My child's printing makes me grumpy.

[plain jane]

There. I said it. :glare:

 

My 7yo *can* have nice printing but very seldom does. :glare: She knows how to form her letters properly- I've watched her- but when it comes to any sort of writing her letters are sloppy. They are misshapen, don't sit on the line, go below the line... and so forth. Her printing looks like chicken scratches- even though I've seen when it doesn't. She simply doesn't care or put any effort into it.

 

In fact, her younger brother who is in K has much nicer printing. :001_huh:

 

I find this really frustrating but I don't know how to remedy this. If I make her do extra copywork, she pouts and scowls and either won't do it or still does a terrible job. I make her redo in her own time but she will drag things out forever. She ends up getting very little done of anything.

 

I am so tired of the daily fight with this one. The thing that really gets me is that she CAN write nicely. Grrrr.

 

I know, I probably just need a :chillpill::chillpill: but I hate that her writing is so messy and ugly. :(

 

I hate that I'm somehow not a good enough mom or teacher or I don't know what to be able to get her to do anything about it either.

 

Sigh.

 

This makes me grumpy and I'm so discouraged. :(

 

 

FWIW, it doesn't matter if she's only written one sentence for the day or 3 paragraphs. It's not the amount of writing. She simply takes no pride in her work. She holds her pencil properly and never complains that it hurts to write. She just doesn't take the care to write properly. Is there anything I can do?

 

I'm really frustrated right now.

[Pegasus]

I'm not above a little bribery. Put a small bowl of M&Ms on the table. For each assignment that she completes neatly, she gets a treat from the bowl.

 

Try not to turn it into a battle of wills. No one wins.

[edeemarie]

I have an 8 year old that is the exact same way! His handwriting is SO much better in cursive, so you might think about trying that (we used Cheerful Cursive). Also, if it gets really bad and I can't even read it, I will make him write it again. My 6 year old has much better handwriting too. Ds8 is left handed, not sure if that makes a difference in the way people write. I keep telling him he is going to have to be a doctor since his handwriting is so sloppy!

[datgh]

My teens used to have really nice handwriting but boy has it digressed as they have grown older.:glare: My daughter is very much like yours. On the flip side both my kids can type really well and are pretty well versed in Microsoft Word. Have you thought about having your dd start learning to type?

[anoncalhan]

I have a messy writer and a neat writer. And I get annoyed with the messy one. So at our house if I can't read it then it is wrong and you have to do it again. You can't do anything until it is done so I can read it. You could try seeing if she would like to give her work to someone but she can only do it if it is nice writing. Or she could earn points to redeem something for so many neatly written assignments.