Beginning Writing

[Kris982]

I have just ordered all my curriculum for K....except writing (and Bible...if I decide to order something)...

 

I know there are some people who wait to do writing and don't focus on their penmanship at this point. My son will write on his own, so I thought I should start him on something so he isn't developing bad habits. Any thoughts on that?

 

I was considering getting ZB, but I also have a bunch of different writing workbooks at home (Leapfrog, See&Feel, Teaching Tree, dry-erase, etc.). Will it mess him up if I just use the different ones that I have? Also saw that ZB lets you print papers, so I thought about just doing that....not sure if the price will balance out....

 

 

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks :)

 

 

[Maela]

My son is also trying to write, but forming letters incorrectly, so we're going to start handwriting this year because I'm afraid of bad habits. I don't have advice on what to use. With dd, I used worksheets from various places and she turned out fine. I'll probably do the same with DS. He has a good pencil grip when he's not trying to be silly or frustrate me. ;). Working on a nice pencil grip is my biggest concern at this age.

 

I've seen the ZB free worksheet maker. I might use that too.

[Walking-Iris]

I like HWT, but honestly for handwriting there is nothing wrong with using various different things. And various different surfaces. Chalkboard, white board, paint, tray of sand etc.

 

I don't think you can mess them up using different things. Mainly you want to be clear in your own mind first what your beliefs are about handwriting and then tweak anything accordingly. 

 

 

I don't much care to teach my ds to slant when writing in cursive, others find the slant very important. Some teach cursive early, some wait. 

 

Some teach writing all on paper, some use more sensory materials and manipulatives at first.

 

Figure those out in your mind and then you can adapt anything. The main thing is to teach a kid one right way at first. So if one workbook has them forming an a as a circular up and down motion, and another has it as a ball and stick circular then pick up the pencil and draw a line down way, you want to be sure to ignore any directions that would be different than the primary way you want to teach them to write. 

 

My oldest learned cursive from HWT, but he had no trouble doing a more flowy and slanted ZB Scholastic book. 

 

I really also like the first  3 ETC books. Get Ready Set Go. I know they are usually used to teach letter sounds, but I found them excellent for teaching lower case letter handwriting. My one complaint about the preschool and K level HWT is the emphasis on capitals. I like them to learn lowercase early since that is what we write and read more often. 

 

http://www.infomontessori.com/language/handwriting-introduction.htm  You may like to read about Montessori education to see why handwriting is important in the early years. 

[Kris982]

Thank you both...that is very helpful!

 

I do have a grip and plan to use it. I also like the idea of having him do it on different surfaces. Will check and see that my material is similar in method.

 

 

Thank you!