Question about pencil grip............

[christyg]

Hi ladies! We are on our second day of LHFHG, and all is still going pretty smoothly. I have a question, though.............we did the handwriting book today for the first time and I noticed that my daughter doesn't hold her pencil exactly like the diagram in the book. It's close to it, but she holds her pencil a little loose. Is this something that I need to correct now, or will she just adjust it on her own as she does more writing? She seems to have good control with her writing. And, what is the easiest way to correct it if she needs it? I did try to get her to put her fingers on it like in the picture today, but that seemed to kind of confuse her, so I told her just to do it like she normally would. Thanks for all of the help!

Christy

[happy@home]

Christy,

I don't have an answer for you, I'll let someone farther down the "homeschool" road help with that. I just wanted to say that today was our 2nd day of LHFHG too!!

The kids are actually excited about tomorrow!

[8arrows]

I have never had this problem before until child number 6. I just kept gently moving her fingers or reminding her. Now she has to correct it herself (doesn't like my intervention). It is better, but not perfect, so I will be watching your answers as well.

[gotpeace91]

Are her fingers in the correct position? Or is it just that she holds it loose? If her fingers aren't in the correct position I would try to correct her before it becomes too difficult to change it. My daughter was in private school when she learned writing and this slipped past my notice. She holds her pencil incorrectly and she really struggles with her cursive, pressing down hard to try to make up for her lack of control and this causes her hand to get tired easily. My ds who holds his pencil correctly doesn't have these problems and caught on to cursive much easier than her. Perhaps you could try giving her smaller lessons for a couple weeks while focusing on correct grip, giving stickers for good efforts toward learning the new way. I did try for a short time to help my dd to learn holding it the correct way and although she cheerfully gave her best effort it was just too late to unlearn the old way so I gave it up.

Leah

[swymm89]

As the mom of an almost 13 yo boy who does not hold his pencil correctly and has terrible penmanship, my 2 cents is correct it while they are young. It is much easier to learn ut correctly than to learn the wrong way then have to unlearn it.

HTH
Susan
CTC
Daniel almost 13
Sarah 11

[christyg]

Thanks ladies for all of the help! She is almost in the correct position..........she brings her thumb over a little too far. I will just try to work with her some on making her hand look like the picture in the book. Hopefully we can correct it. Thanks again!

Christy

[kiloyd]

Thanks for this helpful post!

[mariaw]

Well, *I* don't hold my pencil correctly!! And I do calligraphy and even got paid for it (before kids ). I wrap my thumb all the way around. My dd8 does the same thing, and I tried to correct it at first because I got so much grief for it over the years. ("Your handwriting is beautiful, but you need to learn how to hold a pencil correctly!" ?????) But, she also has beautiful handwriting, and she writes in a way that is most comfortable for her. So I say, use your judgement.

When it came time to teach my boys to hold a pencil, I used the jingle in Bob Jones K curriculum (can't remember it now--maybe someone will chime in!), and it really did the trick. It was the most straightforward way I've ever seen to teach someone how to hold a pencil.

ETA--One way to correct what you are talking about is have her write with broken off pencils only a couple of inches long. The eraser has to fit in her palm while she writes. That forces the correct pencil hold.

[Larissa]

I am doing LHFHG with my 4 almost 5 year old. He really struggles with holding the pencil and doing any sort of writing. I am just gently reinforcing the correct hold and encouraging him as much as possible. He's a perfectionist, so when he struggles with ANYTHING, he gets very frustrated. He wants everything to be perfect the first time.

[creekmama]

I have never held my pencil correctly. I have nice handwriting (both print and cursive), but my hand has always tired quickly. My ds is starting handwriting next week, so I will gently correct his grip, but I don't think it's worth a big hassle!

[my3sons]

I think it's good to try to start kiddos out with the proper grip. A pencil grip on a yellow pencil is a good way to begin. If you can find a "chunky yellow pencil", which is the standard yellow pencil only chunkier, those are great. It's not a good idea to use clicky pencils for beginning writers. It's worth investing time in this from the start, but then later on, I do believe we all "perfect" are own individual hold on a pencil - and we're certainly all different when it comes to handwriting grip and style.

In Christ,
Julie

[MistyP]

I have never held my pencil correctly. I have nice handwriting (both print and cursive), but my hand has always tired quickly. My ds is starting handwriting next week, so I will gently correct his grip, but I don't think it's worth a big hassle!

Ditto!!


Today was our second day of LH's too!

[Tansy]

my dd holds her pencil all wrong.. and a lefty to boot.
One reason is her grip is not strong. We are using techniques to strengthen her hand like resistance to her fingers as she presses out. I can already see a shift in her grip as her hand becomes stronger. she also says its not as uncomfortable to hold now.

[jessyb26]

The Handwriting without Tears program suggests using golf sized pencils for handwriting to promote proper grasp. We have used the smaller sized pencils for our daughter as well as the short colored pencils and broken crayons to help with grasp. This promotes proper grasp because there is no room on the pencil for all of your fingers to grip just your index finger and thumb. This has worked really well for us.

[christyg]

Hey Jessica! This is probably a crazy question, but what is a golf-sized pencil? I don't think that I have ever heard of that..........thanks so much!

Christy