Handwriting - When do you get stricter?

[nov05mama]

I know this is a fairly broad question, but I wanted to get some general feedback. In another thread, I mentioned that we had set aside ETC for a little bit b/c we had been doing HWT's as well and I worried about it being 'too much' handwriting for my (then) 4.5 year old.

At what point did you (will you) get stricter about handwriting? And how strict are you when it comes to it? (Basically, what are your expectations?)

Do you have them erase and re-write if it's not what you consider 'good'? Or do you accept legible? If so, how long (what age) do you expect more than legible?

I am just wondering what the general consensus is :D TIA!!!

[RachelFlores]

:lurk5:

[Aspasia]

:lurk5:

[Cindyz]

I don't know the "right" answer to this, but I'll answer based on what we are doing. My son started cursive in August at 5 years old. He learned it quick and it looked really nice for a 5 and newly 6 year old. Now that he's been doing it for 6 months, I'm starting to get a little more strict on his handwriting lesson. About 3 times per week, we focus specifically on handwriting and I will go through and circle his best words. Sometimes, if he did a really great job, I will circle entire sentences. Now, I circle less words and only circle them if they really are nice. They can't go above the top line or below the bottom line (unless they are supposed to), lines should be traced back down instead of going off to the side in a messy way, etc. He noticed when I changed and started circling less and now he will ask if he can erase some of them and redo them correctly and if he does them over nicely, I will circle them, and that makes him happy. I really try to keep my focus on what I like about his writing and why I circled the ones that I did. If he asks me why I didn't circle a particular one that he thought I might, I will then tell him why, but only if he asks.

 

If I notice he's having problems with a particular letter, I will just focus on that letter in our next lesson. I will then go through and circle the best ones, explaining why I circled what I did so he knows what I'm looking for.

 

Outside of the actual handwriting lesson, I will only remind him to try to do his neatest, nicest writing, but I do not criticize it at all. I only focus on actual handwriting during the handwriting lesson, but I can see it carrying over to everything else, so for us, this method is working. :D

[gardening momma]

I think I will be strict with dd5 on her grip, hand position and the angle of her pencil (leaning back toward her arm instead of straight up or leaning away as dd7 does). But I won't be strict on the form of her letters yet. Dd7's handwriting looks promising, but I think her grip, hand position (she likes to curve her hand around) and pencil angle makes it more difficult to form the letters correctly. And now that I'm trying to correct all of those, her letters are worse because she has to strengthen different muscles and work against the muscle memory that is already in place.

[Homemama2]

Well, I'm certainly no expert but here is what we do. :001_smile:

We start printing in K and I keep encouraging them to do their 'best'. Slowly their writing improves. But before I let them start cursive I tell them they have to write 'very' neatly. My oldest had the sloppiest printing imaginable...but was REALLY wanting to learn cursive in 2nd grade so this motivated him to improve his printing (which is now beautiful!) My youngest (1st grade) was bugging me about starting cursive and I told him the same thing and now he also has beautiful printing (he'll start cursive next year in 2nd).

However, now my oldest is starting to get sloppy again since cursive isn't new and exciting anymore. So for this last quarter of school I told him if it isn't nicely done he has to recopy it. (Depending on how much he's already written that day I might be more or less strict.) Next year for 4th I plan to make him write everything in cursive neatly (we'll see how that goes!! lol!)

[JennyD]

I have no idea what the correct answer is. FWIW, we started HWT K printing at 4 and I have always been very finicky about proper grip and letter formation. For handwriting practice (as opposed to just writing on his own) I insist that every letter be correctly formed; if not, he erases and does it again.

 

HOWEVER, we do very little practice -- 5 to 10 minutes, tops. Now that we're in the 1st grade book, he often does much less than a full page per lesson -- sometimes just a few words.

 

My thinking here is probably informed by Suzuki music, which we also do -- better to do less but do it perfectly. But really, I'm just making it up as I go along. :001_smile:

[mytwomonkeys]

with my daughter i didn't correct things & i regret it. fortunately when she started cursive it corrected a lot of the issues. with my son, i actually used a a handwriting curriculum (HWT). we started when he was 5 1/2 and in kindergarten (that's when i consider us homeschooling). i gently helped him do things "right" from the beginning. this year, he is in grade 1 & i still sit next to him for writing time and help make sure he has proper grip, letter formation, spacing, etc.

 

ETA - my son no longer uses HWT. he does 2 sentences a day from dictation plus. they are short & i use them for spelling & handwriting.

[Mandy in TN]

There is no correct answer here.

 

My oldest came home in 5th grade, so his handwriting was what it was.

 

My 2nd ds came home in 3rd and formed his letters in all kinds of wierd ways. I thought he was young enough to reteach him correct letter formation, but the only time he formed his letters correctly was when he was doing handwriting without tears and I hovered over him. He is now 17yo. His writing looks fine, but if you are watching him write he tends to start his print letters at the bottom as if he is writing cursive. I obviously gave up.

 

With my 3rd ds I have gone more for speed and correct letter formation rather then neatness. I don't care if his work looks like it could be framed. Due to 2nd ds's odd letter formation, I did work with the little guy on top-to-bottom, left-to-right, but I would rather he come to the answer with speed and accuracy than take the time to make the writing picture perfect.

 

FWIW, I don't let little people use erasers extensively. I have been known to take the eraser. (It makes me crazy when the little kids at Kumon are obsessed with the eraser. I have had some that actually spend more time erasing than completing their work.) I have my son cross a line through an incorrect or illegible answer and keep going. This is in-line with the fact that I am aiming for a correct answer that I can read in the shortest amount of time rather than beautiful handwriting.

 

Like I said there is no correct answer. Do whatever works for you.

HTH-

Mandy

[nov05mama]

Thanks for the feedback so far! :) I don't expect a perfect one-size-fits-all answer, nor do I expect my DS to compare to others...I just wanted, as I stated, a general overview of how many are handling the situation to get a broad look at the subject.

Right now, with my DS, I don't expect it to be 'perfect', I just expect legible and effort to make it so. There are occasions when I ask him to erase and re-write, esp. if he hurriedly wrote the letter/word and it's fairly illegible. The main thing for us, right now, is keeping the amount of handwriting age-appropriate...when we start getting into 'too much' handwriting, it gets less and less legible over time. So that's more the focus that we've been on as of late...quality vs. quantity.