Handwriting Without Tears
I just took the Handwriting Without Tears program. It is one of the best programs around, in my opinion, for teaching proper strokes in a fun, developmentally appropriate way. I have been using it with my sons, as well as some of my oldest son's classmates (on my volunteer days at his school).
For very young children who are just beginning to understand the concept of what a letter is, the program uses wooden pieces that can be manipulated to form the capital letters. The neat thing is that children learn that all capital letters are made up of big lines, little lines, big curves, or little curves. I have been using the wooden pieces along with some letter mats (control cards) that I ordered from the company.
You can see what I have set up so far for my sons. I have a basket which contains the wooden pieces, the foam mat and the control cards for all the capital letters, and a tray with a magic slate and magnetic wooden pieces (more on this below).
To do this work, the child gets a rug and places the basket of wooden pieces on it along with the tray that has the foam mat and control cards. The foam mat is placed on the rug. Next to it they place the white mat for the letter they wish to make. You can't see it well, but the HWT program uses a little smiley face in the top left corner to show children where to start their letters. It is referred to as the "starting corner". That is important, because so often children start their letters from the bottom and get into bad habits that are hard to reverse.
In case you are reading this wondering why it matters where they start the letters, I will give you my two cents. In the finished product (finished letter on the page) it doesn't necessarily matter how they form it as long as it's legible. However, the goal is being able to write fluently enough to be able to express yourself with handwriting. Starting at the top and going to the bottom allows for the most efficient way to build such fluency. If you are starting any old place when you make any given letter, fluency will be affected or reduced which slows kid's way down & causes more of a struggle as they get older.
For very young children who are just beginning to understand the concept of what a letter is, the program uses wooden pieces that can be manipulated to form the capital letters. The neat thing is that children learn that all capital letters are made up of big lines, little lines, big curves, or little curves. I have been using the wooden pieces along with some letter mats (control cards) that I ordered from the company.
You can see what I have set up so far for my sons. I have a basket which contains the wooden pieces, the foam mat and the control cards for all the capital letters, and a tray with a magic slate and magnetic wooden pieces (more on this below).
To do this work, the child gets a rug and places the basket of wooden pieces on it along with the tray that has the foam mat and control cards. The foam mat is placed on the rug. Next to it they place the white mat for the letter they wish to make. You can't see it well, but the HWT program uses a little smiley face in the top left corner to show children where to start their letters. It is referred to as the "starting corner". That is important, because so often children start their letters from the bottom and get into bad habits that are hard to reverse.
In case you are reading this wondering why it matters where they start the letters, I will give you my two cents. In the finished product (finished letter on the page) it doesn't necessarily matter how they form it as long as it's legible. However, the goal is being able to write fluently enough to be able to express yourself with handwriting. Starting at the top and going to the bottom allows for the most efficient way to build such fluency. If you are starting any old place when you make any given letter, fluency will be affected or reduced which slows kid's way down & causes more of a struggle as they get older.
This is the Stamp and See Screen. This is like a Magnadoodle for those of you who know what that is. This one is made by the HWT company. It comes with 4 magnetic wooden pieces (big line, little line, big curve, little curve).
In the first step I used the wooden pieces (with a magnetic side) to form
a capital D. Once removed they leave an impression on the screen. This can then be traced with the finger or with the little yellow "chalk" piece that is attached. The little yellow chalk is angled on the end and short to force little fingers to use a proper tripod grip when holding it.
For anyone (especially "Montessorians" reading this) who is wondering if I have abandoned teaching letter formation with the sandpaper letters, the answer is NO! I still use the sandpaper letters to introduce the sounds and to practice correct formation of lowercase letters. However, since I don't have any uppercase sandpaper letters, this will provide a nice balance to what I already have. (Please see my previous entries on Sandpaper Letters).
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