Has anyone used the Pre-K "Handwriting without Tears"?

[AuntLavender]

My youngest is HFA or PDD-NOS depending on who you see. He also has hand defects; his right hand has a thumb that is non opposable and a pinky that is double jointed. His left hand has a finger like thumb and all the fingers but the middle finger (the ring finger doesn't move).

Our OT recommended Handwriting Without tears. He is using it at therapy. When I went to their website for Pre-K the following is recommended:

Essential Components:

Get Set for School™ Pre-K Workbook

Pre–Kindergarten Teacher's Guide

Wood Pieces Set for Capital Letters

Mat for Wood Pieces

Slate Chalkboard

Wonderful Additions:

Get Set for School™ Sing Along CD

Capital Letter Cards for Wood Pieces (choose between laminated and unlaminated)

Roll–A–Dough Letters™

Stamp and See Screen™

Pre-K Wall Cards

Capital and Number Practice Strips

What have you used and what did you not use? Let me know if the chalkboard was better than the magnetic board or if the practice strips never got used! Thank you very much!

Sincerely,
Debra, homeschooling mom of 4 ages 10, 9, 7, and 46 mos

[annethcz]

You can easily make the 'wood pieces' from craft foam, cardboard, old cereal boxes, etc. There is a pattern in the IG.

I did buy the chalkboard, but we didn't use it much.

Actually, I'm not sure if I should be posting on this thread. We didn't use HWT for very long, since it didn't hold my child's interest. I don't even know what the capital and number practice strips are. Is that the special HWT paper?

[Ruthla]

I know my son used this at preschool- but the only part I actually saw was the workbook- I'm not sure if they used the rest of the materials or not.

[grahamsmom98]

Oh, heck! If only you had posted about this a month ago when we finally turned our set of HWT into the consignment store to sell (it sold the next day).

Ds had hated it when we first received it a few years ago with the K12 curriculum we had purchased and it was like pulling teeth to get him to work with it. Finally, in the name of sanity, we shelved it and forgot about it. Spring cleaning found it again and as he refused to make use of it, there was no reason to keep it.

I would have given it to you free.

Personally, ds never liked chalkboards. But, he loves the wipe-on/wipe-off boards. No mess, easy on the hands and fingers and vibrant colours. We also bought a set of alphabet cookie cutters and made word cookies. That was fun!

Most of the lettering pieces can be made or bought at a store like Learning Is Fun or ordered from Rainbow Resources.

But, if your son is using it as part of his therapy, find out just which parts he is actually using and just get those. Maybe you could buy the things you need along with another parent with a child in therapy, too? You know, split the cost(s).

Also, though I have never bought from Ebay, you might find the things you want at a better price (Amazon.com, too!).

[Aurie]

We have it with our K12 curriculum as well. I really liked the idea of how the letters are formed. It just seems so much easier to learn it. But my 2nd grade son was having difficult learning cursive from it, because his script writing was taught so much differently. We ended up giving up on it as well.


I think there are just too many other ways that are more similiar to each other on learning how to write.

I would say, IF you decide to use this, you really need to stick with this style and not switch up or try to use something different at the same time or your child will get really frustrated because it is so different.

[elliethebug]

Using HWT

Hello everyone!
I am new to this community. Thank you for having me!
I would like to put in my 2 C in favor of HWT:
I have been using it with my son for the past 9 months and we love it. I started out by volunteering at his preschool... as I am a bit of a nerdy mom, I ended up taking the HWT workshops and getting really into it. I wished we had this when I was in elementary school!!!
My trick to keep the practice exciting (Luca is 5 yrs old, BTW) is variation, variation, variation! we do different activities on different days and I always offer him coloring pages in between the worksheets. We don't progress as fast as we would if we did not do as much coloring but I figured that it can only help with his dexterity and it keeps him from burning out. The poor lad is only 5 yrs old after all...I also work by his side and when he is coloring his pages or practicing on a worksheet I sit with him and do my own homework: I am a budding student myself (graduate) and I am always reading something for my own development; if I don't need to read anything, I work on future activities or take notes of what we are doing and how he is progressing. It works for us and it shows him that we are all learning something and we don't just expect HIM to do HIS HOMEWORK. Sometimes he asks me to sit down with him and do our homework together...I love it!
His handwriting has improved immensely since we started working on these activities: we never really get to work on something every day but I am pretty relaxed about it: he has a chance to practice at school almost every day and he has one/two session(s) with a parent-volunteer every week. He loves the play-dough activities on top of everything else but he also likes the mat man activities and games, using the magnetic screen and writing on the chalk board. Last, he also likes "copying" sentences I write out for him on a separate piece of paper: we have been writing a lot of messages and notes to our families and friends...they love the mail they get from Luca and it is a great opportunity for him to practice and not be aware of it.
Good luck! Variation will do the trick! Believe me!
E

[MamaPam]

We used the teacher guide, student workbooks and the wood letter pieces. I would most definitely buy the wood letter pieces. We used our own little chalkboard but I would get that too. The CD might be fun but the words to the songs are in the teacher guide. We used our own playdough, and I made my own practice strips and added a little happy face at the top.

Hope that helps!

[osubsedu]

We used the Pre-K but it seemed too easy for my son so we moved on to the Kinder.

We bought the Chalk board - but DS thought it was "a waste of time because I can just write the letters in the book like this mommy" He cracks me up!

He did enjoy the roll a dough though because it was like playing with play dough. Yes, you can use play dough, but it's nice to have the letter cards for the little ones to learn to shape the letters.

We used the paper strips for phone numbers to teach our son to use the phone, but not for HWT.

DS also loved the wood pieces and I'd recommend them as well. We used the mat sometimes, but not too much.

I also bought the gray square paper which came in handy for extra practice for those tricky letters. We didn't use a ton of it... but will continue using the same pack for our DD and as needed for DS.

[gr8fulmom]

we like the wood pieces but they are $$ they like he stamp screen (basically a small magna doodle) better than the chalk board :
my kids like the workbooks... I don't really use the teacher's guide although I did look through it when I first got it...
I just bought the pre-k book for my 3yo because he so wanted to join in and we just started it this week and he likes it so far and asks for it (but obsiously goes at his pace )

[mamabohl]

we haven't used the pre-k (my 6 yo is just starting the k workbook), but I wanted to mention that we found mini pencils and double-ended crayons at K-mart. HWOT only sells them in HUGE amounts.

[bc1995]

I have not used the pre-k program before, but I will be starting it with ds2 soon. It is on its way as we speak. I just wrapped up the K program with ds1. He and I both really enjoyed it. We will be going on to the 1st grade one later this summer. As far as what I have found useful.... we used the workbook, the wooden letters (I got a set on ebay that had both capital and lower case pieces), and I looked at the teacher's manual a couple of times. I did order the chalkboard for ds2 this time as I think it would be a good addition.