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Soon my 7 and (8 in Nov) son and 9 (10 in Aug) daughter will move into Bigger. My son has VERY VERY VERY weak handwriting skills. He probably should have OT, but honesty, we don't have the time. I have been praying I can "fix it" on my own. I have done Bigger before and know there is more writing. He traces ok if the letters are big enough and I let him use a fine marker that glides more smoothly across the paper than a pencil. Plus he doesn't seem to have the hand strength to make a strong mark with pencil.

Right now, for spelling, I have him write his words on a letter sized white board. He also works in a Handwriting Without Tears workbook. That is the extent of his "writing". His math is on the computer.

Ironically, he can put together intricate lego sets far above his age range. So it isn't ALL fine motor he struggles with...just writing.

How might I modify the writing required in Bigger for him?

If it were me, I wouldn't modify. I would just give him lots and lots and lots of breaks. Also - I would look for writing utensils where he can write without pushing down. How about a fine tipped marker?

My son had very weak hands. He sounds a lot like your son. Before we used Bigger, I was VERY worried! But last year, he stepped it up! One thing that really helped him is he got breaks. In the plans for Bigger, there will be times when he has to write a bible verse and then draw a picture. That was fine by me. He might write the verse, take a break, and then draw the picture later. For spelling, he just used lined paper but he was also only writing 10 words a few times a week. For math, he did have to use a workbook but it wasn't an excessive amount of writing. For DITHOR - you can have him dictate it to you and you write it. For vocabulary - I would have him only do one word that he writes down rather than 3. Then around week 10 or so, increase it to two words. Around week 20 or so, increase it to 3. This way when he starts Preparing you can just have him do 3 words to start and increase from there. For grammar, keep it orally or have him do one small writing activity. Because this is an increase in writing, I would pray about when to introduce cursive for him. I did use HWOT before finding HOD. I actually had planned to use the HWOT cursive when we went into Bigger. But after we started it, I hated it. I bought Cheerful Cursive and that was way better for him and for my youngest. You could always just do half a page if you wanted to for a while. And you can finish the book while you are doing Preparing. We didn't finish our cursive books last year so we have about 30 pages left to complete. We plan to complete them while doing Preparing at the beginning of the year. Once it is finished, he will then be doing the cursive activities in Preparing. I only mention cheerful cursive because I think it does a fantastic job of preparing kids to write stuff in cursive from print. I had actually had significant issues with my oldest making that transition for quite some time (she started HOD in Preparing but using a different program that never really had her take print and put it into cursive) but Cheerful Cursive has them practice this regularly. For some of the art activities, my son balked at cutting things. He has always struggled with scissors. I did a lot of cutting for him until half way through the year. It was 50/50 then as to who would be cutting. I know that in Preparing he is going to be pushed again with his fine motor skills for a few activities. I am ready to jump in and help when needed but am planning to let it him do it unless he asks for help.

As for hand strength, I went to Children's Hospital near me for the OT. They were great. I didn't even have to go in weekly or anything. They basically just did the evaluation on my son and they gave him a lot of activities to do at home. I didn't have to go back unless I wanted to. Time was an issue for me as well. For me - my son had been to speech and language therapy and I was plain tired of driving up there and I was tired of paying for it! The cool thing about actually going and getting the evaluation is that they gave my son therapy putty. And then they gave him a ton of different activities to do with it. Some of it involved squeezing the putty with his whole hand. For example, he would take the putting and put it into a ball and squeeze it into a log (not roll but squeeze). He then had activities where he pinched the putty with his first two fingers and thumb. He have an activity where he pinched the putty with his first finger only and thumb. He had an activity where he put the putty into a donut shape, put his thumb and fingers into the center and then spread them out to stretch it. They have different stiffnesses of putty. The first time we went, he had the easiest level. Then I took my son for a follow up about a year later when I had to go to Children's hospital for physical therapy with my youngest because she snapped the radius bone in arm and needed physical therapy to get her range of motion back. Ironically his strength had increased significantly and when they gave putty to my son and dd, my dd got one level up from the easiest and my son got one level from her. The putty works. If it were me, have him play with play-doh daily. That will help. Also - if you can get silly putty or even the different types of "slime" in the stores, I would have him play with those as part of school. That will build up hand strength. You might even google how to make stiff play-doh or stiff putty. Those things really engage the hand muscles. My son also had issues with writing anything and keeping a pencil moving in a straight line. He had a hard time bending the joint at the tips of his fingers. So they gave my son small crayon pieces - you can take crayons and break them in half - and then had him color in little dots or trace lines with them. It forced him bend his fingers and pinch those crayon. My son also plays the piano and that has helped to build up strength too. His piano teacher gave him some finger stretching activities along with strength training on the keys to help and it has. He plays the piano for 15 minutes a day.

I say all this to give you some ideas but also to say that it takes time. I understand. But I would push to have him to do as much writing as he can. I would give him a push. Also - one last thing I did that really helped my son is I bought thick Ticonderoga pencils for him to use for school. They have triangle shaped pencils and round ones. He has used both. We started with the triangular ones and moved into the round. Now he can use a regular pencil but that only happened about 3 months ago. Up until then, Sammy needed his special pencils. I am glad he doesn't need them now....they were expensive. But....they were work EVERY penny! He can write and has stamina now.

I agree that getting an evaluation can be very useful. You can tell them you can't do therapy on a regular basis and can they set you up with a home program. Having been a Pediatric Physical Therapist I can tell you that isn't an unreasonable request. It could be something that will get better with age or it could be something that won't get better unless you really focus on improving it with specific therapy techniques. It could also be a piece of a larger puzzle if he is shows weakness all over or poor coordination etc and then they would take a different more global approach. Often if the shoulder and trunk muscles are weak that manifests itself by seeing weakness with fine motor skills, but just strengthening the hands won't help in this situation, you need to strengthen other muscles first. Therapy Putty is good and will help with certain muscles.

You might also look at something called a Twist and Write Pencil. My son used these for several years until his strength and control improved enough to hold a regular pencil.

I'm assuming you aren't willing to split those younger 2 up? Find something else for the 7YO for a year and move him into Bigger once he has grown a little more in this area? And I also assume that he fits in Bigger for all other things - you aren't modifying anything else in Beyond for him. You know the basic argument/problem is that if he can't do the writing in the program now, he still won't be able to if you keep adapting things for him. You will always be adapting. My oldest wasn't ready in Bigger and we slowed it down until she could catch up. Writing is still a struggle for her.

The jump from Beyond to Bigger is a big one so I do adapt some at the beginning, or I did with my 2nd born. Does he like drawing? There are also a lot of drawing projects in Bigger. At the beginning I would often help her with the notebooking, like the one that has them copy a map, I actually drew some of the outlines on the map, or as others mentioned you can have him trace it. For timeline I would often write the name of the person we were studying and have her write the dates and draw the picture. For vocabulary I still write the word and the sentence with the word in it, and have her copy the definition and draw the picture. She really likes to draw. As Daneale suggested, I would say just take it slow with him. Expect short bits at a time, definitely not more than one writing task at a time, praise, praise, praise him for doing it with a good attitude and doing his best, maybe even do rewards or incentives for this.