Handwriting....for an older child?

[frugalmamatx]

Does something like this exist? I'm looking for handwriting geared towards an older {middle school or high school} student. Someone who CAN write but not very well, and forms letters oddly. Printing, not cursive {yet anyways}. And ideally something printable or low cost. 

 

Any ideas? Everything I'm finding is too childish. 

[MerryAtHope]

Do you need it to actually focus on letter formation, or is it just an opportunity to work on better handwriting? For the latter, there are lots of nice copywork selections out there that work well for handwriting practice. When my dd was in 8th grade we used Our Beautiful America for copywork so she could work on making her handwriting nicer (her desire). (Sometimes she did find some punctuation errors, or I would see one and encourage her to look for it, but overall she enjoyed it.)

 

Any copywork materials or things like collections of famous quotes could work nicely for this. 

 

For individual letter formation--something I used to do was to spend about 5 minutes or so before or after our spelling practice to work on specific letter formation issues. This part is probably better taught in person if the student is junior high or high school--the patterns are so ingrained by then. And then have them practice more on their own too. But I know there are programs for older students and adults... Write Now from Getty-Dubay Italic is one. A few on this search page from Rainbow list that they are up to adult ages--see if any of those would work.

 

 

[City Mouse]

Handwriting a Without Tears has Can do Printing (and Can Do Cursive) that are designed for older students.

[Lori D.]

copy-pasting excerpts from my responses to two older threads on a similar topic:

 

"Can you discern whether it is due to an issue, or due to carelessness?

 

If the second reason, well, frankly, it is hard to make a boy of that age care.  ;) I had two boys who didn't care what their writing looked like. Standing at their shoulders and reminding them to slow down, or forcing them to re-do sloppy work might help. Or not. (lol) A better solution might be to get them typing, and have all papers and writing typed. THEN you can require a specific SHORT penmanship assignment for the purpose of slow, neat practice, and the hand won't be tired out, and the student *knows* that the requirement is neatness. Then you have more of a shot of the student actually slowing down and practicing carefully.

 

If you suspect the poor handwriting is due to an issue, first look into your student's grip on the pencil. Is it a proper easy/natural grip? Or clenched or awkward which quickly tires the hand? Or curled almost all the way around the pencil (which might indicate an LD)? You might look into getting a pencil grip device that can only be held in the proper manner, if that is the case."

 

"Our path with DS#2 with mild LDs... He was willing to do at home the "writing 8s" exercises (Dianne Craft) to help increase brain hemisphere connections..."

 

"...and we did Callirobics daily, and it really did help neaten up his writing by improving fine motor skill/grip. WriteBrain looks to be similar, just with more "hype" to the website.  ;)"

 

 

 

If pencil grip is the program, no personal experience, but you might research the Penagain pencil, and explore the adapted tripod grasp.

 

And here's a helpful past thread: "Remedial handwriting".

[Carrie12345]

Does something like this exist? I'm looking for handwriting geared towards an older {middle school or high school} student. Someone who CAN write but not very well, and forms letters oddly. Printing, not cursive {yet anyways}. And ideally something printable or low cost.

 

Any ideas? Everything I'm finding is too childish.

How open are you to cursive over printing?

My 10yo thinks printing is torture, but he actually asks for cursive practice and brags on his progress.

[PeterPan]

That was about the age we stopped, but more power to you, sure try. What we did before we threw in the towel and stopped was to go through the alphabet and find some compromise, some way of writing each letter that was sustainable and workable. Remember, adults don't typically write exclusively either manuscript or cursive but instead write with a custom, personal MIXTURE. So that's what we made for her. We literally went through every letter and tried to give it personality, easy of formation, and a little speed. We tried to be attentive to the connectors and say ok this letter would be easier to write with this connector and this letter would be easier for her without the connectors.

 

For the record, my dd does *not* have a dysgraphia diagnosis, does have some low tone and mild praxis issues, and it's just always been wonky and a bit hard for her, in spite of OT, in spite of this and that. We could have done more, but again you come to a point where you just stop.

 

The other thing we did as part of that it's time to stop, this is the end, this is our last effort, was to work on her signature. We felt like a nice signature goes a long way toward making someone feel confident, and your signature is something you do frequently. So we really worked on her signature, getting it to some personality, getting it just how she wanted it, and that's what she practiced. After that, we stopped.

 

Edited January 18, 2018 by PeterPan

[goldenecho]

I had bought "Raise the Roof" by Print Path to use with my younger child to help him transition from three lined to single lined paper, but as I was looking through the material I realized that it also reviews letter formation and addresses common writing problems, and so I plan on using it with BOTH my 3rd grader and 7th grader this summer (as my 7th grader just has horrible writing...he's in public school and I actually wanted to address it this year but he's had so much homework this year I didn't feel like adding to it...so summer).

 

Anyways, here's a link to it...

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Handwriting-Practice-3rd-4th-grade-Handwriting-Without-Tears-STYLE-FONT-1423658

 

She uses a font similar to HWT.  It's very similar to ball in stick lettering except for the letters a b d g and q (and all of those but b are covered in a free sample she has from her lowercase curriculum.  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Teach-Handwriting-Explicit-Instruction-FREEHandwriting-Without-Tears-STYLE-FONT-856680  

 

Progressive Phonics.com uses similar lettering is is completely free.  

[birchbark]

Smithhand

[nansk]

If you like the look of Italic handwriting, here are three great-to-good choices:

 

1. Getty-Dubay's Write Now - I used this (and choice #3) to learn Italic several years ago.

 

2. Penny Gardner's Italic

Comes with simple, instructional videos. The title says "Beautiful Handwriting for Children" but it is not at all babyish.

ETA: Cheaper at Currclick.com

 

3. Gunnlaugur Briem's Italic - a free resource that I used to learn Italic handwriting.

Edited January 19, 2018 by nansk

[homemommy83]

Pentime Handwriting goes all the way up to Grade 8 and incorporates copywork every other page.  I am loving this program with my children.  They cost $6!

 

Brenda