handwriting without a curriculum

[NovelMama]

If you teach/taught handwriting without a curriculum, how do/did you do it? What is/was your approach?

[Mom in High Heels]

I recently taught Indy how to write in cursive with no curric. I drew lines on the board like handwriting paper (2 lines with a dashed line) so he could see where the letters should hit, not because we used that kind of paper. My lines were about 2 inches in height with the dashed line at the 1" mark. After I wrote the letter on the lines, I wrote it again, larger with no lines and did small arrows around the letter to show him where to start and what path to take. He would then write the letter in his handwriting book until he got them to look the way they should. It worked really well. Once he had enough letters to start making word, I would write 5 or 6 words on the board for him to write a few times. He's dyslexic, so the letters still confuse him a little, but he's getting better.

 

We have a menu board in our kitchen where I write what we're having for dinner in cursive. He has to figure it out. I've told him if he can't read it, he can't eat it. Trust me, he reads it! This is an easy way to reinforce what he's learned.

 

I should also mention that he learned cursive with a fountain pen, which really helped him have proper penmanship because you have to hold it a certain way and press down with the right amount of pressure or it won't work. In Germany, they have special pens made for children that are slightly fatter than regular fountain pens and have grooves where the fingers should go. Indy's has a smiley face that points up when the pen is in the proper position. He loves that pen! Children in much of Europe, from my understanding, learn to write with fountain pens. The grade level marked on his pen is 2-3, which is about ages 7-9.

[kalanamak]

If you are trying to save money, you could do it with a poster. Consider going to the free template pages at Zaner Bloser.

[nansk]

I taught dd to write in cursive via copywork. First individual letters, then words from her phonics book, and finally sentences from Writing With Ease. We used the Getty-Dubay Italic style.

 

If you want more handholding (without a curriculum), you can print out the free handwriting pages on various sites. I liked the cursive ones on kidszone.us and people here recommend the ones on donnayoung.org.

 

Otherwise, you may consider using the handwriting instructions from The Writing Road To Reading and teaching them on your own.

[boscopup]

Otherwise, you may consider using the handwriting instructions from The Writing Road To Reading and teaching them on your own.

 

This is what I'm doing with DS2. It's going well so far. We introduced the clockface letters first, and now we're onto the rest of the letters. I introduce a new letter each day, practicing some old letters also. We use a $1 white board I got from Target that has primary lines and the Cat in the Hat on it. :D We also sky write, write in a salt box (that I made), etc. We just do whatever he needs.

 

Once I have taught all the letters, we'll start working on 2-letter phonograms, and then we'll work our way up to words, then sentences, etc.

[Hunter]

 

Otherwise, you may consider using the handwriting instructions from The Writing Road To Reading and teaching them on your own.

 

See if your library will loan you a copy of the 6th edition of WRTR. It has the best directions of all the editions. The book is readily available in local bookstores and libraries, unlike most curricula.

[Jess4879]

We use HWT, but I recently stumbled across this and loved that I could make my own tracer sheets, quick and easy! :)

http://www.fontspace.com/kids-fonts/trace

[...................]

Donna Young has free lessons. (I've never used them.)

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

We use spelling words. I teach what needs to be taught, meaning I do not follow any specific order. I wrote dd's words out in script and she copied. If she needed help with a specific letter I show her. Then I wrote them out in print and she copied them in script.

 

Copywork is another way we practice handwriting.

 

I use to buy handwriting curriculums but figured it was wasted time/busy work. Incorporating it in with another subject helps keep it from being tedious.

[SilverMoon]

I've done this with nothing but a writing tablet, highlighter and pen. Quite successfully. For tracing pages write out the new letters with the highlighter pen, and when they're ready to just copy it themselves, write it on their page with the pen.

 

Once my kids could form the letters correctly their daily copywork was their penmanship. I required them to do their copywork in their very best handwriting, and they knew I'd erase sloppy parts for a retry. Two birds with one stone.

 

If older kids fell into a sloppy habit I'd back them up to copywork, but with larger sections. They quickly tired of redoing messy parts and shaped up.

[4peanuts]

 

I should also mention that he learned cursive with a fountain pen, which really helped him have proper penmanship because you have to hold it a certain way and press down with the right amount of pressure or it won't work. In Germany, they have special pens made for children that are slightly fatter than regular fountain pens and have grooves where the fingers should go. Indy's has a smiley face that points up when the pen is in the proper position. He loves that pen! Children in much of Europe, from my understanding, learn to write with fountain pens. The grade level marked on his pen is 2-3, which is about ages 7-9.

 

Can you tell me where you got this pen? I tried to find it by googling--I found some junior fountain pens on http://www.pelikan.com but I can't find anything with a smiley face to help show correct positioning.

[naturally]

Can you tell me where you got this pen?

 

:iagree:

[momof4monkeys]

I've done this with nothing but a writing tablet, highlighter and pen. Quite successfully. For tracing pages write out the new letters with the highlighter pen, and when they're ready to just copy it themselves, write it on their page with the pen.

 

Once my kids could form the letters correctly their daily copywork was their penmanship. I required them to do their copywork in their very best handwriting, and they knew I'd erase sloppy parts for a retry. Two birds with one stone.

 

If older kids fell into a sloppy habit I'd back them up to copywork, but with larger sections. They quickly tired of redoing messy parts and shaped up.

 

I've done this same thing with my boys, usually started when they were 4 but my newest 4 year old started more around 3 just because he wanted to. I'm thinking of using this same method to teach my 7 year old cursive.

[Alte Veste Academy]

If you teach/taught handwriting without a curriculum, how do/did you do it? What is/was your approach?

 

I have taught all three of my kids to write in Zaner-Bloser manuscript using the same write-and-wipe placemat from Wal-Mart. It has numbered arrows, just like all the fancy programs out there. :lol:

 

For cursive, I did buy the Z-B 3rd grade workbooks and the kids have liked them. At $11, it didn't exactly break the bank. :tongue_smilie:

[Mom in High Heels]

I can't find it on a US site. Ours is a Pelikan Griffix, but I bought ours at a local store. Amazon has some from Pelikan that are similar. You can find them here and here. Indy's is closer to the first one. I can only find his at British shops, but you can see it here. The smiley face isn't all that important at his age, but for younger students, I guess it helps. They write really well. I have a regular size, slightly more expensive, Pelikan fountain pen and I love it. Granted I don't write a lot by hand in pen, but when I do, it's lovely.

 

ETA: I've looked and looked and found the Griffix on the pelikan.com site, but it doesn't seem that they sell them. Weird. It is actually step 4 of a learning to write system. They have a wax pencil/crayon for little kids (pre-schoolish), the a pencil, then a pen and finally the fountain pen. Each step pen is the same size with the same grip. I makes a lot of sense of you think about it.

[4peanuts]

Thank you, Mom in High Heels! I just ordered green Pelikano Juniors for my 2 lefties! :)