Frustrated with HWOT

[MsAlimar]

I started my dd on HWOT because I thought it would be a good fit for her and I had heard good reviews of the program. Now I'm getting completely frustrated that it isn't working like I thought, although she is loving learning to write her letters and keeps asking for more.

 

The slate board worked great for the first several letters BUT completely messes up her curved (C, O, Q, G) letters because she tries to stay on the sides like with the previous letters. I still like the idea of the slate for letters with straight lines. If I give her a sheet of paper or let her use the white board she has no trouble making the letters. Did anybody else's child have trouble using the slate board to make letters with curves?

 

Also, I'm wondering why they list the preferred order to teach letters but then their workbook uses a completely different order? :confused: The order on the website makes complete sense to me but it doesn't even come close to the workbook that my dd is using. I'm beginning to think that I will use the order on the website and just skip around in her workbook.

 

Maybe if I teach the letters in the order listed on the website the slate won't confuse her so much on those curvy letters.

 

Does anybody have any insight or thoughts?

 

Also, how did you teach your children what the purpose of the lines are when writing? I can't seem to explain it so that she understands. :blush: She might just be too young.

 

Yikes! It looks like I've written a book. Sorry! I'm all ears for any suggestions. :bigear:

 

Thank you!

[Guest]

Adrian was about 4 1/2 when we started the PK workbook but when we got to the K book he just hated it. He was literally in tears. He loved the slate and wood letters and did ok on the slate but I did not use the slate formally I just let him do whatever he could on that. I ditched the K workbook and bought Startwrite and now we are doing great. I just make our own worksheets. I still have him tracing for the most part for our handwriting to perfect his letters (I use Manuscript since I did not like the HWT font anyway) and then he gets to practice his writing in his Horizons Phonics workbooks and ETC books. He went from just tracing when we started to copying in no time and it has totally boosted his confidence. His letters look great too!

 

Adrian did not like the boxes concept in the K workbook so I use the three lines. It took a while for him to understand that he must stay in the lines but constant reinforcement has helped him get there. Your child is also very young! What I do now that I know what he can do is erase what we call sloppy work and have him redo it. I did not do that initially because it definitely would not have been a confidence booster but now it's fine. He knows what he can do (he just turned 5 in October) since we compare his good letters with the not so good ones and so he will even ask me to erase the sloppy ones now :D.

 

Disclaimer ;): I think what works best for a child is as individual as each child but that's what has worked for us.

[mamaof2andtwins]

I am going back in my memory a bit here. I do not remember my children having trouble with the curves on the slates, but honestly I don't think I used the slates a whole lot. I used the grey block paper that was in the users manual. I am not sure if the grey block page is in the newer editions of the HWT manual. We used this grey block page for reinforcement, and the book for instruction.

 

The books and the manuals have changed some over the years, so I am not sure what order they present the letters now.

 

As I recall it did take my children a while to learn to form their capital letters above the line. I am not sure it does make sense to omit the top line as HWOT does, but we just worked with it. After a bit of practice all four of my children were fine with it.

 

Jennie

[Aurelia]

We didn't have any trouble with the curved letters on the slate, but if your child is really struggling, don't push it. If she can make them fine without it, I would just do it that way.

 

I told her the lines were to try to fit the letters in, and kind of made a game of it, (ex: "I bet you can't get your "a" between those lines!" or "Make sure your "c" bumps his head on the ceiling and his bottom on the floor.") and she does fine.

[Gwenny]

I use HWOT for my 5.5 year old DD, but when she was 4, she didn't do very well in it. I just put it aside until this year. I'm still not sure if that is what I should have done or not though. At 4, she was very into spelling and "writing books" and spent much of her day writing. Of course, all the letters started at the bottom instead of the top and most were reversed. She hated having me correct her in any way on how to properly form her lettets. Everyone tells you that they are young and to wait until 5 or later. I did this and because of it, her bad writing habits are VERY strong.

 

She has made great progress with HWOT and when she uses the workbook and slate, her reversals are gone. When she is writing for fun, she usually reverts back to old habits.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is to be careful about letting them use improper form. What they start with seems to stick. At least it did in our case.

Gwen

[chellelynnr]

My daughter (4.5 yrs) has the same issue with the slate, but it does not seem to affect her ability to write those letters correctly on paper. I have ditched the HWOT two-lined paper approach though. My dd just seems to understand the three lines better, plus the other workbooks she writes in have three lines, so I figured why confuse her! I used the Pre-K workbook over the summer, but switched to StartWrite after we finished...I like the flexibility of making my own sheets and I can teach the capital and lowercase letters at the same time. Now that I think about it....I really only use the slate and the instructions on how to form the letters in regards to the actual HWOT program.

 

 

Michelle

[Tree House Academy]

I use HWOT for cursive. I didn't like it at all for print.