How can I get her to write faster?

[Karen in CO]

My 9yo is doing really terrific in everything. really. She's flying through math, remembering her long dictations, has beautiful handwriting and a terrific attitiude. But she takes forever to write anything. Really, forever. I can't believe she remembers her dictation long enough to write it because she takes so long. :) It wasn't so bad last year since she didn't have so much to write, but this year its going to be the end of me.

 

It doesn't bother her. She is one of those that is the last one done with everything. Whether she loves or hates it, she is always last or slow.

 

She is also a perfectionist which explains a lot of her speed issues.

 

Now, please help me to speed up her writing. As an example of her speed, it takes her about an hour to write a dictation from WWE4. Yes, really, and hour. And I have her sit there and do it. She only needs it read to her three times. I forget what it was by time she has it written. There has got to be a better way. I'm not asking about dictation, just speeding up writing.

 

I've tried assigning more if she takes too long - that just adds more and doesn't get faster. I've tried to reward her by cutting things if she is speedy, it doesn't work. I think maybe I just need to increase the amount of writing she does until she is faster, but how do I do that without torturing myself?

 

Can you tell that our writing was hard on me today?

[Hedgehog]

So that it doesn't take so much out of you, how about giving her copywork to do? It might just get better as she gets older, of course. (Which doesn't help much now - sorry!)

 

My oldest dd is similar. I'm not going to stress over it. I believe most things come out alright in the wash. :D

[Storm Bay]

I agree with ditching the dictation & doing narration & copywork. I'd also consider letting her learn how to type with something like Typing Instructor. That way she can learn to type quickly and make it look good with editing. She should still write by hand. Since I have dc who tend

to write messy and quickly, I can say that at least you can read your dd's writing! I have one who is much better now because she likes the page to look good (vs) and my ds writes neatly on occasion, but usually his scrawl looks like it's been written by someone several years younger than he is.

Edited September 8, 2010 by Karin

[robsiew]

Could you record the dictation and let her take as much time as she wants? Or, I would try telling her unless she speeds up you will tell her the dictation and when she's got it in her head she works on her own until she's done. You should not be held hostage!

 

I have a slow writer too (not that slow though) and really, he has improved with time. He's almost 10 and already I can see improvement over last year at this time. He's the last one done all the time too... he's just a slow worker. Bright as can be... just. slow.

 

Bottom line is she will need to speed up over time. You can't take notes at a snail's pace. Maybe you could give her an incentive to shave 5 min. off of her time every couple of days? Let her know that you're switching now from "perfecting" handwriting to writing neatly, yet more speedily. Maybe she could graph her progress even....

[JudoMom]

My 9yo is doing really terrific in everything. really. She's flying through math, remembering her long dictations, has beautiful handwriting and a terrific attitiude. But she takes forever to write anything. Really, forever. I can't believe she remembers her dictation long enough to write it because she takes so long. :) It wasn't so bad last year since she didn't have so much to write, but this year its going to be the end of me.

 

It doesn't bother her. She is one of those that is the last one done with everything. Whether she loves or hates it, she is always last or slow.

 

She is also a perfectionist which explains a lot of her speed issues.

 

Now, please help me to speed up her writing. As an example of her speed, it takes her about an hour to write a dictation from WWE4. Yes, really, and hour. And I have her sit there and do it. She only needs it read to her three times. I forget what it was by time she has it written. There has got to be a better way. I'm not asking about dictation, just speeding up writing.

 

I've tried assigning more if she takes too long - that just adds more and doesn't get faster. I've tried to reward her by cutting things if she is speedy, it doesn't work. I think maybe I just need to increase the amount of writing she does until she is faster, but how do I do that without torturing myself?

 

Can you tell that our writing was hard on me today?

 

Have you looked at Fix It...Write? It is supposed to help with speed (not just legibility).

 

I've got a slow one, too. It's painful.

[Karen in CO]

Have you looked at Fix It...Write? It is supposed to help with speed (not just legibility).

 

I've got a slow one, too. It's painful.

Have you tried Fix it? It looks interesting. I read over their stuff last night then discussed it with her this morning. She agrees that her writing is more like art than anything else. She writes each word as if she were drawing a picture instead of using it as a form of communication. Interesting. She doesn't think there is anything wrong with the speed of her writing. I love that girl, really. Its a good thing her I'm gray already.

 

I am going to give Fix-it a try and maybe also their early program so that I don't accidently create another child that is this slow.

 

Thanks for the other suggestions. We can't go back to copywork - it is just as painfully slow minus me being in the hostage situation with it. I want to fix the speed not just release the hostage. In the meantime, I'm getting her a drafting table and putting it next to my office desk. We'll move her writing to the last thing in the day that they need me for and she can just stay by me until she's done.

[Rosie_0801]

Teach her calligraphy? Make it clear that normal writing is a tool and to be used to achieve a punctual (and punctuated :D ) end, and her calligraphy is her artwork writing. Heck, I'd introduce her to illumination too. I know places where they are valued skills ;) It sounds as though she'd be delighted to have calligraphy and illuminated copywork assigned for busywork when you want her to stay out of mischief so you can go get stuff done.

 

Rosie

[freerange]

Is it that her attention is wandering, or is that an hour of focussed writing? If she's not getting distracted then I'd look into the possibility of dyspraxia. I have 4 family members with dyspraxia, plus I showed definate signs when I was a child. I had painfully slow handwriting when I was younger, always the last to finish copying down notes from the blackboard. My writing speed improved a lot in my teenage years. Neatness was never an issue. Dyspraxia is sometimes thought of as clumsiness, and writing that looks like a drunken spider walked across the page, but that's only one manifestation.

[Karen in CO]

I think it is a combination of wandering attention and the need to make her words look perfect. Last year, we switched to cursive with the misplaced hope that it would improve her speed. I think it actually slowed her down. She's discovered loops. She is the girl that is last to finish dinner, last in art class because she's putting so much detail into everything. Every letter of everyword for her needs to be done just right.

 

I will look at dyspraxia. Thank you.

[SkateLeft]

Teach her calligraphy? Make it clear that normal writing is a tool and to be used to achieve a punctual (and punctuated :D ) end, and her calligraphy is her artwork writing. Heck, I'd introduce her to illumination too. I know places where they are valued skills ;) It sounds as though she'd be delighted to have calligraphy and illuminated copywork assigned for busywork when you want her to stay out of mischief so you can go get stuff done.

 

:iagree:

 

This is totally what worked for my oldest! She LOVES to write, but it's art to her, both in form and quality, so when she was younger she took *forever*! She really had to learn to differentiate from writing as art, and practical writing. Now she has no trouble taking notes or writing timed essays. She's still a perfectionist when it comes to content though, and I occasionally have to remind her to think about what's "good enough" vs. "what's perfect" and when it's appropriate to be just good enough. :)

[Karen in CO]

Does she use her caligraphy style writing in her normal writing or just when she is doing artsy writing?