Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Handwriting woes

Thanks for all the additional advice. These different perspectives are very helpful. I should have said that part of this latest poor handwriting incident was my fault. The project involved describing something in words and picture, so I figured unlined paper would work so he could have the picture on the same page. (Although lined paper wouldn't have corrected the missing spaces between words...)

My plan is to chip away at this a bit every day. Anyone have success with particular paper/pencils?

Yes-- what your CHILD likes. LOL.

Seriously, DD loathed doing handwriting in pencil. She loves gel pens.

We also got her using "journal" composition books. These are bound composition books with primary ruled paper on the LOWER HALF of each page, and unlined paper above that.


Perfect for illustrated writing. Very motivating for kids that don't especially like writing, but DO like creative storytelling.

Thanks. I guess we'll just get a bunch of different things to try. I figured with all the mistakes, pens weren't quite the way to go yet, but maybe a gel roller would feel better and prevent some of the issues.

My DS really hates drawing too.... but that comp paper would have been good for yesterday's project!

JamieH - we don't focus on weaknesses much, at home or at school, but it's gotten to the point where no one can read what he's writing. He's doing great otherwise, and we just went through his recent report card with him and focused more on all the great things. (And asking why he can't bring home some of those "exceeds expectations" in behavior so we can see it too.) Then we brought up the ones in writing/spelling and said that's something that we can work on.

Really, the handwriting is his only "weakness," and in his new school setting, it is not holding him back from doing everything else. At the school he attended the first half of this year, he was prevented from subject acceleration in math because they viewed his handwriting as a problem.

Cray-pas are great for art for kids that skeeve out from crayons and markers.

Did I mention that he cannot stand to get anything on his skin? Cray-pas would set him over the edge!

I don't mean to hijack the discussion but I have a related question for all of you Handwriting Without Tears advocates. How do you know which level is appropriate for your kid? The ones I saw on Amazon were marked kindergarten, 1st, etc. Assuming that my DD is at one of these lower grade levels with her printing, how do I get her to "go back" to those levels. Has anyone just skipped the printing books and gone to the cursive ones? My DD definitely finds cursive to be easier than printing.

I don't think it will work for school but washable fat markers make the clearest straightest letters automatically. That's where we started. Now we're on to pencils and pens. Handwriting without tears book recommends and sells a little bag of golf pencils, saying they're more the right size for children. I just went and broke a few of our pencils in half and sharpened the nubs and told the boy those were his pencils. He can already get any of the pencils, pens, markers, crayons, paints or whatever, just those are 'specially his.

I forget when I learned cursive, but my mom keeps telling me she was surprised when we moved to NY they taught my sister cursive in first grade up there. I think it's a 3rd or 4th grade down here. So, your girl can learn it, but who knows if she'll be allowed to use it in school.
I bought the cursive one for who knows why to use with my boy. Oh, because he showed me some cursive in walmart in the school supplies and I asked him if he could read the letters, he said no. I told him those were still letters. He said he wanted to write like that. The HWT instructions are very clear and understandable.
The beginning of the book says it's even good for kids with sloppy printing to learn cursive properly rather than go back and learn print formally. That's what the salesman said in the preface.

I couldn't even read my own writing most of the time. If I slowed down enough, I could write clearly enough, although a bit wobbly. However, I had to slow down so much it was pretty much an unuable workaround. I learned to just put my effort into listening to the teachers and remembering as much as possible. Also learned to make short notes occasionally. The teachers never even noticed I was not taking notes most of the time.

Just wanted to let you know it caused me little harm in life in case this is a long term issue. I did very well academically in school even with this issue.

Good to hear the school isn't holding him back. This was my concern and why I mentioned my experience. It was rather annoying to be in later grades, being handed remedial writing practice lessons in front of the class. Only happened a few times, but I remember not liking it.