When do you push handwriting

[lisamarie]

My DD is 4, so I'm not concerned yet, but she is horrible at handwriting. I started out the year having her do a couple letter writing worksheets a week. She just can't. I tried having her write in rice. Only so-so. She can't figure out how to do curves (S, C, 2, 3, etc). I've helped her many, many times to write the letter S and even immediately after my showing her how to make an S and having it right there as an example for her, she still can't figure out how to make an S and what way it should go.

 

So, do I just keep plugging away and having her practice and eventually it will click? Back off and give her 3-6 months to mature some more and then try again? She knows all her letters and is able to read 3 letter words, she can read numbers into the 100s. So it's not a dyslexic thing I don't think. She is just incapable of making what's in her brain translate to her hand.

[coffeegal]

Does she like to color? Coloring uses the same muscles as handwriting so if you drop handwriting for this year to concentrate on coloring, she'll still develop the strength she needs. K (5 or 6) is soon enough to start working on letters and words. 1st short sentences. 2nd short paragraphs (3-4 sentences). 3rd longer paragraphs. :001_smile:

[justamouse]

cursive or print?

 

4 is pretty young, I would keep her on coloring inside the lines. Yes, I teach cursive right away at about 5, but I don't push it. Coloring, cutting, beading all helps with that fine motor coordination that makes penmanship easier.

 

And, at that age, a few letters perfectly done is much better than a page that tires a little hand out.

 

I honestly think you're pushing too hard already.

[akmyilee]

My 4yo does "skills practice" I don't even ask him to write - he does ask to sometimes, but I don't push it. "skill practice" is fine motor skills he just thinks it is an activity to keep busy while I am working with the olders. Examples would be play dough, light bright, lacing cards, playing with penny's (as in, he and the 2yo dump them on the floor and then they have to put them back in the cup), battleship or mastermind, beads, I can't think of anything else but you get the idea. He is okay with coloring, but I don't really push that either. He is also able to do all the letter sounds and numbers orally, and that is what we practice for now, we do 100EZ lessons with out the writing. My 6yo daughter still has a hard time with directional and curvy letters.

[justLisa]

I always loved the learn to draw books. Try to find things picture based that incorporate straigt, curvy and organic lines. Have you looked in to a pre/k arts class? That would be a great way to gain some control with a pen/marker/pencil etc on paper. I was suprised how our writing improved after starting an hour focused art class per week.

 

ETA: I am not sure if you are using anything formatted....but it really helps to teach like letters. Such as start with c, a, g,d, all which start with a c. Then i, j, l....etc. S is actually a really hard letter to form within the lines

[3lilreds in NC]

I was recently talking with a woman about preschool and pre-handwriting, and she told me that she used to run a preschool and would have kids do lots of activities that involved pinching. She would have a sand table filled with rice or beans, put little items in it, and have them use tweezers to get them out.

 

Another thing I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler is getting large push pins (I found giant ones at AC Moore, I think) and poking holes in paper. Another preschool director I knew when the girls were little told me to do the same thing with push pins on the back of a carpet square. You trace designs on it and have them poke in the holes. Play dough is also supposed to be good for handwriting muscles, as well as doing monkey bars.

 

I'm in the same boat you are, lisamarie. My son is 4, and goes to preschool, but his handwriting is just terrible. We haven't worked on it much at home, but he has a really funky pencil grip. I actually took one of those grips for proper pencil position in, and his teacher has him use it when they use pencils, which isn't often, but at least it helps.

 

My son does not like to color. It would be great if he did, but he doesn't. That's yet another reason on my list why he won't go to kindergarten. :)

[redsquirrel]

4? You have plenty of time. I know some kids who don't become truly fluent with writing until they are 8 or 9. I mean, they can make their letters etc but writing doesn't become physically easy until that time.

 

I wouldn't worry about it one little bit.

[Tress]

My just-turned-5yo dd writes beautifully in cursive *now*, but 6 months ago she wanted it but just could.not.do.it. I would show her how to make a letter, she would copy it, but she would not even *notice* that she was doing it wrong. I put it away and tried it a few months later...nothing. Another three months....and voila, no problem at all. Obviously with some kids it will take longer, not saying that every kid can do it at 5yo, but with a 4yo I would definitely put it away and wait. You have time.

[MissKNG]

When my dd was 4, I just let her work on handwriting when she wanted to. Now she's 5 and would have started K if she were going to ps, so I encourage handwriting more. Next year, I will have to report her so I'm trying to base some stuff on what she would be doing if she were in K at the ps.

[Brooketopia]

Focus on coloring and cutting. My oldest daughter was the same way when she was 4-ish. Lots of people told me not to worry about it. She hated coloring and cutting and lots of people told me not to worry about because "when do you ever run into a 7yo who can't cut or color?"

 

Kindergarten and first grade were like daily visits to the dentist office in regards to penmanship. It literally hurt her hands to write because she hadn't really used those muscles. I'd back off for a couple months, same result. I finally just put my foot down and told her it was going to hurt, but it was important to learn and she was just going to have to do it everyday from there on out. It took about three months of daily complaining before she stopped mentioning that her hands hurt. Ugh.

 

With my second daughter, I started her on the Kumon workbooks when she was 3 and when we started with penmanship this year for K, she had no problems. I'm doing it that way with all my other kids. I hated trying to coerce my eldest every day to actually write some words. It about drove me insane.

[lisamarie]

My disclaimer is that I am not pushing her. I have very low expectations when it comes to what she accomplishes this year. I am doing school with her mostly because she wants to. The only reason I am having her do handwriting at all is because I figured it would help strengthen her hand muscles and would give her some exposure to forming the letters.

 

I am using MFW-K with her so it's just one handwriting sheet a week. She colors, she scribbles, she's just starting to draw pictures that have a very loose form vs. one giant scribble. I'm not looking for lots of letters. I am just looking for 1-2 letters that actually look like letters. She can write her name, but it involves all straight lines. That's about it.

 

Her fine motor skills are seriously lacking in general. We started school 6 weeks ago and she could not cut with scissors. I had to sit her on my lap, hold the paper for her and say "cut on this line." She's now progressed to being able to cut on her own somewhere near the line. Usually.;)

 

I have been giving her things to do to work on her hand muscles--hiding pennies in rice, picking up beans and pennies, play-doh. I forgot about our lacing cards-I will get those out next week. I will just keep on with what we're doing and assume that eventually her fine motor skills will kick in enough for her to learn how to write.

[lea1]

Sounds like you are already doing some good developmental activities with her. You have probably already tried this but I will mention it just in case. My two sons were not that in to coloring until I ordered some wonderful coloring books especially for boys and centered around something they were really into at the time. I have ordered coloring books of cars and trucks when they were in to those and then I found one with knights when they were into those and lately it is Star Wars and Lego stuff. Also, I used to sit down and color with them and I think that helped to get them more interested in it. If she likes audio books or just you reading to her, you might try getting her to color something while you read or play an audio book. Also, she would likely find it easier on the hand to color with markers than with crayons or colored pencils.

 

Of course, if her hand hurts that much, it may take some time of working on the strengthening activities you are already doing before she starts to enjoy coloring at all.

[trlt]

My dd is 4.5 and she can write her letters upper and lower-case and they look like letter but they are not pretty by any means and she doesn't write them on a line or have the sizes of the letters in a word the same. I don't correct her handwriting at all because she just isn't capable of neat handwriting yet. I think that you'll find it gets better as her fine motor skills develop. Just keep doing what your doing, that's what we do too!

[MeganW]

I've helped her many, many times to write the letter S and even immediately after my showing her how to make an S and having it right there as an example for her, she still can't figure out how to make an S and what way it should go.

 

For S, I say "C with a tail!" and for some reason that helps my kiddos get it the right way.

[sewingmama]

My DD is almost 5.5 and still has a lot of trouble forming the curves of some letters. My 4yo can't even hold a pencil properly yet. That age is for strengthening muscles -not learning to write letters perfectly.

 

They have many years of practice ahead of them -don't stress.

 

If my kid was in a preschool and the teacher told me they were a "concern" because he/she couldn't write properly I would take my kid out because the preschool is developmentally inappropriate.

 

That your DD is attempting to write anything means she is developing perfectly along the correct track to eventually learning the skill -she is doing fine :001_smile:

 

I just wanted to add that stickers are great for developing handmuscle co-ordination. Another thing I did for my kids is just set up a free art area with lots of paper, cardboard boxes, sticky tape and scissors. I don't direct them I let them go for it and they spend hours there literally just cutting things up into tiny peices. All my kids have excellent cutting skills just by letting them have free reign to practice - I never bothered with the cut along a line practice - my kids thought it was boring. They would rather just cut things into random shreds and glue them to random peices of paper or boxes LOL.

Edited October 16, 2011 by sewingmama

[rocketgirl]

My 3rd child did all of the same pre writing type, fine motor muscle toys, that her older sisters did when they were tiny, including lots of playdough. She even started public school at an older age than they did. But her handwriting was sooo different than theirs in ps Kindergarten. It was really messy, like she had no control. At a parent teacher conference the teacher didn't mention it, so I brought it up & she replied that handwriting just isn't that important anymore because of technology, etc etc. But it was important to me! Anyway, we are just noticing now into hs 1st grade that her handwriting is so much better. Maybe she just needed time, or maybe her handwriting book (getty dubay italic) works for her, or maybe its hearing us tell her that handwriting "is" important.

 

The first thing that struck me with your concern is that writing an S is so different than writing an L, for example. Having been a former ps Kdg teacher, we always started with straight lines, diagonals came later, and curves....And she will write S's one day, right? I know you don't doubt that, but it is okay if its not time right now. Her brain is busy doing all kinds of other new things.

[texasmama]

cursive or print?

 

4 is pretty young, I would keep her on coloring inside the lines. Yes, I teach cursive right away at about 5, but I don't push it. Coloring, cutting, beading all helps with that fine motor coordination that makes penmanship easier.

 

And, at that age, a few letters perfectly done is much better than a page that tires a little hand out.

 

I honestly think you're pushing too hard already.

 

 

:iagree: Much of this is a fine motor developmental issue. Just like it is not really possible to teach a six month old baby to walk, it is not really possible (or desirable) to teach a child whose fine motor skills are not ready for handwriting to do so. I would wait. There are some "pre handwriting skills" types of books available which focus on a child making circles and drawing lines and such. These are short, easy and fun for kids this age. Anything academic that causes frustration at the age of four should be discontinued. Beading and cutting are two great fine motor activities, but I truly believe that most kids are just wired to develop these skills at a certain age and trying to "force a skill" is counterproductive.