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My 2nd born is in LHFHG right now, she is in week 25 of the guide. We have been doing the Italic handwriting series with her, which just has her practicing one letter several times, the guide has her doing 1 page, 2 days a week (fine motor practice the other 3 days). She actually has taken on a little more handwriting practice than that on her own, she likes writing much more than her older sister does.

I am looking ahead to Beyond and one of the major issues with my oldest when we transitioned was the greater requirement in handwriting. It goes up really quickly, especially for copywork. I think my 2nd born will be able to do it better and more easily than her sister, but I am wondering if I should start building up her writing chops NOW. I am planning on schooling at least part of the summer because my oldest needs some catch-up, or at least I would like to do some catch-up because we have been very busy this school year. So I imagine my 2nd will be in Beyond sometime this summer.

Copying short Bible verses is one thought. I could get ARFH 1 (where they do Bible verse copywork, right?), that would give it some structure and make it so that I don't have to pick out verses for her to copy. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks

You could either get the next handwriting book or have her practice copywork.

The thing about the copywork in Beyond is that they do as much as they can do correctly. If they just get one line of the poem done in a week, then that's ok as long as that's what they can do. You'd want to increase it by the end of the year.

I worried the jump for my kiddos would be troublesome as well. So, we did Italic handwriting most days, even when not scheduled until we finished the K book and caught up with the guide for the 1st grade book. Now we do handwriting as scheduled and I think they are ready for handwriting in Beyond. My younger will start with 1-2 lines of copy work each day. My older should be able to start with several lines up to a full verse. If you are worried and you feel your child is ready, I think adding a little extra copy work would be a good idea. Previous suggestions I've seen are to copy the bible verse each week and/or copy all of the writing on Thursday story time, not just fill in the blank.

Yes, I think she is ready for more too, which is another reason I was thinking about it. That's a good idea to go ahead and do the Italic book every day until it is finished and then start the 1st grade book. I think I may look at ARFH 1 at the Homeschool conference this weekend and see if I think she would like that. I know they can start copywork slowly but the problem with my DD is she is kind of an overachiever so I think she will want to do more. Though I'm sure I could introduce it in such a way that it would be fine for her to just do about one line a day. Anyway, I appreciate the input.

My dd is also in LHFHG, and because she liked writing so much at the beginning of the year, I decided to do ARFH K faster than planned. I did not want her to get into bad letter formations. We are now working in ARFH A. Her handwriting is beautiful and she will be able to do the copy work in Beyond without a problem next year. I think she will be thrilled to some more meaningful copy work as she enjoys tracing the scripture verses in ARFH A book.

My son, who is about to finish Beyond tomorrow, did not enjoy copying the poetry, so he copied scripture verses and never complained about that! He also seems very much ready to move on to cursive next school year!

Success

LHFHG has daily fine motor skills practice alternating between R & S Doing It Carefully and Finding the Answers, and A Reason for HW K, along with Storytime's early writing practice emphasizing names and simple words. Of course there are other skills like cutting, gluing, etc. that exercise those little muscles too. Beyond does have more writing, though not a large amount more. Copywork daily from the poetry is part of the plans, but with an emphasis to do as much as is fit for each student. There is writing daily for very short spelling lessons, but we did that on a markerboard, and the only day that was longer was the 3 sentences day (and sentences can be made short if need be ). The gentle intro to grammar doesn't require writing usually. However, looking further down the road, writing increases much more from Beyond to Bigger Hearts. Carrie had this to say about this topic...

...As far as choosing between "Beyond.." and "Bigger..." goes, the amount of writing varies quite a bit between Beyond and Bigger. Bigger requires more writing in the areas of a once a week history notebooking assignment, a once a week science experiment sheet and a once a week science notebooking entry, along with once a week copywork of a Bible verse, 1-3 vocabulary cards each week, cursive handwriting practice daily, and daily grammar instruction with written practice. It also provides a choice of spelling or dictation passages...

So, you are wise to think 'down the road.' We have found it important our dc can do all the writing in a guide before moving on to the next guide, as it helps prepare them well. This post explains the progression of writing through the guides well...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8731&p=64455

We have completed LHTH through MTMM (almost , we have a little left in MTMM this year we are finishing now). I have found it important for our dc to be able to do all of the LA in a guide. If they are struggling with the amount of LA in a guide, we slow it down to half-speed for awhile. Often times, in a few months or half a year, they are good to go full-speed. We work in the direction of steadily increasing until the dc are ready for full-speed.

Every child is different in how they progress. My oldest ds has never had to slow down to half-speed and has fully done all of the guides, and he is at the youngest age range of the guides. My middle ds has needed guides slowed down, partially for strengthening writing skills (from Beyond to Bigger), and partially for strengthening time management skills. For some, the handwriting transition is no transition at all. For others, it is bigger and may require slowing things down or extra practice (i.e. A Reason for HW A or something comparable). HTH as you consider what pacing and practice is best for your child.

In Christ,
Julie