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Which handwriting curriculum for the "artsy/creative" 5yr old?


Macmama
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For those of you who have kindergartners who'd rather color, "write" stories and create things than sit in a chair doing repetitive handwriting, what did you use and like best? So far I can't decide between Handwriting without tears, A reason for handwriting, or the zaner blozer curriculum. Any others I should consider that may be better?

 

Thanks!

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My artsy creative five and seven year olds really like the Draw Write Nowseries! Not a handwriting curriculum but I teach handwritting through copy work and there is plenty of good beginning copy work in these books. FWIW I don't have them do all of the copy work per picture, I choose an appropriate amount for their development.

 

 

We like the Draw Write Now series as well; two of my boys have also enjoyed Abeka's handwriting workbooks (print and cursive). Boy number three (very creative-loves to draw, but NOT to write) has done better with Getty Dubay.

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If you are looking for a particularly easy font, I really like BJU's. They developed it themselves. It is a slanted print that leads right into their cursive. If you look inside the book of the 1st grade curriculum, you'll see the whole alphabet. You can see the cursive in the 3rd grade book, but I think they start cursive in 2nd. I didn't use the print, but I have been using the cursive with ds. I wish I had used the print because it would have made his transition even easier.

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We use A Reason for Handwriting. It is has black pages with lines and a frame to color. My dd uses colored pencils a lot. FWIW, We tried the Draw, Write, Now series when she was beginning to write, but the lines are smaller than most other beginning programs and the books are not consumable. My dd needed to be able to trace, then write the letters. We are in the transitions book this year. I have to stop her from doing 3-4 lessons a day because she really enjoys it!

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DS has his own special pencil grip, his own pencils only he uses, and we have a HUGE floor pad handwriting tablet. He can practice on it, the white board or the chalk board. Sometimes we use pens, sometimes markers whatever he wants. With him I started going ahead and teaching him to write when he got upset he couldn't write and he wanted to write little stories and write like me so he could stick notes under grandma's door or in dad's lunch. So we draw something like a kitty then we practice the word. Or we draw my grandma's kitten and write her name. Having his own things and connecting it to things we do really makes him want to keep at it instead of just his legos.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks everyone so much for the input. I love the tip on using gel pens too! My DD is crazy about girly pens right now so that will work out nice :) Going to research all your suggestions now and hopefully I can make a decision.

 

Thanks again!

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A Reason For Handwriting has the child use a "special" lined page with a picture/scene on it to color. It is a Christian program and the idea is they practice bit by bit M-Th and then on Friday they write out their bible verse in their best handwriting on the "special paper" which they can pick from the back of the book and display it or give it to Grandma, or whatever. My artsy kids like to color the special pages and put them on the fridge or send them in the mail to someone.

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My oldest loved HWOT and would fly through the pages and ask to do more, my second DD is a whole different story. She is artsy and creative and very much a little wiggle worm. She groans every.single.time I pull out the HWOT book. We decided to switch to a dry erase letter book I bought on a whim. She absolutely LOVES working with the dry erase markers and being able to wipe the book clean when she's done. We also do copy work in her journal and she draws a picture of what she's read/wrote.

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i agree with pp. HWT and Draw Write Now are good. I also let my artsy kids do copywork/dictation in a nice sketchpad. They then use colored pencils to illustrate that scene. Different mediums are helpful. Write in a box of salt, with paint, sand, fingerpaint, play doh Use various different colored pens and markers. use the HWT wooden letters. Put labels on Duplo blocks and build words. Use magnetic letters and moveable alphabet tiles.

 

I thought I'd pull my hair out when my Kinder would use a different color for each letter in a word. Giving them the time to be creative takes patience.

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