The importance of proper handwriting in K

[hsmom2]

Ladies,
I am feeling like I am putting too much pressure on my almost 6 year old to form her letters correctly. She has a tendency to form her letters the way she wants to, not the way handwriting programs teach. For instance, she starts most of her letters from the bottom of the page and o's and a's are started at the bottom or from the top and to the right instead of the left.

Today she said, after I tried to correct her, "Well at least I wrote an a".

Any suggestions, keep after her...let her go for now????

Thank you,
Carla

[acts29stl]

There are some pre-handwriting exercises she can work on to reinforce the top-to-bottom formation. You can have her just draw lines on a paper going from top-to-bottom, top-to-bottom and so on. Getting out markers, crayons, paints, fingerpaints, etc helps make this activity fun and creative but also reinforces the technique of going from top-to-bottom. I know A Reason For Handwriting K starts their program out with various activities like these. Also making lines going from left-to-right is helpful as well.

Of course, then they start cursive in a few years and all the lowercase letters go from bottom to top!!

[my3sons]

Hi Carla! It is sometimes a challenge to help dc learn how to correctly form letters, but it is less of a challenge than trying to undo the habits of improperly forming letters. It is important to do at least 1 year of formal handwriting, and we really enjoyed "A Reason for Handwriting K", but I think "Italic A" looks very good too. I'm not sure which handwriting program you chose, but following it carefully will help dd learn to write well from the start. It helps to make it more fun. I needed to sit right by my dc when they were learning to write their letters, and encourage them each step of the way. I put stars or little stickers above each letter that was formed well. I also hi-lighted the top and the bottom of the lines so they could see the stopping points well, and said things like, "Oh here comes the top of the line, don't let your letter float away!" (when getting ready to go above the top line), or "Oh here comes the bottom of the line, don't let your letter fall down!" (when getting ready to go below the bottom line), or "Oh here comes a tricky one, let's see if you can figure out where to stop!". Anyway, I know it can be frustrating, but by encouraging dd to do it right from the start, you'll be helping her to develop good writing habits right away, and they won't need to be undone. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie