Five year old and handwriting?

[Stayseeliz]

I'm just starting to work through My Father's World Kindergarten with my 5yo. She was 5 in October. She knows her letters and letter sounds. But she struggles with writing letters and numbers correctly. We worked forever on the number 2 and the letter S today. Oh my word I almost lost it. She just wants to draw a straight line and be done with it. She finally got the 2 for the most part and got pretty close to the S. Is this normal? We practiced writing them in salt with her fingers. What else can I do? Thanks.

[marsp]

Not sure...but keep working on the motor skills, and use the dotted tracing..that helps!

[Irishmommy]

I would say totally normal. My guy turns 5 in February and he does the same thing. Actually, I am just thrilled that he will even pick up a pencil, my oldest would just run away from the table if asked to pick up ANY writing utensil.

[beaners]

2 and S in the same day sounds kind of tough to me. Both of those require a bit of planning to write correctly, and they go in opposite directions. I don't know how MFW does things. The program we use starts out with tracing rows, then gradually drops some of the copies with dots. I offer to help sometimes by guiding their hands, and I'll also point which way their pencil needs to move next. I also hold their hand and "draw" the letters a few times with their pointer finger when it looks like they're stuck repeating the same mistake and it's getting ingrained in their brains instead of the correct form.

[Stayseeliz]

MFW doesn't do s and 2 the same day. That was my fault. We were doing math u see and I noticed she was struggling with her twos. Then we switched to reading and we had to work on s. I did think it was confusing That they went different directions.

[Classic Mom]

Totally within "normal".

[chicagoshannon]

That's normal. It's frustrating for them too because they truly want to do it correctly but their brains/hands just won't let them. I think my dd was about 5.5 when it finally wasn't such a struggle to write. She still gets mixed up sometimes though. She'll be 6 in March.

[birchbark]

If the fine motor skills are not there, practicing more may not necessarily help. Give her 6 mos, and some coloring with colored pencils, and then try again. Focus on the reading for now.

[GSOchristie]

I have a boy that turned six in November. We have used the WRTR for handwriting, and it has been amazing! His handwriting was seriously atrocious, and we had been doing "develop fine motor skills" activities since he was two. We started when he was 5.5, and within a week, every letter that he attempted was legible...on regular wide ruled paper. It has a script that you say for each letter, then they repeat it as they form the letter. We get compliments all the time on his handwriting.

[Staceyshoe]

My oldest *struggled* with handwriting. If she likes coloring, mazes, etc, those can be a less stressful way to improve fine motor coordination. You can do it instead of--or in addition to--handwriting practice

[Stayseeliz]

Thanks! This makes me feel better. I'll print off mazes and she has plenty of coloring books. I don't think she has the coordination for it yet. If I held her hand she could form the letter or number but she couldn't seem to get it by herself. I don't want to push her. We'll focus on reading and building coordination.

[Clarkd]

Yes I think it completely normal. Here are some ideas to help.

Add other non writing tasks and hand eye coordination games. Play with lots of playdough, put coins in a bank, use tongs or chopsticks to pick up cottonballs. Have her play with Perplexus Jr.

Mazes are a great idea.

Have her make letters in playdough, sand, pudding, fingerpaint, and shaving cream.

Use magnetic letters and numbers when you need her to answer to take the pressure off writing and allow her to better focus on demonstrating math or reading concepts.

[Paige]

My 5yr old has beautiful, amazing handwriting. I'm not saying that to brag. My older kids had fair to horrible handwriting at that age. I think the difference is that the little one is obsessed with cutting. She loves to cut and our worst punishment for her when she was 3-4 was to take away her access to scissors. She has been working through cutting workbooks since she was a toddler and is now the best little cutter I've ever seen. I think her cutting practice gave her the muscles and fine motor skills she needed to write well. There's a really cute Kumon book that is a little less babyish than the "My First Book of ______" series. I bet if you give her fun little cutting projects that her writing will improve. You can also get Ready Writer but it is boring after the first couple of days.

[Stayseeliz]

Thanks I'm going to get her the Kumon book. I think part of the problem is that the child never gets scissors because she cuts her hair EVERY single time she gets them. I'll have to sit on top of her but I'm determined that we're getting those skills where they need to be.

[UrbanSue]

I heartily agree with the give her more time and introduce a variety of fine motor skills advice. I'd also add that make sure her writing utensil is working for her. We have good luck with the thick, triangular Tri-Writes from Ticonderoga (though just realized they are treated with tricolsan, bleh). Some kids like those rubber grippy things you slide onto a normal pencil.

 

And then check her seating height in relation to the table. We have two different kid chairs and one of them is adjustable and a third child has a desk slightly lower than our table so all three of my school age kids are at a good, comfortably height for coloring, drawing, writing, etc.

[pollo_la]

Normal!

 

Work on fine motor skills in other ways for a few months and then come back to the handwriting.

 

Playdough, coloring, cutting, pasting, painting. etc.

 

If you do want to work a bit on letter and number formation, you had the right idea by having her draw in salt. Some other things you can do...

Fill a ziplock bag with dish soap and have her draw on the outside of the bag. Put shaving cream on a tray and have her draw on that. Put rice on a tray and have her draw on that. She can also form letters out of playdough.

[Tracy]

This is completely normal. And you are doing exactly the right thing by having her write in salt with her fingers. You can even take it one step back and make sandpaper letters for her to trace with her fingers. I actually made some for my son using lentils on cardstock, and I made each letter huge--the size of a standard size piece of paper. I made sure he knew how to trace those letters correctly before doing it in the salt box. The idea is to make sure they are not practicing mistakes.

 

Once they can finger trace confidently, you can move to all sorts of large motor activities, including salt box, writing in sand, finger paints, shaving cream, pudding (you can put pudding in a large ziploc and have her "write" with her fingers on the outside of the bag, then she gets to eat the pudding when she finishes).

 

Only after she becomes comfortable and confident forming letters with her fingers will you give her a writing utensil. Even then, you should continue with only large motor activities at first--white board, chalk board, sidewalk chalk.

 

Some kids just pick up a pencil and start writing. My oldest was like this. I never had to do any of this with her. But some kids need incremental steps, and I am working through these with my ds right now. For some kids, they just cannot simultaneously think of how to hold the pencil, how to place the paper, how hard to press, where to place the pencil, which direction to go and when to stop all in the same motion. It takes lots of work and baby steps. Keep if fun. Keep lessons short--five to ten minutes per day, unless they ask for more. In order to get my son to cooperate, I give him a mini chocolate chip for every letter he writes. He usually tells me he is done after he gets about a dozen of them. That doesn't seem like a lot of practice, but I am seeing very steady, though slow, improvement.

[PachiSusan]

Totally normal. I have a 9 year old that still needs work. It's a process and a brain development/small motor skills issue. As they grow and practice, they get better at it.