Teaching Writing - I need help being more relaxed

[eastkygal]

I posted about the big pencil a few days ago. Now, I'm wondering about the paper with the big lines and the dashes through the middle. DD1 can do better without the "form" this kind of paper places. The curriculum I'm using has you trace the (number for us at this time) character. The character has specifc form in terms of the lines and dashes. Then, when the child is to practice on their own, the instructions tell me to make sure that she makes the specific form on her own. For ex. 3. the top curve is to meet the top line. The middle of the three is to be at the dashes. The bottom curve is to meet the bottom line. DD1 doesn't seem willing to abide by these "rules". I believe she could, but it seems like she would have to effort more than she wants to to write - if that makes sense. So, I let her do some without the restrictions. She made beautiful threes that were much tinier than the ones proposed by the curriculum. Of course they did not fit well with the dashed lines.
Now, I'm questioning how to proceed. Do I stick within the rigid form of the curriculum, or do I let her explore what she can do with each character, and let it evolve on its own. She learned to write her name on her own. She writes it perfectly legible. If I just show her a character, she usually copies it well. Writing and handwriting is a skill I want my children to possess. I know we are computer based now, but I still have value for a handwritten letter and other such things. But, I want our learning to be freeing. Not where I have to erase her work and tell her to remain within this "neat" rule based thing. It makes me uncomfortable, and I know she didn't enjoy our school time as much as she usually does today.
We sculpted a 2 out of clay today before learning to write 3. That was fun, but she is wanting to write with a pen or pencil, and I want to help her without struggle.
Also, how "neat" do you require their work to be? This is kindy year for us. I am finding myself saying "take your time" too much.
I haven't bought the complete kindy curriculum yet. I'm wondering now if this would be a little to restrictive for us. I like it in many ways. The number concepts portion is nice. The pictures and themes are nature/domestic based and that plays on my love for Waldorf. I am not a classical homeschooler, but I do find merit in the traditional ways of approaching the learning of certain subjects - like phonics for reading. We're electic. Any suggestions on a curriculum that might be a little freer?

[ikesmom]

We did HWOT and

Handwriting Help for Kids- http://www.handwritinghelpforkids.com/products2.html

My older ds has dysgraphia so we really tried to work with the handwriting. He didn't like pencil and paper- You don't have to use paper..you can have her trace the letter in paint , shaving cream, sand, pudding. She can make letters out of play dough. We cut out letter from paper and glued them to popsicle sticks and planted them in a planter of sand like letter flowers. A paint brush with water on the sidewalk works too.

My younger ds (4) is stubborn and doesnt want to follow much of anything..he wants to teach us He likes to write on an aqua doodle pad like this http://www.amazon.com/Aquadoodle-Dra..._ptcn_edpp_url

[bobandjess99]

Is this for a child who just turned 4? You call it a "Kindy" year, but we're talking about a very young preschooler here, right?
I think the best way to relax is to just consider that ANY amount of writing at this age is "above the bar". This is a child who would, in my state, not even be eligible for kindergarten this upcoming fall...(have to be 5 by Aug 1st), she would be going to kindy in fall of 2011.

[Lillian J]

With a child that age, you're expecting a lot. Since you love Waldorf, keep in mind that they wouldn't even start any writing till she was six and in 1st grade, and then it would be very gradual and with a crayon. So if she particularly wants to write, and with a pen, you might just let her write whatever she wants in whatever way she wants, even if it's just scribble. She's just awfully young for any formal studies. - Lillian

[craft_media_hero]

This is why we abandoned the dotted lines and lines altogether and went to blank paper for writing practice.

We started out the year (first grade after a year in public kindy that left her extremely frustrated with writing) with sandpaper letters and modeling the letters with modeling clay or pipe cleaners, drawing them in rice or sand, tracing them on the sidewalk with toy cars, drawing w/ finger in the air, etc. We would spend about a week or even two learning to properly form each letter before I would "let" her move to writing one big letter in the center of blank paper with a big fat crayon, saving one page of her best letter sample in a book, kind of ala Waldorf. We also only did the caps letters this way for at least half the year.

After she had mastered each caps letter individually, we moved to doing one word copy work with each letter over an inch high. Then a couple of words at a time, then a short poem, etc. All of this on blank paper, maybe I'd outline a very light tan liner to give her a horizontal guide across the page. We did this short all caps copywork for a few months, and by then she was asking me regularly to move on to lowercase.

So after a mid-year break from studies, we started up the copywork with lowercase, and her writing ability had matured so much from all of the foundational stuff we'd been doing the first half of the year, that she was able to pick up the lower case easily without doing a letter a week, etc. We just did copywork like this: both have a blank page with light tan crayon liner if necessary, I write one letter or even one stroke of a letter, and she copies exactly, then the next stroke, etc. At this point she was using a regular pencil, too.

We needed a very slow, gentle, incremental approach to teaching writing, and this worked GREAT for us. Now, I feel like she's totally caught up and actually has very neat handwriting for a six year old. She can now do a short poem of copywork just looking at a whole sheet that I wrote out, not copying me stroke by stroke.

I think a lot of it is just maturity and fine motor skills. Doing modeling, finger-crochet, tweezing/tonging small objects and other hand muscle exercises will really help a lot.

We also did a lot of mazes--the "chubby" ones in the Kumon books, and I'd encourage her to go really slowly and try her best not to bump the walls, just to help her get pencil control. Also, this whole time, she did have lined paper, dotted paper, letter trace books, small pencils, pens, etc. available for whenever she wanted just for fun, and I let that totally be free play stuff with no real feedback from me on it. She could do all that stuff as much as she wanted, but when it came to actual instruction, what I described above is what we did, and I feel like it was a really effective and natural progression.

I think taking it really easy and giving my daughter a lot of time and space was exactly what she needed to now have confidence in her writing ability. I feel like she's ready to start cursive next year--she's been asking for it for ages. So we'll be doing a more traditional approach next year, probably HWOT or Cursive First, now that she's more ready for that kind of instruction.

Good luck! Hope any of this helps give you some good ideas.

[Bluegoat]

I noticed that when I started doing a little writing with my dd at 4 she struggled. All of a sudden more recently, she is much more capable, and finds it less frustrating. I don't think it related to anything we did, just a developmental milestone. So I am inclined to think now we'd have been better off just to have waited.

[craft_media_hero]

Originally Posted by Bluegoat

I noticed that when I started doing a little writing with my dd at 4 she struggled. All of a sudden more recently, she is much more capable, and finds it less frustrating. I don't think it related to anything we did, just a developmental milestone. So I am inclined to think now we'd have been better off just to have waited.

Yes! I really wish that the school dd attended last year hadn't pushed writing at all (at 5yo) as she just really wasn't ready and needed more time. This year, at 6, starting from the beginning and making it very hands-on was much more productive.

[eastkygal]

Originally Posted by bobandjess99

Is this for a child who just turned 4? You call it a "Kindy" year, but we're talking about a very young preschooler here, right?
I think the best way to relax is to just consider that ANY amount of writing at this age is "above the bar". This is a child who would, in my state, not even be eligible for kindergarten this upcoming fall...(have to be 5 by Aug 1st), she would be going to kindy in fall of 2011.

No, she will be turning 5 very soon and in our state would be starting kindergarten in August this year. I am the one hyped up. I understand that it is still early for her. She is asking to learn. She is asking for formality. I just need to be more easy going about the result. This year will be her kindy year. She has shown signs of readiness, and is asking to learn these things. Otherwise, with my love of Waldorf we would be waiting.

Originally Posted by Lillian J

With a child that age, you're expecting a lot. Since you love Waldorf, keep in mind that they wouldn't even start any writing till she was six and in 1st grade, and then it would be very gradual and with a crayon. So if she particularly wants to write, and with a pen, you might just let her write whatever she wants in whatever way she wants, even if it's just scribble. She's just awfully young for any formal studies. - Lillian

She does this, but is asking to learn to write words, numbers and letters. She is very aware of the difference between her "writing" and our characters. I have been researching Waldorf since she was 15 months old, and while she isn't ready for academics (according to the philosophy) age wise, she has shown many other signs of academic readiness. I do have appropriate curriculum for her age. Actually, it is a preschool curriculum I am using. It's me who needs to relax and realize we are homeschooling and that means we don't always have to follow the book directions. Thanks.

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero

This is why we abandoned the dotted lines and lines altogether and went to blank paper for writing practice.

We started out the year (first grade after a year in public kindy that left her extremely frustrated with writing) with sandpaper letters and modeling the letters with modeling clay or pipe cleaners, drawing them in rice or sand, tracing them on the sidewalk with toy cars, drawing w/ finger in the air, etc. We would spend about a week or even two learning to properly form each letter before I would "let" her move to writing one big letter in the center of blank paper with a big fat crayon, saving one page of her best letter sample in a book, kind of ala Waldorf. We also only did the caps letters this way for at least half the year.

After she had mastered each caps letter individually, we moved to doing one word copy work with each letter over an inch high. Then a couple of words at a time, then a short poem, etc. All of this on blank paper, maybe I'd outline a very light tan liner to give her a horizontal guide across the page. We did this short all caps copywork for a few months, and by then she was asking me regularly to move on to lowercase.

So after a mid-year break from studies, we started up the copywork with lowercase, and her writing ability had matured so much from all of the foundational stuff we'd been doing the first half of the year, that she was able to pick up the lower case easily without doing a letter a week, etc. We just did copywork like this: both have a blank page with light tan crayon liner if necessary, I write one letter or even one stroke of a letter, and she copies exactly, then the next stroke, etc. At this point she was using a regular pencil, too.

We needed a very slow, gentle, incremental approach to teaching writing, and this worked GREAT for us. Now, I feel like she's totally caught up and actually has very neat handwriting for a six year old. She can now do a short poem of copywork just looking at a whole sheet that I wrote out, not copying me stroke by stroke.

I think a lot of it is just maturity and fine motor skills. Doing modeling, finger-crochet, tweezing/tonging small objects and other hand muscle exercises will really help a lot.

We also did a lot of mazes--the "chubby" ones in the Kumon books, and I'd encourage her to go really slowly and try her best not to bump the walls, just to help her get pencil control. Also, this whole time, she did have lined paper, dotted paper, letter trace books, small pencils, pens, etc. available for whenever she wanted just for fun, and I let that totally be free play stuff with no real feedback from me on it. She could do all that stuff as much as she wanted, but when it came to actual instruction, what I described above is what we did, and I feel like it was a really effective and natural progression.

I think taking it really easy and giving my daughter a lot of time and space was exactly what she needed to now have confidence in her writing ability. I feel like she's ready to start cursive next year--she's been asking for it for ages. So we'll be doing a more traditional approach next year, probably HWOT or Cursive First, now that she's more ready for that kind of instruction.

Good luck! Hope any of this helps give you some good ideas.

Thank you. Yes, this does sound good, and I think she would like this, especially making the letters and numbers into a book. This gives me a little more to go with. I'm used to teaching children who already know how to form letters. So, I'm always up for ideas for little ones. I have to remember I'm teaching an almost 5 year old and not a teenager. hehehe

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero

Yes! I really wish that the school dd attended last year hadn't pushed writing at all (at 5yo) as she just really wasn't ready and needed more time. This year, at 6, starting from the beginning and making it very hands-on was much more productive.

This is why I want to follow her lead and keep her home. She would be doing the same thing and it would be pushy. I don't want to be pushy.

[Mere]

I have used Handwriting without tears (HWOT) for both of my children; the end result with both has been great, but the experience was very different with each child.

DD: started writing letters at age 4 or so. We just let her go for it, and didn't give her any instruction unless she asked. I started her in HWOT around age 6 b/c her handwriting needed some help. It was a struggle for her to "unlearn" some of the bad habits she had formed, but now she writes quite neatly.

DS: He had no interest in writing letters until age 5 or 5.5 (not even his name). As soon as he showed interest, I started him on the HWOT pre-k book. He learned to write the letters correctly from the get-go, and doesn't have any issues with letter formation, writing letters backwards, etc.

[shinky]

Hey, girl! If you'll remember, our first-born DD's are only days apart. We'll be starting DD1 in kindergarten this fall. (Homeschooling, obviously.) I completely understand that you're trying to relax and step back. Sometimes I think it's harder trying to work with DD1 since my teaching experience is public school teaching. DD1 is writing, but I haven't used a formal curriculum with her. We write on a large chalkboard, make shapes/letters in the carpet, use shaving cream on the table, more gross-motor engagement. There's no pressure on forming the letter correctly yet. If she wants to make a list, I sit with her and spell words individually and she writes them on her paper. Other times, she scribbles lines and dashes and tells me what it says. Would D. be content with copywork on a larger scale? It might help her "feel" the shapes.