Handwriting boot-camp for 11 year old?

[Lucy in Australia]

Is there a point where you just accept that your child has bad handwriting? This child will be the end of me... He's always struggled with handwriting, but we got it under control last year. I've obviously been letting things go too much, because with the increase in his writing work load this year, he's sacrificing neatness for speed and I'm NOT HAPPY!

 

Is there anything apart from copy work that would help at this stage?

[Jean in Newcastle]

Ds 12 has been going through the "Reason For Handwriting" cursive book. It's set up so that you practice letters and words for 3 days and then copy a verse on the 4th day.

 

Evan- Moor has a secular version where you copy parts of poems or other quotes on the 4th day.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Is he doing cursive or manuscript?

 

If he is doing only manuscript, sometimes it helps to go ahead and teach cursive.

 

If he's already doing cursive (but badly), have you tried Handwriting Without Tears? It was designed by an occupational therapist for students who have writing problems.

 

If you don't want to switch programs, you could still employ the HWT methods. Have your son practice in very short durations, like 5 minutes, once or twice a day. But, watch over him and make sure he going slowly enough to make every stroke as perfect as possible. This sort of concentrated effort can't be sustained for long (hence the short practice sessions), but will build the muscle memory he needs. That muscle memory should start to spill over into his regular writing.

[Peela]

Hi Lucy, Jared is still doing handwriting practice at age 14, and this year he has made remarkable progress and is taking pride in his handwriting. He is even preferring handwriting to typing now. I have just kept him going on it, with occasional breaks, every year, and it never seemed like time to stop since his writing was so hard to read!

This year I couldnt be bothered doing anything fancy (Startwrite, copywork of deep and meaningful literature etc) and just grabbed one of those handwriting books from Woolridges- 6th grade was the highest year they had at the time- he is grade 9, but he is not worried. It does have some good Australian quotes in it. He is slowly working his way through it and his handwriting is going very well. Finally, it is legible and even....almost...beautiful!

[unsinkable]

I don't know the answer but when my son started 9th gr. at a boys school this fall he was so happy to report to me that:

 

"I do not have the worst handwriting in this school!"

[Dmmetler]

You might want to see if there really IS a handwriting boot camp in your area that has an older kids section. This is one of the things HWT pushes for therapists who have had their training, because a lot of times older kids simply have a few small issues that, if they're able to address them, can lead to great improvement before high school where being able to write quickly and read your handwriting is essential (although maybe not so much at home, where you're not taking notes from lectures).

 

It also lets someone else be the "bad guy" and say what you've been saying all along.

[Lucy in Australia]

Thank you so much for the great ideas! Glad to know I'm not the only one in this boat:glare:

I don't know the answer but when my son started 9th gr. at a boys school this fall he was so happy to report to me that:

 

"I do not have the worst handwriting in this school!"

 

This made me laugh - although at this point I'd be happy with even this result :lol:

 

Peela, did you get the WA handwriting book? I've had a look at them and the styles seem to vary between the states. And thanks for giving me hope :)

[Peela]

 

Peela, did you get the WA handwriting book? I've had a look at them and the styles seem to vary between the states. And thanks for giving me hope :)

 

Hi Lucy- we have the Western Australian one with the white cover with aussie animals on it. It is Victorian Cursive which seems to be the official W.A. writing style and the one my kids learned at school. I tried to get them to change over the years but they seem to revert to Victorian Cursive no matter what I do, so I gave up and accepted it eventually.