Posted in Writing

Okay, there's teaching writing....and there's teaching penmanship.  Since teaching writing has never been a strength of mine (okay, I've struggled and struggled with it), I'll talk about penmanship.  There isn't a whole lot to say on the subject.  It kind of happens naturally if you work a little here and there with your kids while they are young and don't push them.  That is probably the most important lesson I learned from teaching my first son (firstborns seem to make great guinea pigs).  I pushed him into doing a penmanship workbook waaaay too early regardless of the fact that he really despised it.  I later learned that he probably didn't have the fine motor skills required to do it and that handwriting is something you absolutely should not push boys into. 

When they are old enough to start doing a penmanship book, we use the Italic Handwriting Series for printing.  If they are really young and just wanting to learn their ABC's because older siblings get to do school work, I start them with Book A.  If they already know how to write their ABC's but are ready to start some daily practice, I skip Book A and start them out on Book B.  We do Book C until it gets to the cursive part.  I then switch them to A Reason for Handwriting to learn and practice cursive.  We start this with the book that says "Transition" on the front cover.  For us, this just seems to get the best results as far as legible handwriting.  A Reason for Handwriting has about the right amount of practice we need for cursive.  Although it is a different style from the Italic, the Italic series seems to be really easy to write and to read when learning to print.  If I had it all to do over again, I would probably just start them all off in the Reason to Writing series and call it good.

My oldest son (again, the guinea pig) used Handwriting Without Tears for cursive.  I don't think it was presented extremely well and didn't have enough daily practice for us.  His cursive is still not the easiest to decipher.  I'm not trying to discourage someone from using it because I know a lot of people use it successfully.  This was just our experience with it.

Just to emphasize the important lesson I learned with this....Do not push them in this area -- it will come with time and interest level.  Do not compare their progress with every other child you see -- this is a skill that will come with time and interest level.  (Did I emphasize that enough?)   

A couple of other things that we have used consistently through the years....

     StartWrite Software - I have used this quite a bit to make my own handwriting pages.  Very user-friendly and worth the money.

     Draw Write Now Books - My boys have really enjoyed these books through the years.  I have never "taught" using these.  I just have made them available to my kids and gave them the blank book to do their work in.  They enjoy finding things that go along with whatever they are learning about or reading about and just take off on their own to make their pictures and copy the sentences.  These are great!!!