Handwriting ability

[Gyminey]

My son is finishing up LHTH next week and will be going into LHFHG in the fall. He is doing fantastic, loves school, and can't wait to officially start "kindergarden." I know that he is ready to move into the next guide, with the exception of handwriting. He really struggles with writing. He has never like to color or do anything like that. We just did a "count on me" page where he had to draw four circles in each box. He CAN NOT make a circle! And this is the end of the guide! Should I be concerned about this weakness moving up? He is already reading, and his reading and comprehension skills seem to way outshine his fine motor skills. Any thoughts? He is my oldest and first to be schooled, so I have zero experience and struggle with a "big picture" view of school.

[Nealewill]

I see that he is pretty young. My son was very delayed with fine motor skills. He also was delayed with speech and language (he didn't talk until he was 4). But now that he is 8, he is practically like every other 8 year old boy. He writes a ton! He can't spell but he can't write He also reads very well - probably a 4th grade level now but he does struggle sometimes with sounding out words too because if he doesn't recognize the word, then he won't be able to "guess" well with what sounds right. But I digress.

I think he will catch up. LHFHG is very gentle with fine motor skills. There isn't a ton of writing at all in it. I think you could try it out and see how he does. The only thing I would recommend, if it were me, I wouldn't start him with LHFHG until he is 5. Also, I would just take the motor skills part slowly. Unless you think sometimes is drastically wrong, I really wouldn't worry at this point. My son did OT, and still does but he didn't start until last year because he was still struggling significantly. And that was right before he turned 7. Basically, for him, he had very weak muscle tone in his hands and now he is very strong. Also, they had to help him learn to bend his fingers. And now he does. But with your son's age, I wouldn't worry at all.

[StephanieU]

Since he is young, you could definitely go half speed for a while in LHFHG. Do the history reading one day and storytime the next. And then do the FMS workbooks to start and then add int he handwriting when he is ready. You could do math and phonics daily, but it wouldn't be necessary. You could just do one with history and the other with storytime. But if you did a little FMS daily, that would help him catch up in that area. And the Rod and Staff books are fun! My daughter isn't a huge coloring fan, but she was even willing to color some in those books (I had to help on the pages with a lot of coloring, but those with a smaller amount she did on her own).

[MomtoJGJE]

I wouldn't worry about him not writing right now. In fact, I might even just do one thing of writing for him each day (either FMS, or handwriting, or math, or one of the other things) In fact, I'd probably just do math or FMS and skip handwriting all together at this point. He's really very young.

[Gyminey]

Thanks for the input. I know he is young, and we really went back and forth about whether or not to start him on LHFHG at all. Fact is, he is asking for more! I have done "trial runs" with some of the reading and he likes it and can sit through it. We plan to go slow anyway and stretch the next few guides out over a couple more years so he is older before going into Preparing. I just want to find a balance between giving him more and not frustrating him As an aside, we broke out some colored pencils today (instead of crayons which we usually use) and he sat for 20 minutes coloring in his Z!! He was so excited and proud because he made it "striped" and couldn't wait to show daddy Maybe I just need to change things up more!

[my3sons]

Hi Gyminey! Your ds sounds like he is flourishing with reading and quite like most boys his age in writing. I think he is fine to begin LHFHG! I would encourage you to experiment with different pencils and grippers. Ticonderoga pencils worked great for one of my sons doing LHFHG. A gripper on a #2 pencil worked great for another one of my sons. A sturdy heavier lead clicky pencil worked for my other ds. They all loved using dry erase markers on marker boards. I think you will find what works best for your little guy with some experimenting. I would try to have him grow into the fine motor skills of LHFHG. As far as drawing circles and the like goes, you can lightly draw them in pencil yourself and have him trace them. This will have him strengthening those muscles in his hand and learning how to move his pencil well without him being frustrated with getting it all on his own right away. Just keep encouraging him, and he will grow into this well! I think you have a super year ahead of you in LHFHG!

In Christ,
Julie

[Rice]

Love Julie's reply!

Just another thought, outside of school time you can do fun activities that will help his fine motor control and hand-eye coordination. Of course, I suggest you Google what some of the best ones for you might be but some starter ideas are: play doh, buttoning big buttons, tying knots (though this can be a pain in the neck - my oldest DS tied EVERYTHING: cords, shoe laces, skipping ropes, etc. in knots, lol), painting or paint with water, finger paint, threading nuts & bolts, stringing beads on a string (or Cheerios/Fruit Loops to make edible necklaces), etc. There are SO many fun things out there to help him practice skills that will help with printing. Enjoy!

Blessings,

[MelInKansas]

Cutting with scissors is another good fine motor practice activity. When my DD was 4, she hated writing but loved cutting. So I got her a cutting workbook. The fine motor books in LHFHG have some cutting in them too. Now she likes writing, most of the time, and is doing pretty well with it.