printing ~ good penmenship

[RCT]

any tools of the trade from you Teachers out there? how I can help ds with his messy writing? we are doing repetitive writing...but I was looking to see if anyone here might have more advice....tia

[MaryL]

Some teachers are pickier about this, than others. In Kindergarten, I teach the children "how" to make the letter correctly, but I leave it to the 1st grade teacher to really "enforce" it. Not all children develop their fine motor skills at the same pace. Encourage your ds to trace (buy tracing paper...kids LOVE it!), lace, cut with scissors, do mazes, etc.

Ds2's 1st grade teacher is a handwriting FANATIC! And it shows in her classroom. Ds2 has very nice handwriting...mostly due to her "strictness" about it. I'm not sure I agree with her "pickiness"...but since it doesn't stress out my ds, I'm okay about it. I guess I'd rather have my dks (both at home, and at school ) writing and being creative, rather than having to worry about being "perfect" with their penmanship. JMO, I guess.

[RCT]

Originally posted by MaryL
Not all children develop their fine motor skills at the same pace. Encourage your ds to trace (buy tracing paper...kids LOVE it!), lace, cut with scissors, do mazes, etc.

I guess I'd rather have my dks (both at home, and at school ) writing and being creative, rather than having to worry about being "perfect" with their penmanship. JMO, I guess.

ds is in second grade and it has now become an issue....I can read it...so its not illegible...just sloppy....love the tracing paper idea :idea: thanks...I will get some....

[lindaM]

My ds is in 3rd grade and has terrible printing. His teacher told me in September not to worry about it because most kids who print terrible write in cursive neatly. She was right his cursive is beautiful and it has even improved his printing a little.

[AnnW]

How funny...my dd can't print but her cursive is beautiful too!!!

[RCT]

Originally posted by lindaM
My ds is in 3rd grade and has terrible printing. His teacher told me in September not to worry about it because most kids who print terrible write in cursive neatly. She was right his cursive is beautiful and it has even improved his printing a little.

WOW, I wish his teacher was a generous...all I ever hear or read is how is printing isn't up to par....he will have trouble in 3rd grade when they do cursive....argh.....

Thanks for the input....:)

[BevJ]

I'd like to be able to say the same thing about my own printing/writing. Both are autrocious and I was hoping to work on this when I was off last summer and I'm still hoping to, lol. I think my problem is I go so fast, my brain is working faster than my hands (happens when I'm typing too) and my hand can't keep up. I should just breathe and slow down, lol.

[kit]

please dont get too worried about messy hand writing... It's much more important that children enjoy writing. Thhe more fun they have doing it the more pride they'll take and then neater writing will follow! With computers it is really not neccessary to have neat writing but of course it has to be legible!! good luck!