit of writing (like a word to go with the answer to a word problem).  I let him skip the writing in EtC if he really doesn't feel like doing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This makes me feel much better! If he spends 10 minutes writing, he can get through a lot of writing, but we spend so much time before he puts the pencil to the paper and gets started. Handwriting without tears is too easy for him now, and he can do worksheets that require writing (like filling in the blank etc.) He copies well, but actual writing from his brain to the page is a real struggle. We attempted a journal over the summer and it was a disaster that would result in at least an hour of scream/crying. Writing is the only part that he struggles with. He will sit and focus for reading, math, science, history, etc. He has no patience for writing.

 

Soooo....

 

The Writing with Ease curriculum does not have them write from brain to page in the first two levels.  I can't tell you about the third, we haven't opened it up yet.  But it specifically *separates* idea-to-sentence from writing-sentence-down, because they are two separate skills.  Putting them both together is actually very challenging for a beginning writer.

 

So in WWE they work on forming ideas into sentences.  And they work on copying sentences.  Halfway through Grade 1, sometimes they tell you a sentence, you write it down, and then they copy it.

 

But I would not even close to expect a kindergartner to be able to write from brain to page!  Some can, and good on them.  But if yours can't, that's normal and expected.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This makes me feel much better! If he spends 10 minutes writing, he can get through a lot of writing, but we spend so much time before he puts the pencil to the paper and gets started. Handwriting without tears is too easy for him now, and he can do worksheets that require writing (like filling in the blank etc.) He copies well, but actual writing from his brain to the page is a real struggle. We attempted a journal over the summer and it was a disaster that would result in at least an hour of scream/crying. Writing is the only part that he struggles with. He will sit and focus for reading, math, science, history, etc. He has no patience for writing.

 

Oh, I don't think mine will be ready for a journal for at least another year!  It's too hard to think about WHAT you want to write as well as HOW you want to write it, and work on the mechanics all at the same time.

 

Most of my K's work borrows from other subjects.  We pick a line from the poem he's memorizing that week or from the story he's reading, something about 4--6 words long with a phoneme he's working on. Last week was 'ow' sounds, and M-Th he copied the sentence I gave him from his poem, Hey Diddle Diddle.  Mon & Tues I gave him the whole sentence.  Weds I dropped two words for him to fill in.  Thurs I gave him the tricky words only (jumped, over), Friday he proudly wrote it all on his own in his 'special' book and drew a matching picture.  This he is capable of.  He can write simple signs or notes, but that is free writing for him.  I don't expect it or judge it or even care if he is.  Our goal is to work toward that in the next two years.

 

 

ETA: writing for math is almost non-existent right now.  We started MEP 1, which requires little more writing than a few strokes or coloring at the moment.  A good portion is done with manipulatives.

 

And flipping back through what we were doing at this time last year (4.5yo), pencils weren't even introduced.  Paintbrushes, tweezers, lots of playdoh, jump rope, baseball, playground time...lots of working the upper muscles without drudging through something he wasn't nearly ready for.  His skills bloomed in the last 6 months, and I credit that just as much to time to mature as I do to a gentle introduction to writing.  5.5yo is a big difference from 4.5yo or even 5yo.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My DD is technically in K this year, but almost 6 years old.  She does very little writing for math.  She usually does a couple pages of her R&S preschool workbooks.  She's making a dictionary of words as they come up in her McGuffey Primer...it's maybe 2-4 words per day.  We also do a small amount of copywork on occasion (in place of the R&S workbook).  

 

I'd say it comes out to no more than 10 minutes of writing per day.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About 3 good sentences daily that referenced an accompanying drawing done by the student using colored pencil.

 

The drawing itself had a purpose (beyond being a writing prompt) in promoting a proper grip combined with (highly encouraged) small movements with the colored pencil that helped build the fine motor skills needed for handwriting.

 

This technique was highly effective in advancing both good handwriting and developing the daily habit of writing of good sentences.

 

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay this is good info. Writing continues to be the thing that breaks us. The HWWOT is too easy/boring and he doesn't want to do it so we were trying to do other ways of writing. The thing is he can do brain - to - page writing.... I saw him do it yesterday. His OT gave him a site word prompt of a word (he picked blue) and then with little to no help he wrote the sentence "I am wearing a blue shirt." I thought it was great and here was a solution. (Previously i would write the sentence that he said and have him copy it.) Then he refused to do the next two sentences (his goal was three) to the point of becoming defiant and then hitting at the end. I am a little lost as what to require of him. I never forced him to color as a toddler, and he ended up with a fine motor delay. After a year of OT he can write beautifully in print and cursive (he asked to work on at home) but he becomes unwilling to write. He seems more willing to write when it is simply a part of something else....for instance writing as apart of math....we use Singapore Math and we're on a sequencing unit and he had to write names of where children were in order and didn't complain. I have a hard time telling what to do with him because he is cognatively advanced, but had (has?) motor issues stemming from a combination of convergence insufficiency and SPD/ADHD. But I don't think the problem is that writing is too hard...it's that it is too "boring." Yesterday after having a meltdown about being asked to write, he found a new pen I had gotten to used for our reading log....one of the pens that an write in multiple colors. He immediately picked it up and wrote a letter to my brother who recently moved out of state for college. "Dear [uncle name], I love you, and I got a new pen! Love, [name & brother's name]" and he added their ages "almost 6 & almost 2." This he wrote without copying and by sounding out the words. I figure a kid who can write that could manage to write as part of their school day. I tried to make writing more interesting by making a book. He came up with a story about his brother and I wrote it down for him. I try having him transfer a sentence a day into the book and then we return to it later and draw a picture. But it was only fun the first couple days. We run into a discrepancy of what he is willing to do and what he is capable of. And I suppose it is frustrating when he refuses to do what he is capable of. Today all he did for writing was a HWWOT page and filled in the days of the week on a puzzle I made for him, and what was required for math pages. I am never certain whether this is enough or not. I have to turn in a portfolio with our year end eval and I am hoping enough of it is in his hand not mine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He's 5.

Honestly, you don't need to stress about what to require.

 

One point: just because he "can" do brain-to-page sometimes does not mean that it is developmentally appropriate to expect it to happen on a consistent basis.  I would suggest, based on the way he responded in the therapist's office, that you should NOT be requiring it yet.  Can he do it?  Sometimes, sure.  SHOULD he do it?  Sure, later, when he's older.  Not now, unless he does it voluntarily.

 

For your year-end eval...is kindergarten mandatory in your area?  It isn't in most, so if it isn't, then *who cares* what's in the portfolio?

Maybe just give him copywork to do, if that works well for him.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's the first month of the year! So far my 5 yr old had traced and copied circles, slanted lines, and made the letters O and C. That's it. She does write numbers a lot in math. But I don't want her copying sentences before she's worked out the proper letter formation. Besides...they are just starting kindy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kinder: we did NAC, and started with maybe a page a day and a total of 10 minutes (ending the year with probably 2 pages and 15 minutes). 

 

Re "boring" : Your son sounds advanced in the area in general so I wouldn't worry too much; a sentence would probably be enough for now.  I think you'd want to play it easy for a while instead of strengthen his resistance to writing by trying to force him.  Just get enough to meet your minimum for eval.  Maybe he doesn't like writing for writing's sake, but wouldn't really mind writing with a purpose (ie within a larger project).

 

Ideas to make it fun/hide that he is writing:

-journaling either things he sees in nature everyday, or favorite part of the day, what he's learned, what he wants to tell dad about at dinner.  

-Writing letters to people for birthdays and holidays, thank you cards.  

- A book of something he's passionate on, like fighter jets, where he has a pic of the fighter jet and can write a sentence on the coolest feature like "It can fly faster than a speeding bullet" (this would require more work from you for finding pictures and formatting to write underneath, and source material for him to learn from).

- If he instigated cursive, maybe a game where you write a sentence in print, he translates to cursive and vice versa.

- If he does memory work, maybe have him make a book of memorized facts that he writes (tricky for longer poems, but at least his address, "There are 50 states", "My dog is a german shepherd," "the blue whale is the largest..." etc).  

- If you have younger sibs around the house, ask him to help you make labels for things to help the younger child learn how to read/names of things.  If no sibs, maybe teach the cat ;)  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks! I will not stress it then. Yes, in my area they evaluate kindergarten. The first year they are required to evaluate is for the school year in which they will be 6 by February. DS turns 6 in Jan so he has to eval this year. So a child his age, but a month or two younger wouldn't have to be evaluated until the following school year. But they are very non-specific about what they expect except that they expect a portfolio with daily schedule of what we did each day and what we read each day. Nothing about what they expect a child to be capable of by the end of the year. Since he has been in OT so long and they have drilled his letter formation, letter sizing, and word spacing there is nothing really left there to work with him on. I don't want it to seem like he isn't writing, but I don't want him to burn out and shut down when it comes to writing. I think I found something better. I set up our school days so that we did the important things first (writing, reading, math) and then fun subjects after (history, science, language, etc,...not all in one day). But I think he looks at the writing at the beginning of the day and thinks he has to do this and everything else that day. I think if we try doing writing last he thinks more along the lines of "just this one last thing." After we finished his school day, he was much more receptive to writing something and was laughing while doing it. I am probably stressing more than need be too since we are coming off two bad weeks of everyone having colds and then the air conditioner being broken (so two weeks of kids with poor sleep!) Hopefully things start running smoother as we get down the routine. Thanks for all the advice! I will check out the lecture recommended too!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks! I will not stress it then. Yes, in my area they evaluate kindergarten. The first year they are required to evaluate is for the school year in which they will be 6 by February. DS turns 6 in Jan so he has to eval this year. So a child his age, but a month or two younger wouldn't have to be evaluated until the following school year. But they are very non-specific about what they expect except that they expect a portfolio with daily schedule of what we did each day and what we read each day. Nothing about what they expect a child to be capable of by the end of the year.

If you are in Florida the evaluator just needs to see progress. So that he is writing more/better at the end of the year than in the beginning of the year. That's it. No set amount. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you are in Florida the evaluator just needs to see progress. So that he is writing more/better at the end of the year than in the beginning of the year. That's it. No set amount.

Thanks! That is good to know! It is our first eval year so naturally I am worried about everything being inadequate! Put it together with a strong-willed child and I am nervous. We have done work at home, but this is the first year we have to be accountable and when we have days that he flay out refuses to write I worry that he will always do this. :) We will get past this I am sure. I just want to make sure we set ourselves up for success....to challenge him enough without being too demanding. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let them do other fine motor things they enjoy (play doh, Legos, coloring, mazes, cutting, playing with figures and matchbox cars, etc). Also talk with them, a lot. Ask questions, follow the train of conversation where they lead it. Let all the tasks for writing (penmanship, spelling, grammar, punctuation, original thought, composition) develop independently before asking them to synthesize them all into a writing task.

 

Some kids are ready to write in K (those who are verbal-linguistic, and of them more often it's girls). Some kids are ready to write in 5th grade. It's ok. It's normal. And it's much less stress on a child if you don't force the issue.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you happen to know already who you'll ask to do your evaluation?  You could ask now what sort of things they are looking for in general when they talk to K students.  But the law (I'm in FL, too) just says that the child needs to be making progress commensurate with ability, so work samples from various points during the year should indicate progress, like ktgrok said.  

 

Also, if he's writing outside of Official School Stuff, you can take pictures of what he writes and keep track of those.  It's still his writing, right?  Introduce more formal stuff as time goes by, and there's your evidence of progress.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If it makes you feel any better, when I grew up in NL they didn't even want us to write *anything* until 1st grade. No letters, not our names, preferably nothing at all, so that in 1st grade we all could learn perfect cursive at the same time. The teachers would tell parents that having younger kids write (print or cursive) would lead to bad handwriting later on. So, I couldn't even write my name until I was 6yo and in 1st grade. I don't know whether it really matters at what age kids learn to write, but Dutch kids' writing skills are probably better than American kids' by the time they finish elementary school (likewise, we didn't do addition/subtraction until 1st grade, but then started multiplication in 2nd grade - there's no reason why you'd have to spend 3 years (K, 1st, and 2nd grade) just on addition and subtraction).

 

So, YMMV, and all that, but I'd try to go more or less with the flow wrt a 5yo and writing. A lot of the fine motor skills and pencil grip can be practiced by drawing as well, and doing lots of rhyming and other language games help with phonics which will help with writing/spelling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My 7 year old is really just starting to write more this year. In the past it was mostly handwriting. He has been pretty reluctant the past few years, so I'm happy that he had more time to mature. I picked up a set of 3 workbooks at Costcothat he loves; Star Wars writing, reading and math. Star Wars writing was a huge hit today :-D

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For what it's worth, my charter homeschool charter recommends letter writing at the beginning of the year progressing to simple words and maybe short sentences by the end of kindergarten. They also recommend dictating sentences to the parent, with the parent as a scribe. When I helped in my son's kindergarten class, the teacher would have students dictate sentences to me. I would write their sentences in a yellow highlighter on handwriting paper and then the student would take their paper and trace over the highlighter with pencil. They would then illustrate their sentence. Advanced students would write their own sight words, and I would write the words they didn't know how to spell. The sentence I wrote the most often in yellow highlighter was: I like my family.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I never forced him to color and now he has a fine motor delay."

 

I strongly suspect that children who don't like to color (who have to be forced) are those who have the most difficulty doing it. I doubt your lack of forcing caused him to be a child who is not the coloring type.

 

I also believe that children who play with small Lego, build with sticks, and do other non-paper activities can build fine motor skills. Recorder is a good instrument for fine motor skills.

 

I am sorry to hear that Florida requires you to meet this unrealistic standard. To me a kindergartener who can write a whole sentence should never be considered behind. Neither of my kids could write a sentence at that age. Girls, great motor skills, at 6.5 both at grade level reading in two languages ( we do informal phonics and read aloud a but no program until PS) , and the older one at eight is now way ahead, near HS level reading.

 

Not all kids are ready at five or six.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My twins were not ready for much writing at all in Kindergarten.  We did one HWOT book that was very basic and nothing more.  Now that we're starting 1st grade, they are writing a bit more.  We've been doing First Grade since July, and I've only pulled out a handwriting book a dozen times - and I don't like it for them so I'm on the hunt for an alternative.  I've also decided they aren't ready for WWE, although we are doing FLL with the writing pieces occasionally.  We're slowly getting there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the replies! Since posting this we have ironed out some issues. We moved writing from the first seat work activity to the last. Silly me thought that doing it earlier would maximize his energy and brain power for the task. But then I suppose it seems like it is "too much" with the rest of the school day looming over him. For him the task is much easier when it is the last task of our day and he knows when it's over he gets his reward (what ever game he has picked out for us to play). We use a visual for keeping track so he can see it easily. His OT suggested it wasn't the writing itself that he was struggling with, but the structure. He has ADHD and has trouble keeping his mind on a task. So he would begin to wonder about margins and spacing and capitals and other things, so we are switching from the notebook paper to a more visual format with writing prompts. He was writing at a second grade level, so we had been giving him less visual work. We also added an emotional element to our day and stepped up our mindfulness practice. Part of the reason for keeping him writing so much is that he has a convergence insufficiency and doing something like progressing left to write accross a page is something he needs to work on to keep his eyes strong when dealing with tasks like crossing the midline (you can see in his writing where he has trouble with that.) And they have assured me if we d I not keep up with his eye exercises they will get worse again. And he has come so far we don't want that to happen. But we have been getting through the writing without any further frustrations so that is good.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks! That is good to know! It is our first evalyear so naturally I am worried about everything being inadequate! Put it together with a strong-willed child and I am nervous. We have done work at home, but this is the first year we have to be accountable and when we have days that he flay out refuses to write I worry that he will always do this. :) We will get past this I am sure. I just want to make sure we set ourselves up for success....to challenge him enough without being too demanding. :)

 

He's developmentally not expected to be writing at all, more than just learning letter formation, so I think not wanting to do it some days is normal. Beyond normal, if there is such thing. 

 

and if it helps, one year I brought a publix plastic bag with some random work samples in it, and it was fine. Do NOT stress over the evaluation. Seriously, I've never ever heard of someone NOT getting the "progressing commensurate with ability" letter. Ever. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am sorry to hear that Florida requires you to meet this unrealistic standard.

 

To be clear, there is no standard in Florida they have to meet. They just need to have shown "progress commensurate with ability". If all they are able to do is write letters, that's fine. It's just to show that you aren't stifling them, or refusing to educate them, basically. Beyond that, no standards they have to meet, at all. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be clear, there is no standard in Florida they have to meet. They just need to have shown "progress commensurate with ability". If all they are able to do is write letters, that's fine. It's just to show that you aren't stifling them, or refusing to educate them, basically. Beyond that, no standards they have to meet, at all.

That's good to hear.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be clear, there is no standard in Florida they have to meet. They just need to have shown "progress commensurate with ability". If all they are able to do is write letters, that's fine. It's just to show that you aren't stifling them, or refusing to educate them, basically. Beyond that, no standards they have to meet, at all.

Yes. This is so true. It is the lack of standard that had me wondering because "showing progress" is so vague. How much progress? In what way? The lax standards are great for designing your own cirriculum, not great at letting you know that you've met or surpassed what is expected of that grade level. That said, our subjects have been going swimmingly now! :) Thanks for all the help! We found a smoother system!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I never forced him to color and now he has a fine motor delay."

 

I strongly suspect that children who don't like to color (who have to be forced) are those who have the most difficulty doing it. I doubt your lack of forcing caused him to be a child who is not the coloring type.

 

I also believe that children who play with small Lego, build with sticks, and do other non-paper activities can build fine motor skills. Recorder is a good instrument for fine motor skills.

 

I am sorry to hear that Florida requires you to meet this unrealistic standard. To me a kindergartener who can write a whole sentence should never be considered behind. Neither of my kids could write a sentence at that age. Girls, great motor skills, at 6.5 both at grade level reading in two languages ( we do informal phonics and read aloud a but no program until PS) , and the older one at eight is now way ahead, near HS level reading.

 

Not all kids are ready at five or six.

Yes, this! I was told by 1st grade teacher something along the lines of I should make my child cut and color more and it was my fault she had poor motor skills. :eyeroll: She didn't like to cut and color *because* she had fine motor delays.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes. This is so true. It is the lack of standard that had me wondering because "showing progress" is so vague. How much progress? In what way? The lax standards are great for designing your own cirriculum, not great at letting you know that you've met or surpassed what is expected of that grade level. That said, our subjects have been going swimmingly now! :) Thanks for all the help! We found a smoother system!

 

That's because NOTHING is expected per grade level! Seriously. If your student is working at his own speed at his level, do NOT worry about it. If he can't write a lot yet, then he can't write a lot yet. That's his level. Promise, there is NOTHING to worry about. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't set a daily requirement at all in terms of quantity.  Mine struggles with writing also.  I stop when he's had enough.  We're doing 1 1/2 years of K and we're at the end of it... for a bit of a time map...

 

When we started I had the 1 page per day kind of rule...  but he was reluctant.  He became MUCH less reluctant when I didn't push at all... but suggested.  I will suggest a page or activity (I find changing it around helps) and he has slowly started focusing REALLY well on it.  He'll focus well, and I can tell he's trying.  Then his body language changes and I can see that he's working hard and it's getting harder for him.  Inevitably at some point I can just tell he's done.  I try, try hard, to finish JUST before he is done, as in DONE!  :) 

 

He likes workbooks so after HWT K we went and did Zaner Bloser K... Now we're starting Zaner Bloser 1... I wouldn't if he didn't like workbooks.  I also do a sort of form drawing kindof like Waldorf does.  In my own drastically altered way, that is...

 

We'll read about a story with something in it that I think I can make a stick drawing of... I draw the stick drawing on the board and my kiddo tries to copy it.  I started this as a sort of intro to doing Draw Write Now which we'll move into when we're done with it.  

 

The thing that has helped my kid enjoy, focus and improve writing skills has been to not push writing skills, truthfully.  It's been a long road but he's starting to really focus on execution, going slow, and forming the letters, rather than trying to make this letter page go away as quickly as possible (all the while being tense and uncomfortable)...

 

Any of that help or make any sense at all?  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I attempted to teach my child handwriting. It was fine for several weeks but then it was like he suddenly couldn't form letters at all any more. But then I'll see him write words in his journal and write captions for his sidewalk chalk drawings. It was definitely the structured handwriting format that was the problem even though he never complained about it.

 

So now I'm dropping formal handwriting and trying to sneak in lessons on proper formation, especially of problematic letters, through play. Like maybe we have to cast a spell and we need the lowercase letter e spell, so we write it in the air with our wand a few times, and continue our play. That is much more interesting to him, but I don't know how it will translate to writing on paper yet. At K level I would think its fine to do something like that and then do drawing lessons for actual pencil to paper practice, and only sporadically ask for handwriting practice, like perhaps to sign his name on Christmas cards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have typically only done basic letter formation in K.  And I start K at 5/6 years old, not 4/5.  My youngest is 5 now and only doing a few letters on a whiteboard.  My middle dd only started to do more writing at 7 when her ability to control the pencil suddenly improved.  My eldest started writing sentences at about 6.

 

Writing is physically hard work for small children.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...