Teaching Handwriting the Fun Way!

Teaching handwriting doesn't have to be a time of tears. Handwriting is natural and you can teach it so that your kids learn it naturally so it doesn't turn into a big battle.The key is to start early

When I say "start early," I don't mean plop your little bittys down at the table and force them to do drill work.

No...handwriting is more than just shaping letters. You should start teaching your little guys to write way before they can read or actually print anything. How do you do this? By...

letting them tear...

yes...let them paint :0

You get the idea. Teaching handwriting begins before the actual learning of letters.

You need to be providing plenty of fun time doing these things. By coloring, cutting, and pasting, they are learning to coordinate their little hands and develop those muscles.

It's this coordination and muscle development in their hands that will help them when they actually get to writing letters and words.

TEACHING HANDWRITING to PRESCHOOLERS

Now you and I know that they aren't writing yet, but call it that.

Make it a big deal.

Get a plastic storage box and put in it:

• Good crayons
- I only recommend Crayola. I know there are cheap brands out there, but they just aren't as

good. Coloring isn't only a visual experience - it's tactile too. It should feel good to their little hands as the color goes

on to the paper smoothly.

• Paste or Glue Stick
• Blank Paper
• Workbooks like Big Skills for Little Hands by School Specialty Publishing are great for teaching handwriting. This is a complete series that covers everything the "National Standards for Early Childhood" recommends that is necessary for your little bitty to learn the motor skills that will help them learn to write properly.

  It includes:

• I Can Paste
• I Can Cut
• I Can Color
• I Can Fold
• I Can Draw
• I Can Trace

Each paperback book has over 200 pages that are bright and colorful so your kids will like working out of them and includes a write-and-wipe laminated page in the back of the book.

For obvious reasons, keep the scissors and paint in a place where they have to ask you to get it for them. :) But don't keep your kids from cutting and painting.

I think my youngest son painted every day of his life when he was a toddler. You can still see the paint smears where he would wipe his little hands when I wasn't looking on the underside of the counter top - love it!

Give them plenty of opportunities at this age to develop their fine motor skills and it will make your job a whole lot easier when they're older.

TEACHING HANDWRITING to KINDERGARTEN

When you child is kindergarten age, begin introducing handwriting with some fun workbooks. The workbooks that I have always used for my children's actual handwriting practice is Draw Write Now .

I figure that if my children are going to spend time writing sentences every day as I am teaching handwriting to them, they might as well be writing something worthwhile.

Each daily lesson is 10-15 minutes and is built around Bible verses so it is not only instructional, but also inspirational. At the end of each week, your children will be given the opportunity to apply excellence to their work as they copy their verse-of-the-week onto their choice of Scripture Border Sheets.

These sheets are pretty, offer a place to write their verse-of-the-week and have a picture or border to color. After they complete it, you can put it in a special notebook to save or show to family.

You can teach your child regular "manuscript" printing or "italic" with this series - it is up to you.

The series starts with Kindergarten and goes all the way through 6th grade.

TEACHING HANDWRITING to FIRST THROUGH SIXTH GRADERS

Yes...I keep teaching handwriting to my children all the way through 6th grade.

I know that the emphasis today is on computers and I teach computer skills to my children as well, but good handwriting is important.

Stick with the Draw Write Now series for teaching handwriting and you will have a complete handwriting curriculum for your kids without leaving any gaps. It starts out with printing for a couple of years - until they are comfortable with it - and then has a "transition" book that will help them make the change to cursive.

Draw Write Now is another activity that you can incorporate into your home schooling. This series is not for teaching handwriting but it gives them an extra reason for writing. You can use these books to coordinate whatever you are studying in history or sciene, and let them write one or two sentences in the space provided for each picture they draw. My kids loved these books.

• Draw Write Now, BOOK 1 Farm Life, Kids and Critters, Storybook Characters
• Draw Write Now, BOOK 2 Christopher Columbus, Harvest Time, Weather
• Draw Write Now, BOOK 3 Native Americans, North America, The Pilgrims
• Draw Write Now, BOOK 4 The Polar Regions, Arctic, Antarctic
• Draw Write Now, BOOK 5 United States, Westward Growth, Moving Forward
• Draw Write Now, BOOK 6 Animal Habitats: On Land, Ponds and Rivers, Oceans
• Draw Write Now, BOOK 7 Animals of the World: Forest Animals
• Draw Write Now, BOOK 8 Animals of the World: Grassland and Desert Animals

TEACHING HANDWRITING to OLDER KIDS

If you want to add some fun to your children's handwriting (only if they want to do this) try

Calligraphy: A Complete Lettering Kit for Beginners

This is a beginner's kit and it introduces the art of beautiful writing and teaches students everything they need to know about basic lettering styles, spacing, strokes, and techniques for several alphabets, including Roman, Chancery, Uncial, and more.

It includes:

• 32-page project book
• cartridge pen
• 3 nibs
• 8 ink cartridges (assorted colors)
• felt-tip marker
• calligraphy and practice paper
• guideline sheet

This kit is great for girls who want to learn "fancy" writing and by letting them have access to a kit like this, it makes handwriting fun and become student driven learning instead of being forced by mom.

You might also want to look in the scrapbooking section in your local craft shop. You can buy books that lots of ideas for writing creatively. This isn't teaching handwriting in the "proper" sense, but it makes it more fun if you have an older child that is still having trouble.

As you can see, teaching handwriting doesn't have to be difficult. The key is to starting early and always making it fun.