Learning to write letters

[Caprice]

I have a very letter-interested 3-year-old. For now, I'm just showing her how to form each letter the way I do myself, when she asks me, so she can write her name or make cards or that kind of thing. I'm not in any hurry to get her to write. Just following her interest.

However. She has two homeschooling older brothers who used Handwriting Without Tears and their handwriting is atrocious. So I'd like to do better this time around.

What's your favorite handwriting program? How early did you start to use it? I'm looking for a method that will result in nicer, more fluid handwriting in the long run - I'm not in any hurry to 'school' such a little person. Honestly, I love those crooked little letters with all my heart (but slightly less when it's my ten-year-old still writing that way, lol.)

[Rosie_0801]

I'm not sure it matters what program you use to teach handwriting, though if the kids have dysgraphia, joining letters is usually better.

[sweet2ndchance]

I gave up on handwriting curriculum a long time ago. I just teach them, as you are doing with your three year old, by showing them how to correctly form letters and then slowly build up to writing their name, then words, then short sentences. Then we just do copywork for practice.

 

Some kids just have atrocious handwriting no matter what you do. Boys seem to be more prone to this than girls but my oldest daughter had horrible handwriting until she was in middle school and started to care about having "pretty handwriting". My younger daughter wanted pretty handwriting from the start and put more effort into it at a younger age. My oldest son eventually had messy but legible handwriting. My second oldest ended up being dysgraphic and types more than he writes now. My younger boys both have decent handwriting for their ages, go figure.  :laugh:  They were all taught handwriting, more or less, the same way. My oldest two were my guinea pigs that had to go through several handwriting curriculums before I just started doing my own thing.

[Holly]

My oldest son’s handwriting is greatly improved when he writes in cursive. I think it’s been more of a personality thing for my kids. My oldest DD has beautiful handwriting and I used such a hodgepodge of things with them all.

 

We are currently using Pentime and I really like it. For young ages, we just use ETC for phonics and handwriting.

Edited March 18, 2018 by Holly

[Caprice]

I gave up on handwriting curriculum a long time ago. I just teach them, as you are doing with your three year old, by showing them how to correctly form letters and then slowly build up to writing their name, then words, then short sentences. Then we just do copywork for practice.

 

Some kids just have atrocious handwriting no matter what you do. Boys seem to be more prone to this than girls but my oldest daughter had horrible handwriting until she was in middle school and started to care about having "pretty handwriting". My younger daughter wanted pretty handwriting from the start and put more effort into it at a younger age. My oldest son eventually had messy but legible handwriting. My second oldest ended up being dysgraphic and types more than he writes now. My younger boys both have decent handwriting for their ages, go figure. :laugh: They were all taught handwriting, more or less, the same way. My oldest two were my guinea pigs that had to go through several handwriting curriculums before I just started doing my own thing.

This is encouraging, thank you! Maybe I can let go of some of my guilt about the handwriting and, like many things, chalk it up to natural bent and interest. My teen has pretty much moved on to typing at this point.

 

Ok, I'll just keep on showing her myself for now. And cross my fingers this time, lol.

[Caprice]

My oldest son’s handwriting is greatly improved when he writes in cursive. I think it’s been more of a personality thing for my kids. My oldest DD has beautiful handwriting and I used such a hodgepodge of things with them all.

 

We are currently using Pentime and I really like it. For young ages, we just use ETC for phonics and handwriting.

I might try again with cursive with my ten-year-old. That's a good idea.

 

Thanks for the etc/pentime recs. I'll tuck them in my back pocket for down the road with my little one. I lovd progressive phonics so much, I never even looked at etc.

[Caprice]

I'm not sure it matters what program you use to teach handwriting, though if the kids have dysgraphia, joining letters is usually better.

Interesting! I've never suspected dysgraphia, but good info to have.

[Ellie]

I have a very letter-interested 3-year-old. For now, I'm just showing her how to form each letter the way I do myself, when she asks me, so she can write her name or make cards or that kind of thing. I'm not in any hurry to get her to write. Just following her interest.

However. She has two homeschooling older brothers who used Handwriting Without Tears and their handwriting is atrocious. So I'd like to do better this time around.

What's your favorite handwriting program? How early did you start to use it? I'm looking for a method that will result in nicer, more fluid handwriting in the long run - I'm not in any hurry to 'school' such a little person. Honestly, I love those crooked little letters with all my heart (but slightly less when it's my ten-year-old still writing that way, lol.)

 

There's nothing wrong with helping a little 3yo person learn to write her letters if she's interested. :-) Now is the time to help her to learn not only how to write her letters, but also to write them properly *and* to hold her crayon/pencil properly. It's much easier to do it now than to remediate when she's five or six or seven or even older.

 

The Writing Road to Reading does an excellent job of teaching children how to write properly, even if there's no intention to do Spalding with the children when they're older. You can have her use her finger to write each letter in the air, or in chocolate pudding :-) or wherever, although you would start with circles and straight lines before the actual letters. WRTR teaches lower case letters first, and then upper case as they are needed, along with the rule for upper case letters (at the beginning of someone's name and at the beginning of a sentence). This helps avoid the issue of capital letters written willy nilly, lol.

[Caprice]

(Trying to double quote for the first time: fingers crossed that it works)

 

There's nothing wrong with helping a little 3yo person learn to write her letters if she's interested. :-) Now is the time to help her to learn not only how to write her letters, but also to write them properly *and* to hold her crayon/pencil properly. It's much easier to do it now than to remediate when she's five or six or seven or even older.

What kind of grip do you encourage in a 3 yo? I have always subscribed to the theory that there are developmental stages of pencil grip.

 

Here's an OT's description:

https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/pencil-grasp-development.html#FistedGrasp

 

 

WRTR teaches lower case letters first, and then upper case as they are needed, along with the rule for upper case letters (at the beginning of someone's name and at the beginning of a sentence). This helps avoid the issue of capital letters written willy nilly, lol.

Interesting! I can see how that would make sense since we use lowercase so much more frequently. I've never looked at WRTR. I'll take a look, thanks for the recommendation.

[Ellie]

A three-year-old can learn to hold her pencil properly. And yes, there is a "proper." :-) You know what that is, I'm sure. :-) It is much easier to help a child learn to hold her pencil (and also her eating implements, because it's basically the same grip) from the beginning than to try to remediate when she's five or six. Improper hand shape can cause the children not only to have a more difficult time learning to write but can cause fatigue and even pain. I think you can gently teach the tripod hand shape from the beginning.