Neatness - a real concern

[deltagal]

HI all,

I'm once again revisiting the topic of neatness and a crisp, clear handwriting with my son. We were looking over his work today and without exception he could do so much better. His notebook pages in CTC are mediocre at best. He is 13 1/2 and I honestly don't know what to do to "fix" this. Any thoughts?

[GinainMD]

Hi Florence. I don't have an answer to your concern but it is something that I'd like to hear on from others also.

[annaz]

I'm probably not much help either, but if he can do better and you know it, I don't except it. I make dd do it over. Quality work is what I accept, not a bunch of slop put together. This only happens every so often. Perhaps you could break the writing up or have him take a minute or two break cutting the writing in half. But I guarantee, if he is able, he'll only do it over maybe twice and you'll get what you want.

[deltagal]

I'm probably not much help either, but if he can do better and you know it, I don't except it. I make dd do it over. Quality work is what I accept, not a bunch of slop put together. This only happens every so often. Perhaps you could break the writing up or have him take a minute or two break cutting the writing in half. But I guarantee, if he is able, he'll only do it over maybe twice and you'll get what you want.

This is true, BUT this monkey seems to stay on MY back. For example, he'll do it better as long as I'm really on top of him, but the minute I stop he becomes slack. For example, he "lost" his poetry copywork from yesterday and I commented (in a nice way) that losing it was probably not a bad thing, since he would need to repeat the work anyway. Then he handed in a beautifully done poetry/artwork piece later this a.m. I need him to own this. I'm thinking more severe consequences are needed...

[annaz]

This is true, BUT this monkey seems to stay on MY back. For example, he'll do it better as long as I'm really on top of him, but the minute I stop he becomes slack. For example, he "lost" his poetry copywork from yesterday and I commented (in a nice way) that losing it was probably not a bad thing, since he would need to repeat the work anyway. Then he handed in a beautifully done poetry/artwork piece later this a.m. I need him to own this. I'm thinking more severe consequences are needed...

Yep...sounds like a discipline issue not a handwriting issue.
I love your response. I think it was great!

[my3sons]

It may help to clarify that writing has certain guidelines that should be followed. One guideline that always must be followed is writing must be legible. Of course what is considered legible by one is not considered legible by another sometimes, which brings me to the fact that writing guidelines do change based on the kind of writing being done. For example, when jotting a name and phone number with a short message down on a sticky note, writing may be hurried and not so neat - this is fine in this situation - especially if you are just going call the person back right away and then throw the note. When taking notes that you are going to quickly revise, writing may not be so neat, may be in phrases and hurried, and that's okay in that situation too, because you're reading it yourself and then rewriting it in better form. However, writing that is to be the finished product and that is either to reflect best work or to be read and enjoyed by others needs to not only be legible but also as neat as possible, while still being done in a fairly timely fashion. Anything that goes in the Student Notebook for HOD falls into this latter category. Science Lab sheets fall in this category. Final drafts of creative writing fall into this category (but taking notes earlier on for the rough draft don't). It helped my ds to make this distinction. He could clearly see my handwriting is not always perfect just by looking at my grocery list , and I think he thought 'why does my writing have to be so perfect all of the time?'. This is a good question. The truth is it doesn't have to be so perfect all of the time. Saying, "This is a time for your writing to be quite neat", or "This is a time for you just to quickly get your thoughts down on paper, so neatness takes a back seat to speed and legibility for you", or "This is a time for you to use your absolute best writing" prior to starting a school assignment can really help. If you've said it requires his best writing and he gives you a mess, then it's time to redo. But, I think just pointing out that there are times when writing doesn't always have to be his "best" would help him try harder when it does. This has really helped my oldest ds.

In Christ,
Julie

[deltagal]

He has done very well this week. To the point that now, without any prompting he is bringing me his final product to review. We will see how long it holds...

[Carrie]

Florence,

I think you've hit the nail on the head. The handwriting issue with an older child is a habit that has been formed like any other. To undo a habit, it typically takes 30 days of solid overseeing a habit daily to break it and for a new habit to begin to form. Then, you can begin alternating days of checking the habit, but don't give up overseeing it too early or the old habit will emerge again.

I know this to be true, yet I often focus on changing too many habits at once, and my children are overwhelmed. CM leans toward working on one main habit at a time, calling it habit training. It's hard for me to do this, yet when I really think about it... if my children formed one new good habit each month of school (and practiced that new habit in the following months) that would be alot of new habits in one year! Somehow, I bog down in the first 30 days and add another habit to work on too soon before the old one is reformed.

Anyway, I know what you're talking about! I have a habit of not enforcing my new habits as long as I should.

Blessings,
Carrie

[deltagal]

I know this to be true, yet I often focus on changing too many habits at once, and my children are overwhelmed. CM leans toward working on one main habit at a time, calling it habit training. It's hard for me to do this, yet when I really think about it... if my children formed one new good habit each month of school (and practiced that new habit in the following months) that would be alot of new habits in one year! Somehow, I bog down in the first 30 days and add another habit to work on too soon before the old one is reformed.

We've been talking aLOT about this in our home this week. We have so many things we want to accomplish with our children and feel like we're revisiting old ground on a variety of topics, but I'm encouraged by the thirty days. Just this morning I revised our chore chart to be a chart for the MONTH (30 days), I commented that this should be enough time for everyone to learn how to properly do their chores before we change the rotation. Anyhow, on this same note, I've begun to keep a journal to remind myself what I'm working on with my children, so I (and they) will stay on track. And I'll be aware of how much I'm expecting and keep it reasonable.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[Carrie]

Florence,

This is a wonderful way to track the habits that are being worked upon and also to track how long the training has been in progress. I am inspired to keep better track myself and to focus more solely on one habit each month for each child for training purposes and one habit (or more) from past training to reinforce.

Blessings,
Carrie