All About Handwriting

[gigue]

Hi Jedamum, do be patient... Your boy probably knows the answers to the questions well, so he quickly writes down the answers. He's probably in a different 'mode' doing questions and practising penmanship...


Hi Enmum, Brain-Revolution website looks interesting and credible. Thanks for the recommendations!

[ApronMama]

My P3 child has bad hand writing too. I observe that it is probably due to the way he hold the pencil. He is not holding the way it should be. He has his pointer and tall-man both across the pencil. I tried to correct it since he was in K2, but he would just go back to the same way again till now. sigh… Should I just leave him as it is forever? Appreciate your sharing…

[ksmama]

I attribute bad handwriting in my p5 kid to be a case of impatience and writing too fast . He does his work very fast and tend to be terribly untidy. Once, I was so exasperated while marking his home asessment just before his exam, I told him that if he could write neatly with neat, organised presentations, I would reward him with $2. Well, he not only came back with full marks but it was the neatest, cleanest, most organised piece of work I have ever seen. I told him,\" See, you are capable of writing well! Please do this for all you future work.\"\" He replied, shaking his head,\" But mum, do you know how DDdddifficult it is for me to write like that!\" Well, he went back to his untidy, bad writing :stupid:

[daisyt]

Hi, I would like to share girl’s P6 class experiences. On the first day of P6, the English teacher asked them to cut stripes of paper of different width, name Spacebar. Then the teacher announced, from that day onwards, they are suppose to do their writing with the help of the spacebar. One word, one spacebar spacing, follow by the next word. And if the words are too small, they have to write bigger. The reaction of the students - we are no longer P1 students, why must they write like P1 ? From there onwards, everyday she would complain her writing was so childish, so "ugly". This was enforced till somewhere middle of the year. By that time, all of them have good handwrittings and without the spacebar stripes, they are also able to write their composition neatly and nicely.


Now she keeps the spacebar stripes in her "treasure box". She really appreciated the teacher’s effort. This form teacher is the best teacher I have encountered so far. She implemented many useful systems to help and improve the children.

[jedamum]

daisyt:

Hi, I would like to share girl's P6 class experiences.

hey, the spacebar is a good idea.
but what is the yardstick used to measure the size of the handwriting?

[daisyt]

Hi jedamum, I don't think there is yardstick for the size of handwriting. As long as cannot be too tiny. There are students writing so super tiny.

[buds]

A pre-determined font size is a bit much, jedamum.

Should there be a fixed font size to follow, parents will
have additional stress. Hahahaa! Already we need to
cultivate good reading habits, then to ensure they can
write as well as they read... if adding the above, wuah..
quite jia-lat for us... parents and children.

For us, (me and hubs)... we practise with both our girls
using the lined exercise books... umm... to keep the
words in line lah... Spelling and dictation assignments,
we use such lined exercise books until such time the girls
can write nicely, without depending on the lines as a guide.

daisyt, i too like the spacebar idea..
I generally coach my girls to use two finger spacing
for the younger ones (smaller fingers) and one finger
spacing for the older ones.

Oh Chief...
May we alter the title to a general > All About Handwriting?
Thinking to have the word \"bad\" omitted. What do you think?
So, not necessarily we only talk about \"bad\" handwriting here.
But good ones as well and pen down good writing practices..
Just my suggestion.

[buds]

[Editor's note: Topic selected and edited for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/beginning-handwriting.]


There is a strong connection between learning to read and learning to
write. Being able to write a word will clearly help a child to read that
word. In a more general sense, writing down things they want to say
and then reading them to someone, helps children to appreciate that
writing is for telling another person something.

Given the opportunity, most children start to enjoy scribbling with crayons
and pencils while still toddlers. They often want to \"read\" to you what they
have \"written\". This shows that they are already beginning to grasp the
idea that squiggles on a page can tell you something and that there is a
relationship between talking and writing.

By the age of four, most children are capable of writing some letters,
usually those that appear in their own name. At five, most children are
ready to start copying words. As their pencil control increases, their
writing will gradually improve. Do remember that neatness in handwriting
has nothing to do with intelligence and that too much insistence on it may
constrain what a child has to say. It is important however, to develop
legible handwriting. If, after two or three years of practice, your child's
handwriting remains very poor, discuss with the child's teacher.

Holding It
It does not matter whether your child uses pencils, crayons or felt pens
to write with... but do check that whatever the child uses, he/she is holding
it correctly. It is easy to develop bad writing habits by starting with the
wrong grip. They should be held lightly between the thumb and the first
finger (pointer), about 1 inch from the point as a rough estimate..

Pencil Control
It takes a lot of practice to develop sufficient pencil control to write legible
letters. Activities such as drawing, tracing, colouring, using chalks or
paints, and copying or making up patterns can all contribute significantly
to this process.

Mirror Writing
Many children start by writing some letters and numbers backwards,
especially \"b\" and \"d\"... 2, 3 and 7... or even produce superb mirror
writing. Six and seven year olds, often continue to do this. It is something
that nearly puts itself right in time, but try to point out the mistake and
gently suggest correcting it.

Our elder girl used to write superb mirror writing around age five... and
knowing all the terminologies used for such children (dyslexic) and how
we ARE in the industry, i must admit... it was panic attack! We were kinda
hard on her at first, until i really sat down to think how to positively tackle
this situation. As constructive as possible... So we all played letter games,
did crafts and also painting activities to motivate her to write the proper
way. It was a few months phase.. of correcting and of encouraging..

And now she not only writes properly, she also writes beautifully.. :love:

Left-Handed Children
A minor percentage of children are left-handed. Of this group, some are
ambidextrous, that is... they can use both hands. In the past, all children
even those who were strongly left-handed, were trained to use their right
hand for writing. In some cases, this is thought to have caused
stammering. It is now understood that children should be allowed to
choose which hand is best for them. If however, they can use both... it
is sensible to choose one dominant hand and stick to it. Otherwise, it can
get confusing.

Writing with the left hand is not easy because it entails a pushing
movement - right-handed people use a pulling movement. A right-handed
person's hand moves along the page leaving visible what has just been
written. Two simple solutions help to overcome this problem...

1.Get the child to hold his pencil a little further from the end than you
would for a right-handed child.

2.Position the writing paper at an angle 45 degrees to the child's body.

3.Special 3-sided pencil grips can be bought rather cheaply. These make
the pen or pencil fatter and easier to grip and can help a left-handed child
to write more quickly and with much less effort.

In the early stages of reading, children often like to point to the words in
the book. A left-handed child is better off using a strip of card or a ruler,
to place under the words and sentences.

[jedamum]

buds:

Do remember that neatness in handwriting

has nothing to do with intelligence

:idea:
I can safely say...\"my son writes like a doctor\".

[buds]

jedamum:

buds:

Do remember that neatness in handwriting

has nothing to do with intelligence

:idea:
I can safely say...\"my son writes like a doctor\".

I somehow expected you to come up with this..