What handwriting was I taught? And should I teach it to my dc?

[cottonmama]

As I'm looking through handwriting resources for dd, I'm noticing that my own stroke order for writing is pretty different from every method out there. I like how I form my letters, but I wonder if I ought to teach my dc something more standard or more reserach-based.

 

So, question 1: Does anyone know of a current or past handwriting program that teaches handwriting this way --

 

In general, the letters are formed in a circular fashion; i.e.

• the short line in A goes backwards
  

 

• the letter E is made like a boxy C and then you come back for the middle line and do it backwards

• the letter F is formed in a similar fashion -- an upside down L and then a backwards short line

• the letter G is formed as a C with the short line going backwards

• the middle line in H goes backwards

• both horizontal lines in I go backwards

• the horizontal line in J goes backwards

• the horizontal line in T goes backwards

 

 

To me this all makes sense -- it seems like your pencil does a little less movement this way, and your pencil makes a circular kind of motion whether you are making curvy letters or boxy letters. But apparently it's gone out of fashion. :tongue_smilie:

 

ETA: by backwards I mean right to left

 

And question 2: Is there any reason not to teach my dc letter formation this way?

Edited May 2, 2012 by cottonmama

[blondeviolin]

Is "backwards" from left-to-right or right-to-left?

[Kathryn]

That's the way I write but I don't think I was taught it, it's just easiest for me. Perhaps because I'm left-handed. IDK if it was ever a "method" though.

[nukeswife]

My brother writes like that, but it's because he's left handed.

[Cosmos]

That's the way I write but I don't think I was taught it, it's just easiest for me. Perhaps because I'm left-handed. IDK if it was ever a "method" though.

 

My brother writes like that, but it's because he's left handed.

 

I write like that too, and I'm also left-handed.

[boscopup]

The 'E' and 'F' sound similar to italics, but the backwards lines I've never heard of. Certainly may be your own thing you added in, especially if you're left-handed. ;)

 

The way we write isn't always the way we were taught. My oldest wrote his letters in very weird ways. I saw his teacher teach writing. She taught the normal ball-and-stick method. He just translated it differently (he'd do it correctly while "sky writing", but start at the bottom when writing with a pencil). Incidentally, my oldest has some quirks that my left-handed sister shares and are usually left-handed things, but my son is right-handed. It's like he's a left-handed person in a right-handed body. :lol:

[desertmum]

My brother writes like that, but it's because he's left handed.

 

Me too! As a leftie teaching a rightie I have agonised countless hours about handwriting schemes.

 

Going back to your question about teaching your dc: it all depends. If your children will be going back to ps in the near future it might be an idea to teach them what the local school/state is doing -so they are not made to learn handwriting all over again in a different syle. If you think your dc will be homeschooled for a while you can teach them whatever you think best. By the time the dc are older content, composition and style will be more important than how the short stroke of the letter 'a' is made.

[KirstenH]

That's how I write, and I am also a lefty.

[cottonmama]

Well, it must be a leftie thing, then. I'm a leftie but I went to a traditional magnet elementary school for K-3, and from what I recall it was pretty inflexible about deviating from the way things were "supposed" to be done. I wonder how I got away with a non-standard stroke order?

[Kathryn]

I would expect they let you get away with it as a lefty but wouldn't have let the right-handed students do so. You might be able to ask your parents. My grandfather was a lefty and he remembers his teacher hitting his hand with a ruler and eventually tying his hand behind his back. Then, one day she stopped. He found out years later that one of his brothers (one room schoolhouse) had told their mother and she threatened the teacher if she ever tried to stop him from writing with his left hand again.