penmanship

Around the first of this year - when my K5-son was just five - I started teaching him how to write his capital letters. Though I had planned to use the Handwriting without Tears strokes because I had heard so many good things about the program, we kind of got off-base. He developed some really bad handwriting habits and then life happened and we totally set aside any kind of handwriting practice.

Because he had already written his capital and lowercase letters a few times, I thought that when we began Kindergarten we would go straight into copywork. However, once we started the year, it was evident he needed more training in how to form the letters. So, I took the plunge and purchase the Handwriting without Tears curriculum.

He has really enjoyed doing handwriting and his penmanship has improved. We are taking things slow - only 1 or 2 letters/numbers per week. We spend about 15 minutes per day on handwriting. My K3-daughter joins us for most days and is doing well with writing letters on a slate with chalk.

At first, I thought I could teach him myself just using the free resources that Handwriting without Tears provides, but then I realized it would be so much easier just to buy the workbooks and learning aids than to recreate them myself. (Time vs. Money decision)

You can see what we bought on the 2009-2010 Cost sheet.