CrunchyMand Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Aged 5-7 we did Waldorf homeschool, we never covered letter formation. Then he went to school aged 7 and had to catch up. He has been out of school for 3 weeks, this time for good. We are now homeschooling. This time we are doing Classical. He is 8 1/2. He can't form letters properly and printed they look ok but he does them in odd ways. He doesn't sit letters on the line properly eg the p and g do not sit on the line and hang down. He writes BIG and scrawly. Where on earth do I start with him? Can he re-learn? Is it too late? I bought Penny Gardners Italics program to try with him as Italics looks easier for him but wondered is there any other program worth trying? What do I do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamindy Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 One of my children (not the same age, though) had lots of bad habits and I really liked Handwriting without Tears. I think they would probably suggest beginning cursive at that age though, so you wouldn't have to teach manuscript, relearning with good habits, and then cursive. Cursive begins in the third book. Get the teacher's manual as well if you're going to start there. Hope someone else will give you even more suggestions since I've never remediated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrunchyMand Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 I've looked into HWT but it costs too much to ship to the UK. I have Getty Dubay or Penny Gardner here but with the options of other more popular handwriting programs if they have UK suppliers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MooCow Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I'm interested in this as well. :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I think it would be easier to teach cursive than to remediate his manuscript. If you choose to remediate, he might feel bad about it and may think it is babyish. But if you teach cursive, you can start from the beginning, while also honing in on anything that may be causing a problem with his manuscript (such as pencil grip, paper orientation, posture, letter positioning, etc.). In either case, I would make sure to take it very gradually and slowly so that you don't miss anything. I like to start with finger tracing and then finger writing so as not to worry about pencil grip. Then you can move to large writing with a writing utensil, such as on a whiteboard. Then you can add lines to the white board and start teaching about letter position. Only then do you want to move to pencil/paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebacabunch Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 My 8 year old doesn't find the handwriting without tears book right before cursive to be babyish. She has learned a lot from those books. I suggest getting the teacher's manual or googling how to use the books. They are just great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marie131 Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 I'd stick w/ what you have. I am using Penny Gardner's Italics w/ my 7.5 year old for remediation. He did K at private school, homeschooled last year but I didn't follow a handwriting curriculum and followed bad advice so his handwriting didn't improve. I started using Penny Gardner's Italics late last summer, we only do 7 minutes every day but he buckles down and does his hardest work. His writing has improved 1000%! It's been slow but steady. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecclecticmum Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 When you did Waldorf, did you do Form Drawing? Form drawing is what equals to handwriting practice. I've heard many people rave about the Handwriting section of One-to-One by Gareth Lewis, and it is probably much cheaper than handwriting programs. There was one person specifically saying that her daughters penpal had such nice writing and the little girl asked where she learned to write like that, the response was lewis' book. Just a thought anyway :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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