Handwriting Without Tears--home school questions

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Anyone work on this with your preschooler? DS is 4 and has real issues with fine motor control--has issues drawing in the lines, can draw a circle but no other shapes, and seems to be light years away from writing his own name. But he wants to be big and sees his almost 5 year old cousin working on letters and his name and gets frustrated to the point of being angry. His preschool is not working with him on letters--not sure why.

I've heard good things about Handwriting Without Tears and spent a lot of time on their website this afternoon and was impressed. Anyone use their preschool curriculum. Do I need to order anything beyond the workbooks? How helpful are the teacher guides and manipulatives? Any other methods I should consider?

Thanks,

Christine W

ps. should I be worried that he can't write any letters--he's known their names and sounds for at least 2 years so it isn't a recognition issue

[Katigre]

What are you doing to address his fine motor control issues? Is he getting regular therapy (whether official or just you doing activities at home) to build those muscles and his mastery of them? IMO handwriting won't be able to happen without those foundational blocks in place first so I would focus there and not get an official writing curriculum until he's 5.

[Elilly]

We used most of the HWT curriculum for my 5 yo DS this last year. We used the wooden pieces to form letters, a small chalkboard with sponge, flip crayons, and the student workbook. We also sang some of the songs to remind him to start his letters at the top. It was enormously successful with my DS. I feel much better about sending him to kindy in the fall.

[nmosur]

I was really keen on doing HWT for DD last spring and checked out all the information available. DD's preschool director suggested I follow a few steps on my own before I invested in HWT - writing on sand, using finger paint, lot of crayons and small sized pencils like golf pencils (apparently markers are really that good for developing these skills). And I must say that I am happy. Like Katigre mentioned, fine motor skills have to developed before being successfull in writing. There was a thread in another section here where a lady posted a list of activities suggested by a therapist that would help with handwriting. I will try and search for that - you could work on that and handwriting concurrently.

[luvmypeanut]

What are you doing to address his fine motor control issues? Is he getting regular therapy (whether official or just you doing activities at home) to build those muscles and his mastery of them? IMO handwriting won't be able to happen without those foundational blocks in place first so I would focus there and not get an official writing curriculum until he's 5.

:yeahthat:
DS just turned 5 and can read but has problems writing and even drawing. He's never liked to draw and prefers to paint, probably because it takes less effort. The teacher said he has weak fine motor skills and suggested he work with the school's OT once a week. She noticed he had problems opening his lunch containers and snack bags. I think the girls in his class always did it for him (he's a cutie). The school also uses HWT and the kids have to write their names to "sign in" when they come to school. He has gotten much better after working with the OT. Something for you to look into.

[[email protected]]

What are you doing to address his fine motor control issues? Is he getting regular therapy (whether official or just you doing activities at home) to build those muscles and his mastery of them? IMO handwriting won't be able to happen without those foundational blocks in place first so I would focus there and not get an official writing curriculum until he's 5.


This is something that DH and I just really started to worry about. He'd been getting frustrated last Fall in his Montessori classroom and couldn't verbalize why. His teacher seemed pretty content with his progress in November. We moved at the middle of February and enrolled DS in a more play-based school. I was assured that the kids do letters of the week and work to develop pre-writing skills but nothing is coming home (unlike the barrage of paper strips from his Montessori class). I don't even know where to begin other than a sense than something isn't right. I've seen some OTs on the board mention HWT so I thought I'd ask.

Christine W

[HIU8]

I've been using HWT for DS for about 7 months. His OT wanted us to ONLY get the slate chalkboard and the wooden block letters. DS is working with his OT and doing things at home with the chalkboard and me. So far it's working well.

[AngelaS]

At age 4, I'd work more on other fine motor activities more than writing.

Have him string little pony beads.

Give him tweezers, 4 Dixie cups and some of those little bead thingys that you can melt together with an iron. Give him a few of each color and have him use the tweezers to sort them by color into the individual cups.

Give him buttons or pompons to sort by color into a muffin tin. Stand the muffin tin on end and make him hold 3 or 4 buttons or pompons in one hand at the same time so he learns to separate them out one handed.

Give him clothespins to play with. Write the letters of the alphabet on them or number and have him clip them on the edge of a pan in order. You can also put a dot of color on them w/a marker and have him find a matching index card w/that color on it to clip the clothes pin to.

Do craft projects w/buttons or rocks. You can glue them on a picture frame or on magnets for the fridge.

[brittone2]

We HS, but don't use HWOT (eta: but think it is a great program!). I agree with the PPs that I'd focus on developing his fine motor skills in other ways...lay the groundwork so that handwriting will eventually fall into place (with or without HWOT).

You can also do gross motor things like encouraging wheelbarrow walking, etc. because that helps with trunk/core strength and shoulder girdle stability. If the large muscles are strengthened, it can often help with fine motor issues (you need the stability in those large muscles in order to be able to effectively use the small muscles well). You can also do things like "crab walking" (do you remember that from elementary school? Sitting down, lifting your butt up off the floor using your hands and feet and then "walking" like that.

There are some old threads on fine motor skills ideas
http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=313115&highlight=fine+motor

(that's just one of many).

Look at tracing, using tweezers, pinching (silly putty, clay, etc.), using small manipulatives (light bright, etc.). Montessori type catalogs often have activities that you could duplicate at home.

Also letting him try large motor/kinesthetic types of activities..."painting" with a paintbrush on the driveway to form a letter (or just shapes, curves, different curves and types of lines if he's not ready for letters. You could even draw w/ chalk first and have him "trace" it with the wet paintbrush). In Waldorf education they do things like have the kids walk in the shape of the letter (could draw it on a driveway with chalk, or tape it on the floor with low tack painter's tape). Form letters with Playdoh, clay, etc. That gives him practice in forming the letter or getting an idea of the shape of the letter without needing to rely on his fine motor skills as much at first, kwim?

[american_mama]

Just today, I was looking at short handbook that my sister gave me which is based on Handwriting without Tears. My DD is 8 years old, no motor delays, does great in school, just plain old sloppy handwriting. She does not start writing many letters "at the top" and is lazy about closing loops, spacing letters well, etc. She rushes through her homework, resents it when I ask her to do re-do her handwriting, and makes no attempt to improve her handwriting. Do you all think Handwriting without Tears is appropriate for her? Any other suggestions?

I want to work on her handwriting over the summer. I was thinking of bribery... she does some handwriting work during the week and on Friday as a reward/point of the task, she can handwrite a note ordering a cookie, which we'll take to a local bakery and give to the clerk. But I'm not sure what kind of handwriting practice she should have during the week.

[nmosur]

http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=313115&highlight=fine+motor



This is the thread I was searching for - very very informative!