Does this matter?

[PeachyDoodle]

Dd9 learned to print in ps before we pulled her out to hs beginning in third grade. Overall, she has nice handwriting -- it's mostly neat and certainly legible. But I've noticed that she forms many of her letters backwards from the way I was taught. For example, she writes letters like capital "B" and lowercase "h" from the baseline up, instead of beginning with a downward stroke. And she forms others, like lowercase "r" and "e", in two strokes instead of one.

 

I'm just curious, is there any reason why it would matter HOW she forms her letters, so long as the end result is acceptable?

[Space station]

My daughter did this too until I brought her home. No one had ever showed her how to properly form the letters, she was just copying what she saw. We did spend some time working on it, because it kept her from spacing her letters correctly; they kind of floated unevenly above the line.

[Coco_Clark]

It can result in messy handwriting.  It can make a difficult transition to cursive, if you plan on teaching cursive.  And it can slow writing down and cause hand strain.

 

Correct letter formation is a hill I will die on.  But then again my husband has been forming letters backwards his entire life, he survived and even became quite successful.   

 

With a third grader?  I'd just switch her over to cursive.

[PeachyDoodle]

It can result in messy handwriting.  It can make a difficult transition to cursive, if you plan on teaching cursive.  And it can slow writing down and cause hand strain.

 

Correct letter formation is a hill I will die on.  But then again my husband has been forming letters backwards his entire life, he survived and even became quite successful.   

 

With a third grader?  I'd just switch her over to cursive.

 

She just started fourth grade a couple of weeks ago. We did do cursive last year, and she picked that up with no trouble. I did insist that she form those letters the way I showed her. I wondered whether learning cursive would make a difference in how she writes her print letters, but so far it doesn't seem to have done.

 

Her writing isn't messy, but I do wonder about hand strain. She seems to write a little slowly as well, although I wouldn't say it impedes her work.

 

Truthfully, it makes me twitch a little to watch her write the way she does! :tongue_smilie: I can be a tad OCD about these things, so I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill, IYKWIM.

 

I had considered requiring all her work to be in cursive this year anyway, so maybe we should just run with that.

[momto2Cs]

Both my kids form their letters differently, both from what I do, and from each other. Both can also write in cursive, and have decent handwriting. either has complained about strain, so I decided NOT to pursue it further. I've serreptitiously watched other adults out in the world,  :leaving:   and many have differing approaches to how they form letters.

 

Just my two cents!

[Miss Tick]

How about focusing on one letter a month, or a fortnight, or whatever, but pretty spaced out. So, for September demonstrate proper "h" formation, then have her do a few every morning as warm-up. You could get really creative, or bare bones, or in between, whatever suits the both of you.

 

I've been working that with my ds (what was I thinking teaching a hand with serifs??) Anyway, his "r"s bothered me the most, so we/I focused on them. Then I moved to "t"s.

 

Especially if her handwriting is pretty good to startseems like not making it into a big then might be a nice way to go. I would preface it all up front that standard letter formation makes for smoother, faster, neater writing later in life.

[kbernt]

Both my kids for their letters differently, both from what I do, and from each other. Both can also write in cursive, and have decent handwriting. either has complained about strain, so I decided NOT to pursue it further. I've serreptitiously watched other adults out in the world,  :leaving:   and many have differing approaches to how they form letters.

 

Just my two cents!

 I agree here. I've tried to encourage proper formation, but over the years, with 5 kids, some "incorrect" letter formations wouldn't change (kids too stubborn).

 

 It's funny that we just had a conversation about this the other day on making print "o"s clockwise and from the bottom and cursive "o"s just the opposite. My 12yo and 17yo are perfectly fine with it and don't see it as a problem, so I "lost" the argument that my 10yo needs to change. Majority rules I guess. :huh:

[Farrar]

I see why those things can be problems and if you were talking about a five year old just learning I'd be all over fixing that, but if a child isn't straining to write, has legible handwriting, and can write in cursive properly, I really wouldn't make a mountain out of a molehill, as you say. So I vote, no, doesn't matter.

[GrammarGirl]

As kids get older and are required to write more, they naturally develop shortcuts to form the letters faster. (When I started teaching composition in a college, I began holding my pen "incorrectly" because I discovered I could write faster and grade all my papers more quickly!) I think 4th grade is probably too late to change the habits, and since her writing is neat, it doesn't seem to matter.