Handwriting program for begining writer (pk/k) that is not HWOT?

[eclipse]

Any suggestions? I'm not a fan of HWOT, my older kids did not do well on it. I'll probably just teach ds2 on my own without a program, but I'd like to take a look at some others if any one has one they love.

[lach]

Here's a list I once made. I haven't used any, so I can't offer personal recs. I'm sure there are a million more too, these are just ones that came recommended. I'm probably going to go the italics route, because I think it's really pretty, and it's supposed to help the transfer to cursive.

General

• Writing Strands: Challenging Writing Programs for Homeschoolers
• http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/

Writing

• Handwriting Without tears - http://www.hwtears.com/
• Zane-Bloser

Cursive

• Cursive First
• http://www.memoriapress.com/descript...w-cursive.html
• Handwriting without tears - http://www.hwtears.com/
• Spencerian script - http://www.mottmedia.com/pages/publi...sp?Pub=spencer
• Zane-Bloser

Italics

• http://www.pennygardner.com/italicsbk.html
• Barchowsky Fluent - http://www.bfhhandwriting.com/index.php

Copywork

• Classical Writing is Charlotte Mason inspired: http://home.att.net/~classicalwriting/Primer.htm

Software/fonts

• http://www.educationalfontware.com/

[AAK]

we are really enjoying "Draw write now". It is an opportunity for drawing, copywork, and potentially creative writing with stories and illustrations. Assuming your child knows the basic formations of the letters, it is tons of fun. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/096...pf_rd_i=507846

Also, ABeCeDarian, our reading program's level "A" includes writing. You can also get short A, which doesn't. http://www.abcdrp.com/details.asp

Amy

[Jungle Mama]

Handwriting Help For Kids has cute rhymes to help remember each letter. It's cheap and worked really well to help my kindergartener improve proper letter formation. Instead of writing in the book, I let my ds use crayons on blank paper, so I can reuse it. It helped us a lot. HTH!

[rootzdawta]

Eclipse, thanks for starting this thread. I kind of fell into HWT because that's the program I use at work and even before I started work, I found one of the workbooks at the thrift store. In your opinion, what about HWT was ineffective? Thanks.

[Casha'sMommy]

Originally Posted by rootzdawta

Eclipse, thanks for starting this thread. I kind of fell into HWT because that's the program I use at work and even before I started work, I found one of the workbooks at the thrift store. In your opinion, what about HWT was ineffective? Thanks.

I'd love to know what about HWT was not conducive for your kiddos.

[kittie313]

See now I'm one of the ones who will never use a program that isn't HWT to teach handwriting. I had such success with my motor-delayed second child while using this program in preschool (she's finishing up K now) that it pretty much secured this program for us permanently. I had a child who couldn't even feed herself at 4yo (and I'm talking she couldn't even stuff cheerios in her mouth with her hands) who now is writing, drawing with great detail, and riding a bike and learning to tie her shoes at just turned 6yo. For her the activities in the pre-k guide were essential, we spent a year doing just the activities at 3yo to get her gross skills up before starting on the fine motor development at 4yo.

But if I had to choose a different program from HWT, I'd be likely to choose A Reason For Handwriting. I like the looks of it and have a friend who uses it with her kids, so I've seen it physically and feel it would be a great fit if we weren't so completely sold on HWT. (although my 3rd dd doesn't have the motor issues my second does, so she may not be a HWT kid, nor her little sister)

[eclipse]

My older kids did not like that it doesn't look like "regular" writing and pretty much out right refused to do things like start their letters at the top, etc (although I imagine that could be a problem with any program. I have stubborn kids ). Aside from that, neither of them could ever figure out how they were supposed to write on the HWOT two line paper - they try to squish their letters really small to fit inbetween the two lines. Frankly, I never figured out how the heck they were supposed to figure out how to start their letters at the top when there is no top line on the writing paper. My dd's handwriting is much, much better when using traditional three line early writing paper.

I think another issue, for us, was that my older two were forming letters on their own from a very young age, so they weren't interested in doing things like practicing large letters on the slate. So, I'm not sure if it was the program itself that was the issue, or just my stubborn "I'll do it my way" kids . Oh, and I, personally, don't like the way their cursive font looks.

I actually sort of liked the pre-k book that was mostly working on fine motor control by coloring in tiny pictures and things like that, so I might go with that to start out ds2, since he has some fine motor issues. I also loved their suggestion about breaking crayons down to stubs to get a child to hold a pencil/crayon the correct way, and I'll be using that with ds2. There are definitely some positives to it that I will take to whatever program I do use.

[mrsfrenchy]

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[Momma Aimee]

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