Improving boys handwriting

[arcara]

Have any of you had success in convincing your boys to have decent handwriting. My son's (9yo) is pretty bad. He does his work so fast most of the time that it's terrible. If he's doing a handwriting page it can be ok, but math or spelling dictation and I may have to guess on some of his writing.

 

Any tips or is this just one of those things that I'll have to accept? Thanks!

[arcara]

He does know how to type and I let him type his writing assignments, but math and spelling dictation need to be done by hand. I kinda figure this is a lost cause unless he decides that he cares about the appearance of his handwriting.

I can't really MAKE him care. I was just wondering if anyone had figured out the magic trick that I do t know about in regards to this. Thx!

[Guest]

Well, I tell my son if I can't read it, he gets it wrong. If he gets too many math problems wrong or spelling words wrong, he loses privileges (Minecraft!). Seems to work here. We don't make a huge issue over handwriting, but I do want it legible.

[Crimson Wife]

Which font are you teaching? I found that my DD's handwriting improved dramatically when I switched her from trying to learn Peterson Directed Handwriting to Memoria Press New American Cursive.

 

I also found practicing with the Barker Creek E-Race Away Cursive whiteboard helped improve her penmanship.

[TarynB]

I don't have any real answers for you, but I wanted to let you know, there is hope. 

 

My DS at age 9 had really sloppy handwriting.  At Staples I bought that special lined paper that "little kids" learn to write with, with a solid line on the bottom and top of a row, and a dashed line in the middle.  DS did two or three sentences of copywork every day on that and it had to be done neatly/correctly, or he had to do it over again.  Also, like the PPs above, if I couldn't read his writing on math problems, spelling words, etc., he had to do them over again neatly.  Beyond that, I let him type all of his other written work.  Now, at age 12, his handwriting has significantly improved.  He's actually apalled at how bad it used to be, when he sees a paper that he wrote on two or three years ago. 

 

Anyway, we just kept plugging along, and I think his penmanship improved mostly due to me not harping too much, a small amount of daily focused practice, more written work as he approached middle school, and mostly a simple matter of more maturity.

[mlktwins]

I don't expect pretty handwriting from my boys -- just nice and legible :-).  Is your DS doing cursive?  I was shocked that one of my boys has horrible handwriting when he prints and pretty nice cursive, which we started this year (he is almost 9).  He loves it.  We have used HWOT since the beginning.

 

He rushes through his print writing (math, spelling words, etc) and I now do what a PP does.  I've warned him enough about it that I am marking items wrong if I can't read them.

[Ellie]

Have any of you had success in convincing your boys to have decent handwriting. My son's (9yo) is pretty bad. He does his work so fast most of the time that it's terrible. If he's doing a handwriting page it can be ok, but math or spelling dictation and I may have to guess on some of his writing.

 

Any tips or is this just one of those things that I'll have to accept? Thanks!

 

That you have a boy instead of a girl is irrelevant. :-)

 

He will not always be able to type everything. He should make an effort for his writing to be legible. You should expect his handwriting to be legible, and if you have to guess at anything, then it should automatically be wrong.

 

[boscopup]

I mark things wrong if I can't read them. That usually makes them care more.

 

Strangely, my (left handed!) 4 year old seems to have the best handwriting thus far. :p My 9 year old's handwriting is nice when he focuses on neatness. His math is very readable, as is spelling. My 7 year old... he has to redo a lot of his math. His letters are getting nicer, as he's still concentrating a lot on them, and I had told him that his phonics will count as handwriting IF he writes very neatly - if it's not neat, I'll pull out the handwriting workbook. He would rather write with neat letters in phonics and be done. :D The 4 year old has beautiful handwriting, and his numbers in math are so neat and sitting perfectly on the line. I'm so happy that he's giving me a reprieve on the handwriting thing! :lol:

[mytwomonkeys]

My 9 year old has less than stellar penmanship as well. I started having him write the alphabet (uppercase & lowercase) in his best handwriting 2x daily. It is transferring into his written work nicely. He still types his papers, but his short answers for science and history, etc need to be hand written and legible.

[Tanikit]

I agree with Ellie - if your child has no fine motor issues and can draw reasonably straight lines and reasonably round circles then there is no excuse for illegible handwriting - it does take practice to get up to the speed required to write neatly enough for 4th grade as the amount required is more - but if you want him to learn this then having to redo work that was done so fast that it became illegible is definitely in order.

 

This has to do with expectations - children are quite capable of writing neatly if that is what is expected of them. You expect him to brush his teeth properly - just expect to be able to read his work and expect it to be neat too. 

[trulycrabby]

It just takes daily practice and time. DS10 has horrid handwriting, so I mark anything I cannot read incorrect, and I am especially diligent with writing out math problems neatly. He practices print and cursive daily, and I think both are important for developing fine motor skills. He is learning keyboarding, but I will not give up on handwriting.

[arcara]

Thank you for all the replies. The general consensus seems to be that I need to raise my expectations and to consistently insist on better work! I'll make an effort to do this. Thank you!

[OhioMomof3]

Ellie's right about it not being a boy or girl thing.  I've had issues with my second son and only daughter.  My second son improved when I switched to Italic.  His writing is very legible now.  My daughter doesn't like Italic, and I haven't tried a different style with her.  I just keep repeating myself over and over and over again about proper letter formation and neatness. Did I say that I have to keep reminding her about her writing?   Oh, yes, I guess I did.  :glare:

[zoobie]

My DD's handwriting vastly improved after OT. I didn't suspect any fine motor skills issues, but I was wrong! She was 9, nearly 10 when she started. She will never be a professional calligrapher (for many reasons), but her handwriting is perfectly legible now.

[bnwhitaker]

My boys print was not very good at all(8&9).  Then we switched to cursive and to my surprise it looked so much better.

It actually looks "good" a lot of the time.  They do pentime workbook 1 page a day and also we use startwrite and I

create their verses to copy from that.  It takes them work but it is getting better all the time they are now 9 & 10.  Most

of the time on regular work they just don't want to slow down and try to do it well, they would rather slop through it. 

When writing a card to their aunt the other day they did a beautiful job.  I don't require them to focus on penmanship on

all of our subjects, my boys would get overwhelmed.  But they do have certain times they are asked to really focus and

try hard.  As they grow and it gets easier and easier I will require it more of the time.

[Heathermomster]

Maybe try something like the following:

 

http://www.amazon.com/TWIST-PENAGAIN-CHILDRENS-PENCILS-4-Pack/dp/B000XHNQ4C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1393165879&sr=8-3&keywords=Pen+again

 

DS is diagnosed dysgraphia, and the Penagain has been great for him. You could also explore alternate handgrips like the adapted tripod grasp.

[KrissiK]

My boys both have horrible handwriting. I do mark answers wrong if I can't read it or I make them do the assignment over and over and over until I can read it. They are also learning to use the computer for word processing. But, my oldest just doesn't care. He rushes through his assignments and his work is an absolute mess!

[Clear Creek]

My 9yo girl is capable of beautiful handwriting; she tends to get careless and sloppy when she doesn't like doing her schoolwork, though.  I have started keeping an eraser next to me and when she hands me a page with words or numbers I can't read, I erase it and tell her to try it again.

 

Legible handwriting is a hill I am willing to die on.

[PhotoGal]

I have terrible handwriting myself, so I sympathize with some of your kids! I can print okay if I go really slowly and concentrate, but then it is difficult to write more than a few sentences that way.

 

Here is what I am doing with my kids:

 

1) typing every day (10 minutes or so) with an old-fashioned repetitive typing book. It looks boring, but the kids actually enjoy it. :)  I also started giving them the option to type longer pieces.

 

2) asking ds to use cursive on some shorter assignments (such as writing a poem). Dd doesn't know cursive yet, but ds's cursive is pretty good.

 

3) I give the kids a "handwriting challenge" sometimes and if they write their pieces with about 85% of their best handwriting, they get a small lollipop (yeah, this is bribing...). They love this. I will check their piece (usually about 1 paragraph) and tell them if anything needs to be corrected. They can fix it until it qualifies - so they can always get the lollipop if they choose to. They ask for this all the time, but I only do it once or twice a week.

[Ellie]

 

Legible handwriting is a hill I am willing to die on.

 

:thumbup: :cheers2:

[Marie131]

Penny Gardner's Italics program has been great for teaching my boys beautiful writing.  My 8 y/o has an LD with his written output and despite that, this program has taught him to have absolutely gorgeous writing.  He still struggles w/ reversals and such, but the handwriting is neat.

[Bree]

My ds is pretty bad too, I switched him over to cursive and that has helped. I worked in a hospital a while back and console myself that my 9 year olds handwriting is much better than half the doctors when they wrote their orders ;)

[4KookieKids]

Really?  Sorry but this is laughable.  Its simply not true.  especially now a days.  

 

If you want to make your life unpleasant over messy handwriting have at it.  

 

I completely disagree. I teach at a university, and it's not uncommon for me to have to mark work incorrect because I simply can't read it. Most students do not type their homework, and certainly do not type their quizzes and exams (for obvious reasons).

 

Also, I have to write a LOT and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be a very good teacher if my writing wasn't legible. Something about the students needing to actually be able to read my writing... :)

Typing comments on a paper that gets handed in is also not very practical.

[Alte Veste Academy]

My DH writes by hand every single day in his career. So do I. ;)

 

We like Zaner-Bloser here. 

[boscopup]

As an engineer, I had to hand write notes on printed code for reviews. The person whose code I was reviewing needed to be able to read those notes. No, you can't type everything.

 

Legible handwriting is very important.

 

Cursive handwriting is not necessary for legible handwriting, but people do still write things by hand.

[Gil]

To me, handwriting is important still.

I write by hand and encounter handwritten things virtually every single day that I am at school and at both of my jobs.

 

I don't have pretty handwriting. But its legible. I taught the boys to form letters legibly and once I was sure that they knew how, I began to demand that they do so.

I have been known to ball up and throw away things that are sloppily done by hand. It used to be something they would argue or whine about but now I don't even waste time arguing about it with them--they know from experience that even if it was 10 pages worth of math daddy will just tear it up and throw it out and you will do it again. (how much crying, whining, and tantrum-throwing you do prior to redoing the work is up to you, but daddy doesn't engage with tantrum-throwing children. He does expect that work from you by the end of the day though, thank you very much!)

 

If I must guess what it says it is wrong. 100% wrong--no benefit of the doubt, no partial credit, wrong, wrong, wrong.

The stricter I got on that issue, the better and better their handwriting has been.

 

9yo is NOT too late to revive or correct handwriting because my 5th grade teacher transformed the handwriting of nine different boys (who were 10-12 years old). I was one of them.

[kagmypts]

My DD's handwriting vastly improved after OT. I didn't suspect any fine motor skills issues, but I was wrong! She was 9, nearly 10 when she started. She will never be a professional calligrapher (for many reasons), but her handwriting is perfectly legible now.

 

If you don't mind me asking, what exactly did the OT do with your DD, and how long did your DD work with an OT?  My boys are both in ST, and I am wondering if they need to see an OT as well.  My DS's handwriting is horrible, and I am not convinced that it is sloppiness.  It has been a yearlong struggle, and I see very little improvement.

 

 

 

Maybe try something like the following:

 

http://www.amazon.com/TWIST-PENAGAIN-CHILDRENS-PENCILS-4-Pack/dp/B000XHNQ4C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1393165879&sr=8-3&keywords=Pen+again

 

DS is diagnosed dysgraphia, and the Penagain has been great for him. You could also explore alternate handgrips like the adapted tripod grasp.

 

Thank you.  How was your DS diagnosed with dysgraphia?

[4KookieKids]

Interesting.  My son's highschool teachers would use a shared word doc and embed comments.  Are you seriously still receiving paper papers??

 

My son did OT for a few years at age 5-6.  

 

When I teach on online course, I do receive everything typed and I embed comments (I usually insist on either PDFs or DOCs for this reason). However, when teaching an in-person course, I receive almost exclusively hand-written things. I recognize that part of this is due to the subject: I teach math and there is a significant learning curve involved learning how to write math correctly on the computer. However, much of the math I teach also has a significant written component (~70-80% of a correct solution is written word rather than equations or math symbols).

 

And the further on you get in math, the more "words" there are as part of the solution -- though it is the case that many (~50%) grad students at my grad school did type their solutions (but that requires a whole different world of learning to type math, because there are specialized programs for technical works like that).

[Heathermomster]

 

 

Thank you.  How was your DS diagnosed with dysgraphia?

DS was tested by a PhD neuropsychologist aged 8 and 12.  He was given a full battery of tests each time, so I don't know the specific sub-tests that identified it.  

 

Handwriting disorder is very misunderstood and has caused the most complications with his classroom teachers.  It is one of the primary reasons we homeschool.