Happy Homeschoolers
i am doing K with my 5 year old this fall and she hates bookwork. that is fine with me except that i can't get her to do handwriting worksheets (tracing letters) without tears and frustration. she can write all her letters and some words but i wanted her to still do some tracing to learn proper technique and improve handwriting. it is just a big fight and we both end up upset. is there a way to teach proper handwriting without the lined tracing sheets? i thought about letting her do it in paint and such (put paint in a ziplock and let her write with fingers, no mess) but that really doesn't help with technique because she has no lines to go by. how can i make handwriting fun?
Replies
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I used a 1 gallon sized ziploc and filled it with a bottle of hair gel from the dollar store, blue food coloring and glitter. I taped the edges of it, lol. My kids loved that thing.
Honestly I wouldn't worry about lines yet if she's not interested. I would focus on making it fun while learning the proper way. Writing big on chalkboards, dry erase boards, rice on a baking sheet or making letters with play-doh. Writing on the lines will come. -
Thanks. I wasn't sure how important it was to push it or not. I always like a second opinion.
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Bump same issue -
My DS has the same issue. I don't push. In the fall, I plan on going at it a little harder but for now, I let him make his letters how he wants. I don't want him to hate any part of learning. -
I was having that issue with my 4 yr old. He could trace but free handing would frustrate him. I allowed him to trace for a week and then this week I tried the freehand again andhe got it. Maybe allow her to write it her way one week but tell her htat next week we are trying it different. Maybe it'll click?
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We use a white board and chalk and anything pretty much to make it fun but I found this site www.readingkey.com and the kindergarten pages are fun. We use markers and my 4 yo loves them and looks forward to doing the pages cause it's tracing without the tracing. The site isn't free but has a free trial pages.
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my daughter is opposite, she will freehand but wont trace. her freehand letters are all diff sizes, the reason i wanted to to do tracing sheets but those just frusterate her and she gets upset.
Quoting chotovec82:
I was having that issue with my 4 yr old. He could trace but free handing would frustrate him. I allowed him to trace for a week and then this week I tried the freehand again andhe got it. Maybe allow her to write it her way one week but tell her htat next week we are trying it different. Maybe it'll click?
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I know I'm a little late on this but I thought if you haven't found anything to help your daughter with learning how to print I thought I would say that has been working with my son on his cursive skills. You might want to try handwriting without tears. their website is http://www.hwtears.com/ . They have a whole cirriculum that starts off with printing and then goes into cursive but it's what my son started out with when he was Occupational Therapy and we just followed it through to cursive. He loves it a lot and has been doing it since the beginning of this school year. I hope that helps. Sorry it's late.
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We started without lines and only moved to them when he wanted them. Now he wants to learn cursive so he has his first tracing type writing book. Hes 5 but he wants to do it so we are. -
Here's what i was told. Dont focus on the handwriting and instead focus on activities that strengthen their hands and small motor control, the writing will come with time.
Thats what i was told by the teacher at our charter school. Also you might try changing the grip size on her pencil? If you havent.