What did you use that really helped improve handwriting?

[heidip2p]

I have kids of all ages that could use some help with handwriting. Just wondering what you found that really worked?

[EKS]

HWT and watching him every second for about a month to ensure that he was forming the letters correctly (for all written work).

[Xilka]

One thing I did was to stop pushing all the time.

On most assignments, I won't make a fuss over handwriting.

But, there are certain subjects where he does have to focus on handwriting, and if it's messy, he has to do it over.

 

If I tried to do this on all the subjects, we'd spend a lot of time rewriting, and he'd get very frustrated.

I made this mistake last year by trying to get him to write neatly on his creative writing assignments, which became dreaded because of it.

Now, I just let him write, and he's being more creative.

 

As a result of our new method, when the objective is the good handwriting, he focuses more on it, and is showing improvement.

 

He's good at typing, and although I do think handwriting is important, typing is more useful than calligraphy these days.

[Aurelia]

I made DD read back what she wrote. When she realized her handwriting was so bad even she had trouble reading it, she improved markedly.

[Crimson Wife]

For cursive, switching to Memoria Press' New American Cursive and having DD practice 15 minutes each morning tracing the letters on an E-Race Away whiteboard.

[Momof3littles]

I think with some children it is helpful to back up and work on handwriting through fine motor skills. Core strength and stability is also often overlooked when it comes to handwriting and fine motor skills. In order to get fine motor control, you need to be able to stabilize with your larger muscles in your shoulder girdle as well as other core muscles. In children lacking good core strength, sometimes we see poor fine muscle control because they aren't operating from a base of good stability.

 

With kids resistant to writing I think it is sometimes helpful to work on letter formation in other ways like writing in sand with a finger and so forth.

[Jess4879]

We started using HWT this year. I wish I'd been using it from the very beginning with DD8. Her writing has improved so much and she loves doing the practice pages.

[gramlingk]

I agree with EKS. We used HWT religiously with my daughter and her handwriting is very good when she pays attention to it. My son is the younger and we were not as diligent with him since he hated to write early on (and still does sometimes). However, when he is writing, I sit beside him and correct as he goes which seems to help rather than waiting until he has completed the work and pointing out corrections.

[Veritaserum]

The only thing that worked was to watch and enforce proper pencil grip and proper formation of the letters.

[Iucounu]

I made DS6 write everything, instead of scribing anything for him (I would certainly have scribed if he had dysgraphia). I constantly gave critique and encouragement related to his handwriting, checking not only the form of the letters but that he was doing the strokes in the right direciton and order. I made sure he was holding his pencil correctly, and that he had a comfortable set of pencils.

 

DS6 is perfectionistic by nature. This meant that early on there was some intense frustration on his part due to the fact that his letters weren't perfect. One technique that helped was having him practice on a ruled whiteboard; I'd write a silly sentence and he'd copy it. I don't know why this was so attractive to him, but it worked.

 

Another technique was to have him write a series of the same letter or word over and over, and note with a fine critical eye with him which were the best-formed, which were the worst, and why. I also, when working on letter height and spacing had him alternate between using lined paper and unlined, and even found a sheet that had the first half of every line with the dotted half-height line, and the rest of the line without the dotted line; that helped greatly regarding letter heights.

 

One set of worksheets that worked very well for DS6, that was sent home from public school, forced him to write ever-longer sentences for answers in the available space. It was quite clever, and resulted in an immediate improvement.

[Critterfixer]

Not a curriculum, but what I found that helped was patient guidance (attention to the details of stroke and positioning) and daily practice with the goal of beautiful work in mind. In short daily guided penmanship practice. During penmanship we focus on elegance as much as anything else. We might erase and recopy something that was legible simply because it wasn't just right. I will often remind them to slow way down to focus on getting it just right so that it doesn't have to be done again. The rest of the day I am not such a stickler, but during daily penmanship it is almost more of an art lesson than a writing lesson.

 

We use Getty-Dubay, because it is a nice script and because the DH got to pick it as his choice in curriculum. But I used this method with the penmanship I taught in K and first.

[coffeegal]

Pentime Penmanship has workbooks through 8th grade. My 8th and 9th grade sons have good handwriting, and my 6th grade dd's handwriting is coming along nicely.

[desertmum]

I am using laminated practice sheets. I can use them over and over. At this point of the game (my ds is 5yo) practice is needed more than anything else. Also, I am using a pencil grip recommended on this board and it has helped ds' grip a lot.

[lbakos]

HWT.

 

My dd came out of PS in Nov. with terrible handwriting. She started HWT 2 and it's a night and day difference. She is now proud of how well she writes.

[SonshineLearner]

Handwriting Without Tears and watching him form the letters. Making him stop and redo if he wasn't following the formation that he was taught to make. :)

[Hunter]

I hope I am not annoying people with my repetitiveness, but Writing Road to Reading produced amazing results in my handwriting in about 3 hours of practice.

[lakshmi]

HWT and watching him every second for about a month to ensure that he was forming the letters correctly (for all written work).

 

I made DD read back what she wrote. When she realized her handwriting was so bad even she had trouble reading it, she improved markedly.

 

The only thing that worked was to watch and enforce proper pencil grip and proper formation of the letters.

 

:iagree:

 

Basically, I do the above, and the handwriting improves. For all other handwritten work I may comment but do not "grade" handwriting. Only in our handwriting workbooks do I focus on letter formations and size and slant, etc.