The Girls' Mom Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 On Monday I get a 4 year old preschooler added to our little homeschool (Yay!!!) My youngest are 12, and they went to PS up until the 3rd grade, so I haven't "taught" little ones before. She is so excited to start "Apryl's school" as she puts it. My girls are excited too. One wants to be a teacher when she grows up, and is looking forward to helping ;) Anyway, I have a question about teaching the alphabet. Is it better to teach lowercase and uppercase separately or together? (I really cannot remember what we/the school did with my girls) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Teach lower case first. Teach upper case when necessary (for proper nouns, for example) and teach the reason for using upper case. People who teach upper case first spend *year* remediating, because children will write upper case/lower case randomly. :glare: And you can teach her correct pencil grip, and how to write circles and lines correctly (circles beginning at 2 on the clock, up to 12, down to 9, etc., lines starting at the top). That will help with writing actual letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Are you talking about handwriting or just in general? In general, both together. We used HWT for handwriting. DD learned to write capitals first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspasia Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 I think Ellie makes a good point. But in the end, I really don't think it matters. Some people teach upper case first because they're easier to write. Maybe they end up remediating a little. I think my dd did do the upper/lower case mix for a little while (definitely not a year), but after they do a little copy work, it's no big deal. I think this is just one of those things where you just do one, and then do the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edeemarie Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Teach lower case first. Teach upper case when necessary (for proper nouns, for example) and teach the reason for using upper case. People who teach upper case first spend *year* remediating, because children will write upper case/lower case randomly. :glare: And you can teach her correct pencil grip, and how to write circles and lines correctly (circles beginning at 2 on the clock, up to 12, down to 9, etc., lines starting at the top). That will help with writing actual letters. :iagree: I have spent that year (probably more!) with this problem. My oldest 2 started writing letters before they were taught and they still add in a random capital sometimes (especially dd6). With my ds3 I am holding him off on writing until he is physically capable of holding a pencil correctly. At that time I will start him with WRTR handwriting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5LittleMonkeys Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Listen to Ellie.;) My two oldest learned how to write upper case first and it was a pain to teach them to only use upper case for proper nouns and at the beginning of a sentence. My next two learned to write lower case first and have no issues with random upper case letters. I suppose it may not be an issue for some dc, but why tempt fate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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