Explode the Code primer series: how much teaching versus handwriting?

[eloquacious]

I am looking for something that will help to teach lowercase letters to my second son. I started the first with capitals, per Kumon and HWOT, but I would prefer to begin with lowercase this time. Reviews on Amazon have stated that each letter gets about 10-12 pages. How many of those are circle/draw a line pages, and how many would teach/practice letter formation?

[Orthodox6]

Maybe this just will complicate things for you (which is not my wish).  I used "Explode the Code" to help with reading, only.  I purposely ignored the handwriting because my kids were ready to read before they were motor-skills-ready for handwriting.  I then used a different program (which I would recommend, but when looking it up just now, sadly discovered that it is OP). 

[beth83]

I'm pulling out a book...

 

page 1 - circle what is different

page 2 - trace the letter with your finger (one big letter)

page 3 - draw line along path

page 4 - circle the letters that match

page 5 - color section with letter "p"

page 6 - "listen and follow directions" Since we don't have the teacher's guide with teh actual directions for this one, we just say all the pictures, emphasizing the first letter

page 7 - trace the letter

page 8 - draw lines to letter

page 9 - writing the letter (1/3 have the letter that they trace, the others are blank lines.  We just skip the blank portion, or I draw a dotted letter._

page 10 - circle

page 11 - circle

page 12 - circle

page 13 - circle

page 14 - blank lines to write first letter (I draw dots, again, after she has identified the beginning sound)

 

If you want to avoid the handwriting portion, this would be very easy and you would still get a lot out of it.

[SereneHome]

Just out of curiosity - why do you prefer to start with lower case?

[eloquacious]

I would prefer to start with lowercase because I would love to get him into "writing to read" sooner rather than later. My frustration with such curricula has always been the disconnect between when my boys read and when they can write. I am now doing the first few ETC books with my older son for writing while the younger does the reading pages, so letter sounds aren't a problem.

[duckens]

For us, we used ETC as reinforcement for Saxon Phonics.  (Please don't take this as advocacy for Saxon Phonics. I'm really not over the moon for it).

 

However, when I first teach letters, we do them on the whiteboard.

 

We have two of these with lines on one side (other side blank).  I write on one, and child imitates the letter.

 

If the child is very young, we write on the blank side. I just want them to write the letter 3-4 times before moving on to the book.

 

If the child is older, we use the side with lines, and we work on all the parts in all the right places.

 

ETA: Same thing: write 3-4 times before moving onto the book.

 

--You could also just write on scratch paper, rather than whiteboards.

--Loverboy found whiteboards for $1 each, with the lines on both sides in the Target Dollar Bins a month ago.  He picked up 4.  They are cheap cardboard, but they are only $1.

 

 

 

 

[strange_girl]

ETC primers will spend only 2-3 pages per letter on actual handwriting, but you could copy those pages and use them a few times. My kids have both loved the ETC books and have fun with the activities. It is light on the handwriting portion, though.

 

My son is using A Reason for Handwriting K right now, and they teach lowercase first. They do one page for each letter, but they do go back and review them as they go on. If your son catches on pretty quickly and has opportunity to use them outside of handwriting class, that might work well too.

 

We tend to do a lot of handwriting at ages 4-5. We do handwriting worksheets, and we practice them on the whiteboard, and we write our newest letters on just about every picture we draw, lol. By the time they hit first grade, they beg for cursive, just to do something different ;)

[Spy Car]

Maybe this just will complicate things for you (which is not my wish). I used "Explode the Code" to help with reading, only. I purposely ignored the handwriting because my kids were ready to read before they were motor-skills-ready for handwriting.

Same here. We did the 3 Primers and the first three ETC books orally, or with "finger tracing."

 

Not only was my child's reading ability ahead of his handwriting skills (we started early) but I did not want to mix the joy of reading with any frustrations of handwriting. So I wanted these seperate.

 

Not sure if this is helpful, but...

 

Bill

[Chris in VA]

Another chime-in re reading w/o attaching handwriting--

We used the ETC primers the same way, skipping all the writing but doing the circling and line-drawing. 

I think you could probably get away with just modeling the letters and having him trace your writing, then practicing. You can google how to form the letters if you don't think you could write them yourself, or you can use something like this:

 

Zaner Bloser

 

Just an aside, using a vertical whiteboard is a different skill than writing with a pencil, so just lay the whiteboard flat if you want to do that (has to do with resting the hand on the paper/surface). 

[Maela]

The writing is optional for us.  Sometimes Ds wants to do it, and sometimes he doesn't.  I don't care.  We'll work on handwriting in a few months if I think he's ready.  (using zaner-bloser)

 

[skeeterbug]

If you are looking for mainly handwriting instruction/practice, you won't get much value for the $$ out of these. There's very little practice writing the letters. If I wanted to teach lowercase first, I'd use the HWOT K book and just start midway through the book where the lowercase letters start. If I thought seeing all those unused pages would be too distracting for the child I'd tear apart the book and remove those pages.