Tracing Letters??

[Jocie]

I'm currently working through the Alpha Omega Horizons Pre-K curriculum with my 5 year old.

My problem with the work book is that for every letter of the alphabet, upper and lower-case is pages and pages of tracing! Literally, one side of a page will have about five rows of ten letters per row to trace, sometimes front and back.

My daughter and even I both dread this! I don't see the point and how this is beneficial. It's so repetitive and boring and it is making our schooling such a drag.

Do any of you use this method? Is it appropriate for pre-k?

If anyone has any online literature on this kind of thing, please share.

Thanks.

[zjande]

I wouldn't think twice about just skipping it. Or have her just do 2 of each letter. We skip plenty of boring, repetitive stuff over here.

[LuxPerpetua]

My dd is 4.5 and no, we absolutely do not do this. Actually, I just write a lot around her so she sees how letters are formed and then she sometimes wants to write herself. I don't think I'd do any sort of repetitive tracing under age 6 at the earliest unless my dd just really wanted to do it. One idea I heard recently is to draw a letter on a chalkboard and then have your child wet an sponge and "erase" the letter and then use chalk to draw the letter again themselves by following the wet "tracing" left. I've also heard of similar ideas of tracing in shaving cream or sand so that mistakes are not so obvious and can be erased easily.

[elus0814]

I've found tracing letters to be very beneficial for both of my kids. It's helped their penmanship quite a bit. The 4.5 year old does, on average, maybe 25 letters total per day. If he's not in the mood to do the same letter over and over again then I write out something for him to trace using a highlighter. My almost 6 year old still does lots of tracing in her first grade handwriting workbook.

All that said, my kids don't seem to mind the tracing. It's always been a part of the schoolwork they do so it's never been an issue. If they really didn't like it I would have them practice handwriting another way. I do think it's important for kids to have some kind of example when working on handwriting. Either an alphabet chart on the wall or one on the desk would be very helpful.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by Jocie

I'm currently working through the Alpha Omega Horizons Pre-K curriculum with my 5 year old.

My problem with the work book is that for every letter of the alphabet, upper and lower-case is pages and pages of tracing! Literally, one side of a page will have about five rows of ten letters per row to trace, sometimes front and back.

My daughter and even I both dread this! I don't see the point and how this is beneficial. It's so repetitive and boring and it is making our schooling such a drag.

Do any of you use this method? Is it appropriate for pre-k?

If anyone has any online literature on this kind of thing, please share.

Thanks.

So, like 50+ repeat tracings of the same letter??? Insanity if you ask me And I would think that with her dreading it, eventually she'll dig her heels in and it will become a battle. I prefer to choose my battles, and that one doesn't sound worth it to me!

With one of my kids, who's now 6, we used a low, flat tupperware container of flour and he made letters in that. He also liked (still does) using a personal whiteboard.. I'd put a couple of letters or a word up top and he'd copy it a few times. I think at the age 5, I'd be more focused on the fine motor skills that will help her penmanship when it becomes a bigger deal a bit later on

[tankgirl73]

Could I ask what font AO uses? I'm actually LOOKING for books with lots of tracing for pre-k lol... My daughter LOVES to write, and LOVES to trace letters ad nauseum, but can't quite do most of them on her own yet.

[jennybean0722]

We are going to try Hand Writing Without Tears. But its much like the write with chalk/then erase with a wet sponge thing. HWOT also uses playdoh and wooden pieces that form letters. Good luck!

[lach]

Originally Posted by tankgirl73

Could I ask what font AO uses? I'm actually LOOKING for books with lots of tracing for pre-k lol... My daughter LOVES to write, and LOVES to trace letters ad nauseum, but can't quite do most of them on her own yet.

I love the look of italic writing, so I bought the pre-writing set from Barchowsky. They're large sheets of plasticized paper that is reusable (if you use a washable marker or dry erase marker, obviously). I laminated them because I want them to last through 3 kids and they're normal paper thickness. They start with general motions (waves and loops and that sort of thing) and move into the lower case letters.

My daughter LOVES doing them, and would spend all day tracing. It is a set for kids who aren't really ready for real handwriting lessons, though: I don't know how old your DD is and where she is in that.

I haven't seen the school age handwriting lesson book, so I can't speak to what that's like.

http://www.bfhhandwriting.com/