Handwriting for 6yo Boy

[knitgrl]

Ds will be 6 in August, and going into 1st grade. Writing is hard work for him. This year, we've done some work on handwriting, but mostly on the chalkboard, whiteboard, cornmeal, etc. We've done some writing of his name on paper, but not a whole lot. Folks here seem to like HWOT, but I just got the Rainbow catalog today and it lists the 1st grade kit as $94.95. 😬 What parts should I pick up for that, or is there something else that would be better?

[goldenecho]

8 hours ago, knitgrl said:

Ds will be 6 in August, and going into 1st grade. Writing is hard work for him. This year, we've done some work on handwriting, but mostly on the chalkboard, whiteboard, cornmeal, etc. We've done some writing of his name on paper, but not a whole lot. Folks here seem to like HWOT, but I just got the Rainbow catalog today and it lists the 1st grade kit as $94.95. 😬 What parts should I pick up for that, or is there something else that would be better?

 

If you would like something like Handwriting Without Tears but cheeper, I have a few suggestions (further down).   I personally like the letter style of HWT because all the lowercase letters can be done without taking your hand off the page, and it doesn't contain ball and stick style a, b, d, g, p, and q letters (the ball and stick style of those letters slows down writing later if your child continues to use them, are less useful for preventing letter reversals*, and doesn't convert as well to cursive if you plan to teach that.   (The most common letter reversal, b and d, are formed differently from each other in HWT style, and are less hard to confuse.)   None of these things seemed like a huge thing until I started working with my son, who had done a year of manuscript printing in KG, and realized how much it was messing him up.

But, HWT style lettering printables are hard to find.   All those cute dollar store books with traceable letters, most teacher pay teacher products with traceable letters (all subjects, from science to social studies, not just lanugae arts), and most of those dry erase traceable books you find will be in manuscript.   It was frustrating seeing all these otherwise great resources that I either couldn't use or had to tweak because going back and forth from manuscript to HWT style tripped up my son.

So, on to the cheaper/similar stuff.   There are other programs using HWT style lettering (they don't use the same line style, but I never used HWT for that).   Even if you do use HWT, its good to know about these if you need supplemental stuff.

Logic of English has letters like HWT only italicized.

ProgressivePhonics handwriting program doesn't have some of the early manipulatives and such, but it has a similar letter style and I like how they presents the letters.   And it's FREE.   I would have used it if I had found it first.

PrintPath is also excellent, and very similar to HWT in letter formation/instruction (except it uses tradiation KG 3 lines).   The main program is Capitals First, Numbers Next, and Lowercase at Last.    The 2nd/3rd printable books with those titles are only necessary if it seems like your child needs more help, so unless you need supplementary/extra material it will cost you $15 plus the printer ink to print it.       What's more is that PrintPath has a lot of extras you can get if you need them.   It has a resource combining letter practice with learning about dinosaurs, traceable calendars, traceable language arts and phonics worksheets, and more.   So even if you go with HWT you may want to use some of these to supplement.   It also has a great program (Raising the Roof) for helping kids go from the traditional KG three lined paper to single lined paper.    She's a occupational therapist who works with kids with handwriting problems (in addition to making materials to teach handwriting to everyone), so if you later find out your child does has disgraphia or some other problem that makes handwriting harder, she has a lot of resources for helping with that. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Print-Path-Ot

New South Wales font is very similar to the HWT font as well, and you can find a lot of stuff on Teachers Pay Teachers by Australian and New Zealand teachers using it, since it's the dominant teaching font there. 

If you do go with HWT or another program, I made a pinterest board for anything I found that used a similar font to HWT/PrintPath, especially in other subjects like social studies and science.  https://www.pinterest.com/galel/hs-where-to-find-hwt-printing-resources/

 

 

 

Edited June 19, 2019 by goldenecho

[Ellie]

3 hours ago, knitgrl said:

Ds will be 6 in August, and going into 1st grade. Writing is hard work for him. This year, we've done some work on handwriting, but mostly on the chalkboard, whiteboard, cornmeal, etc. We've done some writing of his name on paper, but not a whole lot. Folks here seem to like HWOT, but I just got the Rainbow catalog today and it lists the 1st grade kit as $94.95. 😬 What parts should I pick up for that, or is there something else that would be better?

You don't need to spend that much money. Srsly.

Zaner Bloser is an excellent penmanship series. It teaches first the strokes that are used to write letters, then the letters using the strokes. It emphasizes correct pencil grip, as well, and placement of the paper. Children who hold their writing implements incorrectly can have a difficult time, so yes, it's important. 🙂

You might also think about giving him a fountain pen, because it is impossible to have an iron grip and press it into the paper.

You could also consider doing Spalding, which teaches children to read by teaching them to spell, and simultaneously teaches penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple composition. You only need the manual (Writing Road to Reading, the fourth edition if you can find it) and a set of phonogram cards, for which you'll spend less than $40.

[knitgrl]

15 hours ago, goldenecho said:

 

If you would like something like Handwriting Without Tears but cheeper, I have a few suggestions (further down).   I personally like the letter style of HWT because all the lowercase letters can be done without taking your hand off the page, and it doesn't contain ball and stick style a, b, d, g, p, and q letters (the ball and stick style of those letters slows down writing later if your child continues to use them, are less useful for preventing letter reversals*, and doesn't convert as well to cursive if you plan to teach that.   (The most common letter reversal, b and d, are formed differently from each other in HWT style, and are less hard to confuse.)   None of these things seemed like a huge thing until I started working with my son, who had done a year of manuscript printing in KG, and realized how much it was messing him up.

But, HWT style lettering printables are hard to find.   All those cute dollar store books with traceable letters, most teacher pay teacher products with traceable letters (all subjects, from science to social studies, not just lanugae arts), and most of those dry erase traceable books you find will be in manuscript.   It was frustrating seeing all these otherwise great resources that I either couldn't use or had to tweak because going back and forth from manuscript to HWT style tripped up my son.

So, on to the cheaper/similar stuff.   There are other programs using HWT style lettering (they don't use the same line style, but I never used HWT for that).   Even if you do use HWT, its good to know about these if you need supplemental stuff.

Logic of English has letters like HWT only italicized.

ProgressivePhonics handwriting program doesn't have some of the early manipulatives and such, but it has a similar letter style and I like how they presents the letters.   And it's FREE.   I would have used it if I had found it first.

PrintPath is also excellent, and very similar to HWT in letter formation/instruction (except it uses tradiation KG 3 lines).   The main program is Capitals First, Numbers Next, and Lowercase at Last.    The 2nd/3rd printable books with those titles are only necessary if it seems like your child needs more help, so unless you need supplementary/extra material it will cost you $15 plus the printer ink to print it.       What's more is that PrintPath has a lot of extras you can get if you need them.   It has a resource combining letter practice with learning about dinosaurs, traceable calendars, traceable language arts and phonics worksheets, and more.   So even if you go with HWT you may want to use some of these to supplement.   It also has a great program (Raising the Roof) for helping kids go from the traditional KG three lined paper to single lined paper.    She's a occupational therapist who works with kids with handwriting problems (in addition to making materials to teach handwriting to everyone), so if you later find out your child does has disgraphia or some other problem that makes handwriting harder, she has a lot of resources for helping with that. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Print-Path-Ot

New South Wales font is very similar to the HWT font as well, and you can find a lot of stuff on Teachers Pay Teachers by Australian and New Zealand teachers using it, since it's the dominant teaching font there. 

If you do go with HWT or another program, I made a pinterest board for anything I found that used a similar font to HWT/PrintPath, especially in other subjects like social studies and science.  https://www.pinterest.com/galel/hs-where-to-find-hwt-printing-resources/

 

 

 

Thank you for such a detailed response. I knew ds would be different than his compliant, worksheet-loving sister. He definitely requires more explicit and extended instruction that she did. I kind of feel like I have to learn everything all over again in order to teach him. I don't have the feeling that he needs a lot of manipulatives; he hasn't been too interested in doing the cornmeal, although he requests doing chalk on the sidewalk. The ProgressivePhonics looks appealing right now. He is working on reading CVC words, so that seems to fit right in.

[HomeAgain]

We did d'nealian for the reason mms suggested - a little longer, but it is a print that goes quickly to cursive with learning the upstroke and a small handful of "new" letters: r, z, f, b.  Boom, done. 
Here is a short list of things I use to work on handwriting:
spirograph
form drawing (waldorf)
tweezer games (like Sneaky Snacky Squirrel)
handwriting templates from SchoolRite.  They're a little expensive, but they have ZB and D'nealian in print and cursive, plus extras.  They fit on Kindergarten paper easily.
Slooooooooooow copywork.  No handwriting worksheets.  Just very slowly, 3 of the same letter each day.  I would draw the letter and talk about it as I went: how it sits on the line, how it touches the middle line, how round it should be...

Other than this, making sure my kid got plenty of active play (to work on core strength) helped immensely.  I can tell when we've slacked a bit because everything suffers. 

[knitgrl]

4 hours ago, mms said:

Or you could just go straight into cursive.  It will take longer, but you'll only need to teach handwriting once, there are no reversals and directions are very stroke based (I have my children recite the strokes as they form the letter and it becomes automatic).  I expect my son will not actually be writing for a while, we're still working on the strokes but for me the long term benefits are well worth it.

Barefoot ragamuffins has a very affordable ($12-15 for everything you need in one book) handwriting curriculum that covers manuscript, italic, slant cursive and straight cursive (kind of like HWOT font) with clear instructions.  I prefer the PDF because it includes all the font options and because I can reprint extra pages as needed.

BTW, the author has several little boys that she taught to write so it is very well laid out for teaching boys!  Learning what I could from the HLTL I now teach handwriting without a curriculum but it is a great place to start! HTH.

Huh. I didn't realize Barefoot Ragamuffins has a handwriting curriculum. You learn something new everyday. 🙂

[knitgrl]

1 hour ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Not contradicting your input mms- just adding our experience. Cursive first did not work for my youngest who is using HWOT. It did for my son, who is one year older than this dd I mention. But she honestly needed the physical hand building that HWOT provides with the small chalk, sponge, golf pencil etc over and over to develop that finger grip and strength. I am a huge cursive first proponent when possible, it does stop reversals and has many benefits, but just posting to mention it doesn’t work for all kids. Of course ymmv but just throwing out there for others reading this whose child may have an actual grip/dexterity/strength  issue that needs addressing. 

So how would I know if he has a grip/dexterity/strength issue? Mostly his grip seems ok, but not always. When it's good, it definitely looks better than the weird grip my oldest has who went to ps. I might be able to get him to use small chalk, but golf pencils do not fly in this house. For some reason, my children have decided they are for "little kids" and will have nothing to do with them. In the beginning of the school year, we did a lot of play dough, but he hasn't been interested in it lately. I have also partnered doing Ed Emberley's faces with him on a white board to help with fine motor control.

[HomeAgain]

26 minutes ago, knitgrl said:

So how would I know if he has a grip/dexterity/strength issue? Mostly his grip seems ok, but not always. When it's good, it definitely looks better than the weird grip my oldest has who went to ps. I might be able to get him to use small chalk, but golf pencils do not fly in this house. For some reason, my children have decided they are for "little kids" and will have nothing to do with them. In the beginning of the school year, we did a lot of play dough, but he hasn't been interested in it lately. I have also partnered doing Ed Emberley's faces with him on a white board to help with fine motor control.

When my youngest was about that age I found mechanical pencils worked well for him.  They have triangular ones with Marvel characters on them.  I encouraged use of block crayons for doing "nature study" (rubbings of anything found in the yard or picked up and put in our nature basket.)  I found a cool set of pens that were half sized and went with a notepad, but I paired them with the spirograph.  I've had kids make confetti (hole punchers) and cut snakes (spirals of paper, cutting along a line I made).  All to build up dexterity.  And when it came time to use an actual, standard pencil, I use the rubber band and cotton ball trick for kids that still have trouble not having a death grip.  It helps them relax, focus on writing, and not on whether the pencil is going to slip.

[knitgrl]

17 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

When my youngest was about that age I found mechanical pencils worked well for him.  They have triangular ones with Marvel characters on them. 

I'm sure he would find the Marvel characters appealing. I think I would also have to put them in a special place where they only get used for school, otherwise they will wander off somewhere and we will never be able to find them when I want them for school. This is the reason I hide books from my children as well. 🙂

17 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Disclaimer- I am not an OT, we've never been to an OT, and I haven't taken any HWOT training. I can tell you what I observed with my dd though. 

Her hand tired easy. Her penmanship was very unsteady- I mean more than a typical child's is, if that makes sense. She didn't make strong strokes and in some cases barely put enough pressure on the paper for a stroke to show up. Didn't matter if it was pen or pencil. Then she developed this really weird wrap thing she did with her wrist where she came in from above the line rather than below to write in cursive.  I actually posted it here at one point- If I can find the post I'll link it for you. All of these things aligned and I realized we needed to try a different tactic. 

As we worked through cursive (Abeka, not HWOT), she gradually adopted a more and more severe type of lefty style hook only with her right hand. I had done HWOT with her in K, but then I switched her after me researching/hearing that cursive was easier for small children to master and would fix reversals and seeing how well it had worked with her brother. But, once the hook grip appeared, and the writing deteriorted I made the decision to drop the cursive for her and go back to the HWOT.

Using the small chalk and sponge when they work on the chalkboard forces them to use a tripod grip, and that's why its an element of the program that worked so well for her. At least that is my understanding and observation. So we did a lot of that- basically retraining her grip and positioning. She also really struggled with the slant of the paper for cursive, so HWOT print again helped with that.

His issues are not as serious as what you have described. I think if I use some of the tips here that will nudge him into a good position (grips, triangular implements, etc.) that will help. I have to also wrap my brain around both having to, and how to teach this. I have some innate artistic ability, so for me, I see that a small "a" is a circle with a line next to it, and you just copy it. For my son, it is a challenge to draw a circle. He can do it. It can be identified as a circle, but it is hard work for him.

[HomeAgain]

31 minutes ago, knitgrl said:

I'm sure he would find the Marvel characters appealing. I think I would also have to put them in a special place where they only get used for school, otherwise they will wander off somewhere and we will never be able to find them when I want them for school. This is the reason I hide books from my children as well. 🙂

His issues are not as serious as what you have described. I think if I use some of the tips here that will nudge him into a good position (grips, triangular implements, etc.) that will help. I have to also wrap my brain around both having to, and how to teach this. I have some innate artistic ability, so for me, I see that a small "a" is a circle with a line next to it, and you just copy it. For my son, it is a challenge to draw a circle. He can do it. It can be identified as a circle, but it is hard work for him.

These two things are why I preferred the D'nealian style of teaching handwriting.  In ZB:
a is a circle with a line next to it.
b is a line with a circle next to it.
d is a circle with a line next to it.
p is a line with a circle next to it.
q is a circle with a line next to it.

It gets confusing, no?  Whereas in D'nealian, the letter shapes are more natural oblong and continue in one stroke through the letter, rather than two separate ones that must be close enough together. 

On another note, now that you've identified the problem with circles, you can create opportunities in his day to build that hand and wrist movement:
-wiping down the table after meals
-cranking a toy or flashlight
-drawing spirals and lazy eights
-playing with light sticks
-spirographs (Walmart used to sell a large one for chalk, perfect for summer activities.)
-using screws and bolts

[Sarah0000]

For reversals, I teach my kids that when you're reading the letter left to right, if you hit the line first, the you write the line first then circle, like p and b. Letters like d and q you see the circle first when reading so that's what you do first when writing. I don't use a handwriting program, just practice and I sit with them and correct until they get it. 

[knitgrl]

On 6/19/2019 at 6:21 PM, mms said:

Yes on the heavier pencil!  Oh and I buy triangular colored pencils and crayons for him as well to promote that grip.

I bought him a set of his very own "special" triangular colored pencils that are his alone to use. His interest in coloring has greatly increased. Thank you so much for the suggestion!

[ktgrok]

Two things - 

!. What helped my kid that struggled with handwriting the most was actually strengthening shoulders and hands and core muscles using money bars. Once they could do money bars, they had better handwriting. 

2. thank you for the link to the Print Path stuff! Ordering now for my kids this year! DS NEEDS HWT style, but decided the workbooks were for "little kids". So this gives me a way to give him worksheets and skirt around that brand/label. Probably will get it for DD as well, if they have cursive.