How much "writing" is necessary?

[blessed2fosteradopt]

I am referring to handwriting. My son (grade 5, age 10) strongly dislikes handwriting. He would much rather type (hunt and peck right now) but for some reason I am hung up on him practicing his cursive and just putting thoughts to paper. The problem we are running into is that it is taking up enormous amounts of our time each day. In your opinion, is daily handwriting and the act of writing out answers necessary or would I be better off just letting him type everything. Any opinions?

 

Thank you so much!

[Tabrett]

What type of cursive are you using? How old is he?

[blessed2fosteradopt]

Thanks for replying. In my haste to post, I realize that I left out pertinent information which I have now revised. Thank you!

[Ellie]

I'd make him write.

 

He will not always have access to a computer. He wil, however, always have pencil and paper, kwim?

 

And it's good character building ::cheeky mom grin::

[Tabrett]

I would drop handwriting, find a program to teach him to type and have him maybe... do half his school on the computer and half handwritten. Typing skills are what will be required later in life. If he can hand write and just doesn't like too, I would just drop handwriting. I hardly hand write anything. But he needs to learn to type correctly before bad habits form.

[Alana in Canada]

Firstly, get him typing with a program. It's never a bad idea--and he seems to be motivated!

 

Secondly, how much do you have him write right now? My son is the same age and after extensive preparation with narrations and copywork he now

 

1) writes out at most two or three sentences (or so) of grammar. (Whatever requires writing, like diagramming or punctuation excercises. If it can be don orally, that's how we do it!) every school day

 

2) Writes two to three narrations a week for history.

 

3) Writes three dictations a week. Working slowly up to four lines.

 

4) Writes out 20 words (at least 3x) and five sentences a week for spelling.

 

5) Writes one book report or a summary a week.

 

6) We practice cursive every school day: ten lowercase, ten uppercase and one alliterative sentence using the day's letter.

 

7) Writes something for science. Not a lot. 1x/week.

 

8) We write a story every week with our writing program. However, because he tends to be painfully brief if I have him write it out himself, we've switched to his dictating to me at the keyboard--all revisions are then done by hand on a printed out copy and entered into the computer. We revise this way again, until we're done on Friday.

 

Right now he's outling something 1x a week (Level 1--one sentence per paragraph (actually, he's just writing a key word--not a full sentence)--in a few weeks, we'll work up to two.

 

And that's it.

 

(Oh, and spelling is in handwriting, everything else is ball and stick, though I do nag him to death!) I may be able to insist of grammar being handwritten--in fact, I'll do that this week--thanks!)

[katilac]

My dd is that exact age/grade, and she'd much prefer to type everything as well. She really hates cursive, doesn't mind print too much. Now that she can both read and write cursive, I'm letting her do copywork/handwriting in print again. She writes for spelling, grammar and history timeline.

 

Most of her reports are typed. I don't think it's a big deal to let him type reports and such, but I'd make him learn how to type properly. There are lots of cheap programs and it's easy enough for a 5th grader. I'd probably offer an incentive - - when you reach x goal in typing, you may begin typing your English compositions and history reports.

 

We don't do nearly as much writing as Alana's family, I'm afraid.

[blessed2fosteradopt]

Right now, he is writing Bible verses about 2x per week, poetry stanzas here and there, English lessons, spelling words, answering questions in our Progeny Press guides and doing memory cards for history. It really is not much but what he does do, he does painfully slow. He has been diagnosed ADHD and I sometimes find it hard to discern what is associated with the former and what is just laziness on his part. He is also resistant to reading. It is like pulling teeth to get him to read a page.

 

I do have Typing Instructor Deluxe and he used it for the first time last night. He was okay with it....not thrilled. Everything seems to be a struggle but math on the whiteboard which he enjoys.

 

Any other thoughts?

[MMinMN]

I tend to get overwhelmed when I try to figure out how much to do in each subject each week. Thanks for breaking it down so well.

[Jane Elliot]

Just a thought from a mom who is in the midst of college entrance exams with her older kids--The ability to write quickly is absolutely vital to success on the SAT/ACT essays and then later to success on college essay exams. If you choose not to send your child to college, he still will have situations in which he needs to take notes as someone is speaking.

 

In our home, I don't have the kids do typed anything for school work until they are almost in high school. Handwriting doesn't need to become a focal subject in your day, but at his age you are laying a foundation for an important skill. I wouldn't ditch it too soon. If he is having trouble, he needs gentle and consistent practice every day.

 

ETA: I have a few more minutes, so I'm going to add a few more thoughts. It is not abnormal at all for a boy his age to hate the act of handwriting. However, if you let him do all his assignments typed, he will never get the practice he needs to get over his dislike of it. It's like learning an instrument. Kids hate it in the initial stages because it's so unnatural to them. After time, the mechanics of it become second nature so they begin to enjoy the act of playing.

 

If this were me, I would not have him do ANY of his schoolwork in typing. I might have him do more orally, but I would not switch to typing. Definitely use Typing Instructor to teach him to type (that's what we use) because typing is an important skill, too, but don't switch over to typed assignments until he's comfortable with writing. That's my opinion. I hope I don't sound too much like I'm on a soapbox, but I'm seeing this from the other end right now, and I'm so thankful we stuck to our guns on getting our kids comfortable with pencil and paper.

[rafiki]

.

[Jenny in Florida]

. . . when my kids were little we made a conscious choice not to allow manual desterity to interfere with learning.

 

My daughter hated writing anything by hand for years and made herself (and me) miserable when I tried to force the issue. What we did was gently increase the amount of writing required over a period of years while simultaneously letting her learn to type. I'd usually pick one or two subjects in which she was required to write things out by hand. The first year, it was no more than a sentence or two a day. Anything longer, either I'd write for her or she'd type.

 

Once we started letting her type, she developed an interest in creative writing and started producing stories and poems and all kinds of great stuff. And, over the years, we slowly worked on the handwriting thing as a separate issue.

 

She is now in college (did just fine on her SAT essay, by the way), and the approach doesn't seem to have done her any harm.

 

My son and I had gotten to the point two years ago at which we were really angry with each other all the time. Homeschooling was a nightmare, and I was constantly dreaming of sending him to school. Preferably boarding school. Maybe something military.

 

The thing that reliably set him off and caused stress and tension was writing. Finally, I decided that it was more important for us not to hate each other than it was to fight that battle right then. Last year (when he was 9), I required almost no writing. He typed or we did things orally.

 

This year, I'm gently re-introducing very small amounts of writing.

 

In a typical week, he writes out answers (a few words each) to exercises in Greek and Latin and a few sentences for history. He's started doing some light cursive practice with a single sentence of copywork a couple of times a week.

 

For anything longer, he types.

 

We have talked about the handwriting issue, and he understands it's an important skill to learn and that we will be slowly increasing the amount he's required to do. For me, though, this is not a hill on which I'm willing to die.

[Anne in Saskatchewan]

I once heard a speaker say (in response to a question about how much handwriting to force boys to do) that there are two types of handwriting in men - very messy, or else the little block letters that draftsmen and engineers use. But, he said, you still have to teach boys to read and write cursive letters, because they will need to be able to read notes from their wives. :-)

 

My 10 yo son does dictation and copywork each 2x/wk in cursive. Everything else is on the computer (he started a good typing tutor program when he was 8) except where it's not practical - like diagraming sentences or something like that.

 

IMHO there are more important things to stress about.

 

Anne.

[Peela]

My ds12 has been a reluctant and messy handwriter who has fought me for years on how much he needs to write. I do think it is particularly hard for some boys in particular, but a friend with an older boy warned me not to give in to it too much - keep him writing- because she lost control of her son, after waiting and waiting for it to click- once they are teens it gets harder to get them to do things if you haven't been consistent up to that point. Her son ended up in school because she couldnt get him to do anything for her anymore.

 

So, I have been consistent, and had ds do a small amount of handwriting each day, even now (as copywork and dictation and sometimes as written narrations), and then let him write anything longer on the computer. He is quick on the computer due to playing computer games, so he never needed a typing program.

 

At 10, I think he was only doing a couple of lines a day of handwriting, at the most.

Now, at 12, he can handwrite half a page easily, and sometimes a page. And, after some brain gym/kinesiology therapy this year, his handwriting has suddenly gone from scrappy chicken scratch, to beautiful. I always let him print since he hated cursive, but every now and then I would get him to work on a cursive handwriting program so that he didnt forget how to do cursive. Suddenly over a month, he started using cursive for everything- he takes longer though because he has pride in it now that he actually can write beautifully. I truly think he couldnt before- he was doing his best, the fine motor control just simply wasnt there, and now it is- but he is 12. So, I would say, be patient and consistent, dont push it too hard, but keep it going and be encouraging.