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Hello everyone,

Our family has been using HOD since the beginning of our school. My daughter is 9 and started CTC this July. My son is 7 with a September birthday, he is using Bigger this year. They are both excelling and loving HOD as well as I always have. We are having only one issue though. My son's handwriting is awful. Now, I really haven't been concerned with it much because I do realize that boys can struggle with this however, it just doesn't seem to be improving at all. He is doing amazingly well with everything else and outside of the writing I do feel that he is in the guide that he should be. However, I fear that he just keeps getting further behind with the writing. Having done Preparing last year, I know what we are in for. We have been attempting Cheerful Cursive and I was hoping the cursive may be easier for him but it is not any better than the printing.

I don't think I need to hold him back for handwriting, does anyone have any suggestions or options that they can share with me? My poor guy is just as frustrated as I am.

Perhaps if his printing still needs work, assign to him about 10 minutes a day of the poetry copywork in print, and skip the cursive program for now. In fact, this is what it says in the Introduction pages of the Bigger Hearts Manual:
Handwriting or Copywork
Cursive handwriting practice is scheduled daily using either Cheerful
Cursive or Getty & Dubay Italic: Book ‘D’. Short, daily practice sessions
are most effective when learning a new type of handwriting. If you prefer
a different handwriting program, just to substitute it in place of those that
are scheduled.
If your child is not ready for cursive handwriting, he/she should do copywork
instead. Students are directed to copy a portion of the poem being studied
in the unit each day. A different classic poem is introduced each unit.
By copying from a correctly written model, students gain practice in
handwriting, spelling, grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and vocabulary.
Copywork also prepares students to eventually write their own compositions.
Some students will be able to copy directly from the typed poems in the
Appendix. Other students will need you to write a line or two from the
poem on paper for them to copy directly below it.
Copywork sessions should be limited to 5-10 minutes. Work should be
required to be done neatly and correctly. It is more important for students
to produce careful, quality work, rather than a large quantity that is
carelessly done. Copywork assignments can be done in a notebook or
on loose-leaf paper to be collected in a binder.

Thank you for your response and that reminder. I have really been at a loss what to do for him. I discussed copywork with him today and he wanted to do it. I used the big lined paper (Kindergarten style) and copied the first line in our poem for this week. I then asked him to copy over what I wrote and then again below the line and to focus on how the letters are made. He was happier and so was I. It looks like we will do this for a while and reevaluate after some time. I just needed that gentle reminder!

Yay! I love HOD's gentle approach to everything-a little bit done carefully is better than a lot done with frustration-sounds like youa re off to a great start with copywork

Great advice from Lourdes that I agree with 100%! So glad you tried it and are already seeing an improvement - way to go, mom! I just wanted to mention that sometimes it is a spacing issue, or a not noticing the "stopping points" issue. This was the case for our ds Riley, and I took pics of what helped him...

Pics of hi-lighting Riley’s lines for HW:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4618&p=34014

Changing the type of paper or the kind of pencils seems to help too! Slowing moving to smaller lines and eventually notebook paper helps. Here is one other link that may help...
Pics of progression of writing:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5605&p=41147#p41147

Hope something here helps!
In Christ,
Julie