How to help with handwriting?

[catbeth]

My ds8 is thriving in Preparing, loves the books, narrates better than his older sister (also in Preparing). Handwriting is his downfall. He forms his letters carefully and neatly, but he is so slow and it is torture for him. I don't know how to help him because I have the same problem. When I write out their Psalm verses to copy as an example, my hand is shaking and hurting before I finish.

My husband has terrible handwriting, and my oldest daughter struggled with it until she got old enough just to do most of her work on the computer. So it seems to run in our family.

Any ideas on how to make things easier? I don't mean shortening the assignments, just how to help him improve so that it is easier.

[StephanieU]

Have your checked to make sure his grip is correct? When your have a hard grip, it fatigues you faster.
Another idea is to add in some fine motor strength activities. Squeezing balls, playdough activities, etc to strengthen the muscles. Finally, break up the assignment into pieces. Have him do the full assignment in 3 pieces. Then once that is "easy," break it into 2. Then get to where he can do the whole thing at once.

[catbeth]

I know he presses hard and makes his letters tiny, so his grip is probably tight. When I sit right beside him and continually remind him to make his letters taller, he does much better.

I may have my friend who tutors check his grip because I don't know how to correct that.

[my3sons]

Hi there! Good ideas here already! Just thinking - he is just 8 yo, and his fine motor strength will continue to improve as he matures. Each of our sons went through stages of preferring different pencils/grippers for their writing (i.e. Ticonderoga starter pencils, standard sized Ticonderoga pencils, various lead sized clicky pencils, various pencil grippers, etc.). It may be helpful to go to the store and buy a few different kinds of pencils and grippers (they are inexpensive), and let your son try some different options out. Also, it's better to start with fewer sentences written with better quality (i.e. have him do 1 good sentence for his required 1-3 sentence written narration in PHFHG and have big sis do 3 sentences). Being 8 yo, he is on the very young side of PHFHG as well, so it may be that he would be better placed in BHFHG. Did he complete BHFHG last year, along with all of its copywork, grammar, vocab cards, cursive, etc.? Or is he new to HOD this year? If he is new to HOD, it may be that he is improperly placed and would place better in a younger guide, or it may be he just needs some time to grow into the writing of PHFHG. If you feel he just needs time to grow into PHFHG, I'd start with the fewer sentence requirements / fewer vocab requirements in the PHFHG guide, with an emphasis on quality versus quantity, but gradually through the year I'd increase what he is writing every 3 months or so, as he will need to strengthen his writing skills /fine motor skills to be ready for the increased rigor of writing in CTC. Here are some previous posts that may be helpful too...

Handwriting grip wrong / hand hurts help from Carrie:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7480

Amount of writing in Bigger vs. PHFHG:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3602

Illegible Cursive Handwriting: Carrie describes what can be done to improve it with CM ideas in mind:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6665&p=48858#p48858

Pics of progression of writing:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5605&p=41147#p41147

Pics of hi-lighting Riley’s lines for HW:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4618&p=34014

Hope something here helps!
In Christ,
Julie

[catbeth]

It's getting better! Part of the problem was having him do cursive on regular notebook paper. I've started having him use handwriting paper so he can write bigger and he has the dotted lines to guide him. I've been kind of afraid to do less than the guide says on the assignments because I know it's building toward more in the future. I'm feeling better about it, though. He is learning so much! He wrote a great paragraph today for the Unit 8, Day 3 assignment (NOT in cursive).