What do you do when both you and your child hate handwriting as a subject?

[pitterpatter]

We started out with HWT, which was great until we got to the grade 1 book and those double lines became a curse. We switched to Zaner-Bloser 1, which was enjoyable enough, except that their danged high-gloss paper became a frustration. So, I ended up copying the content from HWT 1 into ZB's free online worksheet maker. This has been going better, but DD immediately starts yawning and glazing over when I pull out handwriting. She's a happy, alert little student for all other subjects. :tongue_smilie: Anyway, she'll finish up the HWT content soon. Not sure what to do next.

 

I'm all up for copywork, but I can't seem to buy into any of the copywork materials I've looked at so far. They all seem rather dull and purposeless.

 

DD actually writes pretty well. She doesn't have a problem writing within other subjects (unless she preceives it as being a lot). Her letter formation is good, but I do still need to remind her sometimes and sit at her side, which I would expect.

 

Anyway, how can I make handwriting more enjoyable for her? What's the bare minimum we can do? What do you do, if you're at the same place?

Edited May 3, 2012 by pitterpatter

[5 Hikers]

Does she color? My ds that hates to write also hated to color. I really believe it has to do with hand flexibility and muscles. Anyways, I make my 11yo son color everyday now. I never made him before and I have seen improvement in his writing and less whining about doing it.

 

Not all subjects are going to be fun. I think you should just tell her that and have her still do it. My ds7 likes the Draw Write Now series though.

[pitterpatter]

She does color and draw. I don't think it's a coordination thing. She plays with itty bitty toys all day long. She can put those teeny shoes and clothes on Polly Pocket dolls and such. And, she can assemble the small age-appropriate Lego sets on her own.

 

Half the problem with handwriting is me. ;) I seem to have a perfection issue with it. She turns five this weekend. So, she's still very wiggling. It's difficult for her to turn off the excitement of school to sit and focus for handwriting. Add in the constant yawning and zoning (during handwriting only), and well, it chips away at my patience. I'm getting better, but I still really have to practice extreme patience some days. I'm looking for something that will make us both happier.

 

I will look into Draw Write Now again. Thanks!

 

 

Does she color? My ds that hates to write also hated to color. I really believe it has to do with hand flexibility and muscles. Anyways, I make my 11yo son color everyday now. I never made him before and I have seen improvement in his writing and less whining about doing it.

 

Not all subjects are going to be fun. I think you should just tell her that and have her still do it. My ds7 likes the Draw Write Now series though.

[MandJsMama]

I don't do handwriting on it's own once the basics are learned. We use WWE and The Arrrow for copywork and I just make sure that they are writing their letters correctly. And then I introduce cursive in grade 3.

 

I think doing a separate handwriting program when they are writing in other aspects of their lives is boring busy-work.

[Tanikit]

My DD (4.5) is actually asking for handwriting now and she has not been as keen on it before - it turns out she likes the copywork I have been giving her especially since we read a short section of the story she is copying out of (WWE style). I would probably try copywork and if you are already making your own worksheets then just choose fun sentences and use those in your worksheets.

 

The other option is to get her to narrate what she would like to write for handwriting (you copy it down and then make a worksheet of it) and then let her do the worksheet - that would put her more in control while still giving her handwriting practice.

 

I am a bit like you with the handwriting and want perfection but my DD is only 4.5 and does NOT have the fine motor control yet so I have had to choose what she is working on and expect improvement in that ONLY - at the moment it is letter formation and word spacing. When she is ready for lines then we will work on that. And in the meantime I make sure I praise a good few times before any criticism as this also helps me note improvements and keeps my DD happier and if I criticised or asked her to work on it the time before then I look for the smallest improvements in what I asked about and praise that too.

[FairProspects]

I back off and do less writing.

 

Ds 2 is at this stage as well, and it is just a development thing. He loves to color with colored pencils, so I know his fine motor is getting worked daily, but he is just not ready to write much yet, especially lowercase letters.

 

There is little point in slamming up against a developmental wall. It usually just results in tears for everyone.

[CMmomma]

Have you seen Queens handwriting books? My dd hated copying the letters a zillion times each like most handwriting but we found that the picture study and actual meaningful sentences helped a bunch.

[justLisa]

Don't use it as a subject. This is what I started doing and I am smackin myself for not thinking of it sooner. For some reason with the workbook it just seems like torture even though it takes them likle 5 minutes. :glare: Pick up the teachers guide to the HWOT print. I just use regular old wide ruled paper, and each kid has a spiral bound notebook. Before we do any copywork or writing, I stand at the white board and pick a group of letters. SUch as, "magic C letters," c, a, o, d, g. They watch me write one, then copy it one or more times, whatever they decide. Then I write a, they copy,and so on. Then the next day I might do i and t. For some reason DS likes to cross or dot, then draw the line.

 

I don't do this every single day, but as many days as I can. It literally takes like 3 minutes and it is SO much easier and more effective. DS actually looked through his book and was proud of himself because he can finally write a nice looking letter "s."

 

Special paper just annoys me. For both my kids, it didn't matter how long they were writing on lined paper, it still took effort transitioning to regular paper. It probably would have been less confusing for them to just start that way. DD only used the lined paper for a short time, is almost 6, and can write on regular wide ruled with no problem. I'm sure some kids benefit from the dashed lines.

 

The reason I like the HWOT program is it teaches catchy phrases like "magic c" and the diving up or down.

[chicagoshannon]

We moved from a reason for handwriting K to A but the lines were too small for A. So I just made my own copy work on the extra paper I had.

 

I have her copy words that contain letters I know she is struggling with. I use a lot of Disney related things (movies and Princesses).

[beaners]

I let my daughter (about the same age) pick out her own sentences from books to copy. Sometimes she copies directly from the book, and sometimes I'll print out or type out a model. I use paper from Donna Young's site. When she gets to pick her own sentences, my biggest problem is keeping her from copying an entire page.

[ByGrace3]

Do you havet the HWOT manipulatives? At that age we did very little pencil to paper handwriting with my dd. HWOT K was perfect for K. She finished first grade in one semester and we just did WWE copy work after that. We will begin cursive in 2nd. We used the wooden latter pieces, the slate, the stamp thing (sorry can't remember the name!) I would not make it an issue if she is not enjoying it. My ds is just not ready for much handwriting at all. He just turned five. We use the HWOT manipulatives, are working on letter formation only. I totally get that some kids are more advanced and even like my dd are more willing to do more earlier, but I have noticed dd will hit a wall with something once in a while when we are working "ahead" and I never want to make it drudgery so we usually back up, reevaluate my expectations and usually try to play games, and make that subject fun again. While I agree that not everything will be all fun all the time, you don't want a 4 or even 5 yhad dreading any subject just yet. There is plenty of time for that! :tongue_smilie:

[ErinE]

If she knows her letters and just needs reminders, get rid of handwriting as a seperate subject. Daily, write down one sentence for her to copy from any subject and call it writing.

 

I'd also second the notion to encourage coloring. Both kids were not enthusiastic writers, but alll year long, we've done some form of mapwork or coloring daily through history, science, or geography. The willingness to write has increased as their coloring skills have improved.

[pitterpatter]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm mulling them over. I really need to work on accepting that it's okay to do less and that I don't really need official curriculum for handwriting. I definitely want to keep working on handwriting daily. I'm really hung up on it being purposeful, though. It needs to be less, quicker, more fun too.

 

Maybe I can tie it to fluency. Maybe we can read the same Bob book or similar short reader three times per week and I can have her choose whatever page of text she would like to copy each of those three days. We start History Odyssey in the fall. So, once or twice a week, she can copy whatever definition they state from a children's dictionary. The other day (or two during the summer), maybe I could just have her copy some fun sentence and allow her to illustrate it afterward. Maybe I can find her some cartoony binder to put it all in. Is that fun? LOL!

[Tracy]

I don't do handwriting on it's own once the basics are learned. We use WWE and The Arrrow for copywork and I just make sure that they are writing their letters correctly. And then I introduce cursive in grade 3.

 

I think doing a separate handwriting program when they are writing in other aspects of their lives is boring busy-work.

 

:iagree: I only used a program to teach dd how to form cursive letters. After that, all her handwriting practice has come from WWE and SWR. I am sure she would stage a rebellion if I had a separate handwriting curriculum.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

We do not use one. I teach as needed. When dd was learning to read and write I formed each letter for her to copy and write into the sounds or words we were working on. For cursive I am doing the same thing. We rewrite the spelling words in cursive. If there is a letter that is forgotten or needs improvement we work on that letter. After going through handwriting curriculums with my boys I decided they were a waste of time, sort of busy work. Working handwriting into the other subjects makes it not seem like drudgery.

[boscopup]

My oldest gets bored with copywork. I finally realized that the problem was that it really wasn't mentally challenging. It was physically challenging (he's pencil phobic) for a while, but once writing got easier, it was just boring. He doesn't have to think to copy. He never makes copy errors.

 

Things that we have done successfully:

 

1) Make a silly/cool version of the copywork - changing it to Star Wars or something. You would obviously insert something your DD loves here. I have a 7 year old boy, so it's all Star Wars all the time. :tongue_smilie:

 

2) Let him pick his own copywork (he even picked a sentence in Magic School Bus that was a bit "weird", and he adjusted the wording to make it sound better :D).

 

3) Use grammar exercises with copying involved. For example, our R&S English book will have them copying sentences and putting in quotes where they go. Or it will have them copy part of the sentence and fill in another part. Or it will have them copy a sentence and replace some words with different words. These are exercises that make him think as he's copying them, and he likes them MUCH better.

 

At your DD's age, I wouldn't be concerned, and I wouldn't worry about lots of copywork. I imagine any writing she does in her regular work is more than enough for a K'er. At my son's private school, the goal at the END of K was to be able to copy a short sentence from the board. Your DD is way ahead of that, so you have a lot of wiggle room. :) I wouldn't make this a battle. She loves school otherwise, so I think you're doing well. :)

[chepyl]

We don't do handwriting.

 

We do dictation sentences with spelling words. I expect his neatest writing on that and math. That is all. Best motivation....we will do two sentences a day of his writing is clean and neat, more if it is sloppy. He HATES to write! He does his best writong when I require less.

 

It is most important to build good habits. Less writing that is neat with out a fight is better for habit building than more writing that you have to hover over to keep neat. If ue makes a letter backwards I just say oops....he erased and does it again. DS has great handwriting and can write on any paper I give him. Lined, unlined, wide or narrow rule.

[MathGirl]

I wouldn't worry about it at all, if she's just turning 5. She's a perfectly normal 4 year old, actually quite advanced for her age in fine motor skills it sounds like to me, and I'd just lay off of it. My dd, who is 6, had trouble with HW too, and I had to FORCE myself to be patient, and looked at my own HW when I was her age, and relaxed about it all. I kept on with some gentle work every day, for K, but didn't push so much she just hated it, which is the way we were headed. Now that she's approaching 1st grade, things are getting better. I also practiced the "do one with your best effort and you can stop" method.

 

I agree with this.

[pitterpatter]

Ok, be honest. What do you think about these? (I have TeacherFileBox and they are both in there.)

 

 

http://www.evan-moor.com/Product.aspx?CurriculumID=26&ClassID=174&SeriesID=70&TitleID=276&EmcID=288

 

 

 

http://www.evan-moor.com/Product.aspx?CurriculumID=26&ClassID=174&SeriesID=139&TitleID=515&EmcID=523

 

My DD really loves books, making books, "writing" stories (she dictates, I write), so I'm wondering whether doing one of these each week might be more interesting for her. I could have her work on one sentence/piece in her best handwriting each day (she can practice problem letters on a different piece of paper) Monday thru Thursday and then she can color and assemble the "book" on Friday.

Edited May 5, 2012 by pitterpatter

[Tracy]

I have older versions of these. They are quite delightful. I haven't used them, though, because I could never get dd to even come up with an original sentence let alone a whole story. I think I will end up using them more with my younger, because he is already making up stories more than his sister.