Like with all skills, handwriting improves with practice. When preschool and kindergarten-aged students practice writing letters and words for a few minutes every day, their skills improve tremendously. Using the Letter Leaders handwriting workbook series is a great way to help children practice letter formation. Downloading free handwriting worksheets is another way to help kids practice, but there are lots of ways children can practice writing words and letters at home without using worksheets!
Learning how to handwrite is an important pre-literacy skill. Fluid and automatic handwriting supports literacy and written output. Children who handwrite well, do not need to focus their attention on how to form letters or how to write neatly. Instead, they can focus on using handwriting as a form of written communication to write notes, complete homework, book reports, and tests. And, since handwriting isn’t taught in most schools nowadays, having kids practice handwriting at home has become more and more important.
When students don’t handwrite well, their performance in school is adversely affected. Some kids have lower grades because their work is messy and hard to read. Some have slow handwriting so they aren’t able to complete timed tests. Other students may do poorly on written assignments because handwriting is hard for them. These children tend to write less about the material than what they actual know. And, more and more students become frustrated with handwriting causing them to act out.
Learning how to form letters correctly makes handwriting easy and effortless. Why does that matter? Well, effortless handwriting matters because handwriting impacts reading. It impacts spelling. It impacts grades on tests and written output or showing what you know. Truly, about 50% of a student’s school day uses handwriting in some way. Children who handwrite well have higher scores in reading. They spell better, their grades on tests are better, and their written output actually shows what they know.
So, how do you get your child to practice handwriting at home without relying solely on handwriting worksheets? Here are some tips to improve handwriting without using worksheet:
- Practice correct letter formation 3-6 minutes per day at least three to five days per week.
- Make sure the writing utensils (crayon, marker, pencil or colored pencil) is sharp. Sharp tips result in neater writing.
- Use graph paper for handwriting practice. The boxes may help with letter and number size uniformity and spacing.
- Use a slant board (a large 3-ring binder works great). Propping the paper up on a slanted surface will provide arm and wrist support.
Hand Strengthening Activities Help with Handwriting
Work on hand-strengthening activities at home. Sometimes, children write neatly at the beginning of the day or beginning of class, but as time goes on his/her hand gets tired or may even hurt. When this happens, the child’s writing may become messy or rushed. Coloring is a great activity to strengthen children’s hands and fingers. Strong hands/fingers are important for good handwriting
Arts and Crafts Help with Handwriting
Set aside a few minutes every other day to work on arts and crafts that encourage cutting, gluing, bead stringing, and coloring because these activities support fine motor skills, tool use, and bilateral motor coordination; all important prewriting skills.
Here are some suggestions:
- Glue beads, pretty paper, magazine clippings, small rocks or shells onto empty shoe boxes to create personalized memory boxes.
- Collect rocks out in the yard then decorate them with feathers, paper, paint, etc.
- Roll playdough into long tube-like snakes then cut the tubes into small pieces using child-safe scissors. See how high you can stack the small playdough pieces.
- Rip colored paper into tiny pieces (1-3 inches). Make piles of the different colored paper pieces. Glue these onto a piece of cardboard to make a colorful 3-D creation.
Remember, children learn well through open-ended free play so make sure your child knows there is no right or wrong way to complete his/her masterpiece! To help your child learn handwriting skills with the Letter Leaders Workbook Series click here to learn more and purchase online.
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