Hwot K or 1st grade to start?

[bethben]

I'm trying to decide on Hwot K or 1st. I don't see the reason to start with capital letters since most letters are written in lower case. Is there a good reason to start with K?

 

Beth

[MomatHWTK]

The K book starts with some point and color exercises before introducing the letters. (i.e. A page with stars that asks the child to color each one.) The idea is to work on the grip and control before trying to do lines and curves. I think most programs teach upper case first because they involve more straight lines and large curves, over the smaller detailed work required for lower case. Thus the progression is: Learn to place your pencil or crayon at a specific point and control the motion to color that point, learn to draw large straight lines and curves, learn to draw small curves, shortened lines and connect various sized lines and curves together.

 

 

So, where you start may depend on where your child is physically as far as hand-eye coordination. (I could have used a LOT of point and color as a child. :))

 

Be sure and get at least one of the Teacher's Manual as it will instruct you on how to teach the proper grip, use the catchy phrases and implement other techniques.

[3peasinapod]

It definitely depends on how your child is writing. HWT was designed by an occupational therapist, stressing the fine motor movement development in children. She starts with writing the capital letters because it is more developmentally appropriate for most 5yo's.

[Ellie]

I totally disagree with teaching upper-case letters first. Many's the parent who did that, and then spent *years* trying to teach their dc not to indiscriminately sprinkle upper-case letters throughout their writing.

[Peplophoros]

You might find that you will want the extra practice--we did K in a couple months, then moved to 1st, then did 1st again (in marker over her original pencil) in a year.

[ByGrace3]

I found K to be a wonderful program. First grade was ok, but I wouldn't skip K if it is with a child just learning to form letters. First also moves quickly through the letters assuming it is just practice.

[ssavings]

I totally disagree with teaching upper-case letters first. Many's the parent who did that, and then spent *years* trying to teach their dc not to indiscriminately sprinkle upper-case letters throughout their writing.

 

Ugh, totally in the process of re-training DD5 not to use random capital letters.

[Pamela H in Texas]

The reason is directionality. It is important to understand that HWoT is a program from an OT perspective. It is less of an issue for mature students, older students, typical students, etc. However, those of us with kids with various considerations will find starting with Kindy beneficial in multiple ways. It is like many other things, there reasons outside of learning handwriting to do it.

[Tanikit]

I started my DD with small letters first at age 4.5 and she was fine - the fine motor improved as we went along and I did not use lined paper (in fact she is still not using lined paper though she is learning to put her letters on a single line right now. We are only now teaching capitals. While I understand the reasoning behind teaching capitals first, I didn't want to do it that way - could you maybe get both 1st and K HWOT and teach the letters in the order you like - then you can do the pencil grip exercises first (in K) and jump to first for the small letters and then back to K for the capitals? - I don't know if this would work as I never used the program - maybe someone who has could say if it would work or not.

[MomatHWTK]

The workbooks themselves are very inexpensive, you could get several levels at once and then do what you like. Thinking about it, I almost always ordered several books at a time just to avoid paying shipping each time I wanted a new set.

[MeganW]

I totally disagree with teaching upper-case letters first. Many's the parent who did that, and then spent *years* trying to teach their dc not to indiscriminately sprinkle upper-case letters throughout their writing.

 

My kids have some developmental/learning challenges, but were able to easy integrate the rule "capital letters at the beginning of sentences and proper nouns". But they are 7 years old, maybe b/c we were older than many when learning these things initially?

 

As much as my kids have struggled with the lower case letters, I can't imagine starting with them.

[skeeterbug]

Ugh, totally in the process of re-training DD5 not to use random capital letters.

 

My DS7 still does this! :tongue_smilie:

[Carrie12345]

6 to one, half dozen to the other, lol. Trying to get my 9yo to capitalize first letters and proper nounsis like pulling teeth.

 

I just ordered K for ds, who is completely writing-phobic. He's my first kid to have zero interest in the Magnadoodle. I don't even think he ever ate a crayon as a toddler!

[bethben]

I ask this because I did start ds#2 with the K book and he had trouble making the transition to lower case for most of his letters (he figured it out and now has the opposite problem sometimes - I call him a capital letter phobic). Because of ds #2, I started ds#3 with the 1st grade book and he did fine. Now enter little miss - she has not written ANY letters on a regular basis yet and seems to have issues with "magic C" already (she can't remember which way it's supposed to go). She just started coloring a picture instead of scribbling all over the place and I'm finally starting to figure out which is her dominate hand since she still uses both almost equally well.

 

Beth