How much writing for a 5 y.o.?

[FairProspects]

We are finishing up our first week, and I love our reading program, except the handwriting part! My DS 5 can write his first name (4 letters) and that is it, and even then sometimes it is illegible and looks like squiggles.

 

So far this week, I have introduced the letters c,o,a,d according to the first 4 of the OG system. We are using big house paper, and the concept is working well for DS, but he is really struggling with writing the letters. He traces them with his finger on a bumpy screen, we find the starting points, etc., he writes in sand so that he knows all the proper formation of the letters, but actually writing them with a crayon on paper is incredibly hard for him. I have ordered the writing claw pencil grip to help teach him proper grip in general, but I am wondering how much writing a 5 y.o. should do?

 

The reading/letter sounding is going so well, I am tempted to just continue that part of the lesson, along with tracing the letters with his finger and in the sand, and just put off official "writing" with pencil and paper until he is 6. Would that be a mistake? Should a 5 y.o. be able to write letters (I'm not even going to begin to think about words or sentences yet:tongue_smilie:)? Why is this such a struggle?

[crl]

My DD's reading and writing abilities have never matched up. She would learn to do all the reading well before her handwriting developed. I would continue with the reading lessons if they are going well and do the handwriting at a separate time when he is ready. You could continue to have him trace the letters as you introduce them just to get the feel of writing, but I don't think I'd require too much actual writing until he is ready for it.

[RahRah]

DS5 here too!

 

He's still a bit shaky with a pencil (or pen) too, but he's getting much much better lately - much more confident than he was a couple of months ago!

 

What I've done is

 

A) buy fatter pencils - this helps his coordination to hold it correctly, the thinner pencils seems to be too thin for him to get a good grip and feel comfortable writing with; also let him use crayons and/or fat markers when he wants to use those as opposed to a pencil.

 

B) lots of various activities on paper, like connect-the-dots (helps build number recognition too), tracing broken line drawings of shapes (shape recognition), animals and other pictures (develop coordination between eyes and hands to keep pencil steady);

 

C) lots of free drawing on blank paper - whatever he wants to draw, even scribbles - it's getting him to use the pencil and/or markers/crayons and hold them correctly;

 

D) this week, I've started our letter writing practice by sitting with him and "practicing" my letters too, on the same type of paper (the type with the guide lines on it) - we tend to do one letter each day, upper and lowercase, and then write three words with that letter in them....so far he likes doing this and today asked when we get to do it - I think me doing it with him makes it something he wants to do. On his page and my page, I write the letters to start, do one set with broken lines and then we both fill in the page repeating the letters again and again until we're done. Same process with the three words for the day.

[In the Rain]

My 5yo does not form letters well. I don't think she is ready, so I'm not worried. I agree that you should not hold back your son's reading because of his writing.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

For my 5yo, I write the letters that I am teaching him with a nice wide highlighter. He traces these with a pencil first, then I give him a dot to start from to try writing his own. For a new letter he usually traces 3-4 before trying them on his own. For review letters, I just give him one to trace. It has worked well so far. HTH

[Cera]

My almost 5 year old learned to write all the letters with a marker on a dry erase board then we moved to paper and pencil. She can now write her name and some words but I am not doing any formal handwriting until at least January because I just don't think she has the small muscle control for it yet.