How long would you be comfortable delaying handwriting?

[ondreeuh]

My nearly-5 year old isn't interested in writing. It even takes a fair bit of cajoling to get him to color. I have the materials to teach him letter formation (PAL Writing - he already knows all the letter stories from PAL Reading) but even when he uses chalk or a dry erase marker, he's just not interested in even trying to be accurate. Despite my best efforts to only capitalize the first letter of his name, he writes it in all caps and that is really ALL the writing he does. He has finally started to draw, but he only does it when he's being silly (like when the directions say to draw a hat, he will draw a robot and then finally draw a hat on the robot when I plead with him LOL.

 

He can play with Play-Doh and Legos fine and can cut & paste, so I don't think it's due to muscle weakness, just interest. So far we've only really tried letters a, o, c, g, and d and it was a bust. I tried shaving cream a while ago and he just wanted to play. I don't have a problem delaying handwriting for a while, but I'm not sure how long to let it go. At some point he needs to practice in order to make progress, kwim?

[zaichiki]

For *our* family I would be okay with delaying beginning handwriting instruction until 6.5. If one of my kids shows interest in learning cursive, no matter the age, then we start with that, even if it comes *before* learning manuscript/print. Strike when the iron is hot (and try to wait until it's at least warm). : )

[happyhomemaker]

I would expect some formal writing practice around the time dc would go to ps K. For both of my dc, that was around 5.5 yrs old.

[boscopup]

So your child won't be K until next year? I'd be ok waiting until he's supposed to be K.

 

My oldest couldn't write anything but his name (in all caps) before age 5.

 

It's normal to mix lower and upper case at age 5. In my son's private school, they didn't worry about that until first grade. My current K'er who just turned 6 still puts some capital letters in his name. Capital letters are easier to write. I've only formally taught lowercase and he still prefers uppercase. I'm not concerned. Next year, I'll enforce proper capitalization. This year, we're learning letter formation.

 

Do a lot of pre-writing activities. Sky write, write in salt/sand/shaving cream. Make playdoh letters, etc.

[ByGrace3]

I expect formal handwriting instruction to start in K. My ds struggles some in this area, but we have kept it super slow and he is making steady progress. That is my expectation at this age.

 

We love HWOT and all the manipulatives, it really helps.

 

For now, I would stick to pre writing activities and not make it a battle. You don't want him to hate to write try to keep it fun...

[Χά�ων]

I am a fan of waiting.

 

DS is 8 and just started cursive and his handwriting is almost as nice as mine by the second day of learning a letter. The first day we write on a dry erase board to learn how to form the shapes and the second day he writes the letters on paper and the 3rd he practices joining them and writes words. I did have to explain and teach him to slow down that proper formation was more important than speed. He was doing handwriting right after he does his timed tests in math and simply rearranging subjects made a huge difference.

 

He learned to print when he was 4 and he is really slow and it is barely readable.

[DoppeltGemoppelt]

I think that learning to write later is actually better for penmanship and is also a lot faster once you get there. At age 7 or 8 most children can draw great pictures, this is when writing is easiest to learn for them.

I also never made my boys color "in the lines", they just preferred to draw their pictures on plain white paper. One twin tought himself to write all capital letters before kindergarten, I never made him! The other one now is picking up everything at once it seems, and he really enjoys the process of writing his own stories. His handwriting is also much neater! I always promoted early reading, but with writing I feel that waiting longer will be more beneficial.

[Clear Creek]

None of mine were ready to start handwriting until the age of 6, and I didn't consider that delayed at all, but developmentally appropriate. My kids worked on their fine motor skills before that, but trying to teach them correct penmanship would have been an exercise in futility. Their lines still wavered and wandered and it would have frustrated and tired them to try to copy a straight line when they were unable to. It didn't harm the older two; they have beautiful handwriting which always gets compliments, and I expect the youngest will turn out the same (he is a couple months shy of his sixth birthday).

[ondreeuh]

Yes, he's not officially in K until next year. However, we are doing some K-level stuff, and some of it asks him to write. I've been avoiding the stuff I have that requires writing, but he is moving past it developmentally and now I feel like I'm wasting it (like ETC). If he would just try writing (I don't care how big or wobbly the letters are) then we could use more of PAL writing, but now I have it on hold as we can't get past lesson 1. I did order letter tiles so he can "write" with those, and he types a little on the iPad. Maybe I will cut some sandpaper letters. Even if he doesn't want to physically write with a pencil, we can work on letter formation so that is cemented from the start.

[justLisa]

My 8 year old still writes captial G in everything. He said he likes the way it looks *sigh.*

 

DD wanted to write when she was 3-4 so I taught her with HWOT.

 

DS was between 4 and 5 when he started having an interest on his own so that's when we did it. At 4 I wouldn't push it. What about finger painting or markers on a dry erase board?

[natjen05]

I would suggest just using letter tiles. Writing is too important till later on like others were saying. Letter tiles will show that he recognizes. Don't push it because it may turn him off of learning. :)

 

Boys are made to be active more than girls. So they tend to like active learning. So instead of sitting, maybe he will "booty write". Its where you write the letter with your bottom. My kids loved it when I taught Kindergarten in the ps. So there is another idea to try but I wouldn't worry about actually writing and stuff at this point. :)

[boscopup]

Yes, he's not officially in K until next year. However, we are doing some K-level stuff, and some of it asks him to write.

 

If you go over to the Accelerated Learner forum, you'll see all kinds of threads on this - it's called asynchrony over there. It's VERY common for boys especially to be ready to learn things like reading, math, etc. while not being ready to learn to write. You just adapt the curriculum to fit your child, rather than trying to squeeze the child into the curriculum. My oldest is multiple years ahead in most subjects, especially reading and math (he was reading at a mid-second grade level when he started K at just past 5 years old, while not able to write more than his name). I give him input to match where he is, and I expect output to match his age level. So while he can read an adult book on World War II and enjoy it, I won't be making him write research papers on it. ;)

 

When he was younger, I sometimes scribed for him if something was too much writing. It's really not a big deal. DS2 does ETC sometimes, and I scribe for him. The child does not have to write things just because the curriculum says to. I control the amount of writing. DS2 was doing K level stuff at 4 also, but the only writing he did was a little bit in math, and thankfully K level math didn't require him to write much (Singapore EM K). I waited until this school year (officially K) to start handwriting, and it's going well - we finished lowercase manuscript and started learning cursive, because he wants to do that. His math is first grade level, but he's usually able to keep up with the writing, as Singapore doesn't have a gazillion problems. If there is an unusual amount of problems, I will scribe some for him. I know his limit. His reading program is completely oral. I do add in WRTR for handwriting/reading combined, but his main reading program is oral, so he can get ahead there while we wait for the handwriting to catch up.

 

My oldest finally started to be more willing to write at age 8. It's been a gradual increase since age 5, and now he can write a whole paragraph in one sitting. He still doesn't LIKE it, but he can do it. ;) At age 6, I wasn't sure this would ever happen. :D

[sbgrace]

I waited until 1st grade. Even then we were slow and I didn't worry about it. I've noticed a huge change around age 8 here in terms of handwriting. It wasn't because of concerted effort here either. I think it was purely developmental. I don't see any problem delaying that long if there aren't signs of fine motor issues that need addressed. At your son's age I wouldn't, and didn't, push it at all. You can write for him if you're using materials where he needs to record an answer. That way the lack of writing won't get in the way of progressing in other, more interesting for him, subjects.

[Wheres Toto]

I still do a lot of the writing for my son. Everything except his actual handwriting (HWT). When he started ETC, I didn't have him do any of the pages where he would need to write out the words, he could X or circle the correct word on the other pages but even those I sometimes wrote for him.

 

My dd is just like your son, she doesn't even like to color and even just writing her name was a struggle. I bought the capital letter pieces from HWT and the Pre-K book has a lot of activities that are pre-writing. We gradually did small bits of writing but she still will only do maybe one page from the book each day and will not color any of the pictures. She does LOVE the lined chalkboard and the little sponges to do the Wet/Dry/Try stuff.

[RootAnn]

I would suggest just using letter tiles. ... Letter tiles will show that he recognizes. Don't push it because it may turn him off of learning. :)

 

You just adapt the curriculum to fit your child, rather than trying to squeeze the child into the curriculum.

 

 

:iagree: We do handwriting starting 2nd semester K year. However, if the child is interested and starting to write on their own, I'll show them the proper way to hold a pencil/writing utensil and form what letters they want so they don't fall into bad habits.

 

My oldest BOY is five and not interested in learning to form letters. (He loves to make numbers, however.) He's not doing K-level anything yet, so no hurry for us.

[boscopup]

My oldest BOY is five and not interested in learning to form letters. (He loves to make numbers, however.) He's not doing K-level anything yet, so no hurry for us.

 

My boys have all had an easier time with numbers than letters.

[Doodle]

Yes, he's not officially in K until next year. However, we are doing some K-level stuff, and some of it asks him to write. I've been avoiding the stuff I have that requires writing, but he is moving past it developmentally and now I feel like I'm wasting it (like ETC)...

 

Doodle started using K level materials at age 4 (including ETC). I only had him write when we were doing his HWT books. For everything else, I acted as his scribe or the material was oral only. I did this through kindergarten, much of 1st and less in 2nd.

[MerryAtHope]

So your child won't be K until next year? I'd be ok waiting until he's supposed to be K.

 

My oldest couldn't write anything but his name (in all caps) before age 5.

 

It's normal to mix lower and upper case at age 5. In my son's private school, they didn't worry about that until first grade. My current K'er who just turned 6 still puts some capital letters in his name. Capital letters are easier to write. I've only formally taught lowercase and he still prefers uppercase. I'm not concerned. Next year, I'll enforce proper capitalization. This year, we're learning letter formation.

 

Do a lot of pre-writing activities. Sky write, write in salt/sand/shaving cream. Make playdoh letters, etc.

 

 

I agree, wait until K, and work on pre-writing activities. If he wants to play, that's ok too. I think that's part of the process. You can say, "we'll practice making a letter 3 times, and then you can play," to set up an expectation of what he is to do that lets him know play time is coming. Have fun! Merry :-)

[Peregrine]

My 5yo just started tolerating writing over the last year. He's just now starting to like it. We found the Kumon "tracing" book to be helpful. It's not tracing as I thought of it (tracing paper, etc) but connecting lines and easy mazes. I would recommend that as a way to get the pencil moving. Limit it to 1 page a day and you may find he looks forward to it.

[Guest]

Yeah, before my dd turned 5, she wanted nothing to do with pencil and paper. When she officially started Kindergarten (5yrs, 4mos) we started a single worksheet. She is now finished with that book (A Reason for Handwriting K) and she is fine writing; she is now 5 yrs. 9mos. Just a little bit of time can make a big difference in readiness skills at this age.

[txmommyofboys]

I wouldn't be concerned until about 7. All of my kids learned years before that but I don't pressure perfection in writing still for the younger 2 (6 & 4) I am *very* relaxed when it comes to ages and stages though :D

[birchbark]

I like Smithhand's approach to this question. They also are for waiting. We will not even attempt a writing program with my 2nd DS until next year (1st grade) at the earliest.

[go_go_gadget]

For a child not writing at all, I would possibly be okay with waiting until 6 or 7, but if a child made any attempt at writing, I would insist on doing it properly. I don't want to remediate.

[LEK]

I started our K year doing handwriting but it was not going well, she was getting all hung up on perfection, phonics, spelling... all i wanted was her to learn letter formation etc. We dropped it and will be starting again in Jan for 1st now she has all those other things sorted.

[BearWallowSchool]

I'd be fine with waiting until 1st grade.