My dd 5yo is learing handwriting. She is doing well with her letter formation, but she is using so much pressure that she is complaining that her hand hurts and gets tired. I've also noticed the same problem with her math. How can I help her to ease up on the pencil? Any suggestion? Thanks
does she color hard too?? My son did/does I showed him that he was coloring so hard that the crayons were breaking, I know her pencils probably aren't breaking but, if you can use the crayon thing for an example. Show her how to coloer with a pencil lightly, Show her the difference.
she does color hard with crayons, but not to the point of breaking. I've tried to show her the difference between hard and soft but she doesn't seem to get it.
Make a batch of pudding(her favorite flavor) Spread some out on manilla paper. Let her trace letters in the paper.As she draws in the pudding,tell her to touch it lightly. she can still make her mark and just barely touch the paper.
This is very common. They concentrate so hard on holding the pencil and making a mark that they grip it real tight. Believe me, it WILL pass as they become more accustom to holding it!
Is she using a regular pencil? Regular pencil with a pencil grip? A fat pencil? I have found that with our ds he was most comfortable with a regular pencil with a pencil grip. Of course we have several types of pencil grips and different ones were his favorite at different stages so...might consider that as an idea. I think out of all the pencil grips the ones that have *stood the test of time* are triangle shaped ones but...everyone is different. My 3 year old (who doesn't write yet) is always grabbing my FAVORITE .9mm mechanical pencil and since I couldn't find more than 2 total at our Wal-mart I asked my mom to check her's (a different state). So...I've got 6 more coming. ROFL ROFL. I'm sort of a pen & pencil JUNKIE so....when I get a FAVORITE I get a few. I tend to hold my pen/pencil tight too so...I want comfort. Alrighty...If I should have made you curious...the pencil is a Remedy .9mm made by Staedtler and probably cost around $3 at Wal-mart. I love the feel of the pencil and love the .9mm lead - I write hard and it doesn't break.
She, I have my own pencil box, LOL! AND it's labeled "Mom's Pencil Box STAY OUT!!!" My kids know that if they touch it, they will DIE A VERY SLOW, HORRIBLE DEATH!!! It has all my favorite pens. They had some I liked at the Back to School sales this past year that were buy one (package), get one free. So I got four packages. One of them I emptied into my box. Also, my "good" markers, so I don't have to search for them when I need them, oh and a RED pen!
Jackie thanks for the reasurence. She thanks for the mechanical pencil idea. Dd has been using a regular pencil, but maybe if she started breaking leads on the mechanical she would get instant feedback when she pushes too hard. I think most of her problem comes from the downward pressure of pencil to paper, not so much from actually holding the pencil. Thank you all for the ideas, keep them coming.
Oh that is funny Jackie!!! I'm sooo glad I'm not the only one that has the personal mom stash. tee hee Another thought Mariann....have you tried letting her use a white board and dry erase markers? It takes TONS less presser to get the same VIVID color. Crayons....coloring lightly gives light results, colored pencils...always light color, markers on paper not as much glide and then it bleeds through. We have a large white board and then I also got the boys tiny ones for at the table. They are about 8.5" x 13" and were around $5 at Wal-mart. We use the fine tip dry eraser markers. Worth a shot.
that might sound weired, but I attended a program once where the intructor uses a tray and pour half a box of cream of wheat in it , makes it flate and smooth and then shows the child how to use his/her finger to write on it. I think your daughter will get to feel how it's like to write comfortably and will do the same with pencil Randa
I guess my solution would be less writing :lol: Most 5yos don't need to do very much writing. Fine motor control can be achieved by things that are a little more fun... I am not a advocate of too much writing because it is very hard to do, one book likened it to writing with your *big toe*. Until about halfway through first grade, most children do not have tons of control over the fine motor.. So I don't press handwriting with pencil until first grade, otherwise I feel it can be very frusterating to them. I had one child who was writing pretty good in Kindergarten and the second not interested, and my third is interested..... IMHO, if she is having a hard time writing now, she might start acquainting the struggle with writing instead of fine motor. In truth, the struggle is not writing, just fine motor,kwim?:wink: If she continues to remember this struggle, she might think that writing and handwriting are the same, when one is really composition and the other is penmanship. Writing with a dry eraser yields beautiful results.... Too the reason for writing with fingers is to *feel* the letter w/out having to worry about grip when its very hard at this age. She can write in dry sugar Koolaid mix and even a dry sugar Jello mix that has a great smell like strawberry . We have written in shaving cream, whip cream, white or any flavored prepared canned icing, chocolate pudding, rice and sugar. Other ways to increase fine motor skills is to do push pins. They are not real hard to do but yield wonderful results especially if your little one is closer to 6 yo than 5yo. Basically take a picture, not a real busy one, like a basic shape of dinosaur or balloon and let her lay on floor and use a push pin to trace all the way around the animal. This might get boring (it did for my kids) BUT it tremendously cuts down on problems for severeral reasons: 1. The push pin is very small, you are forced to use the pinchser grasp. (this can be done by a very small stubby crayola too) 2. By tracing the pattern around, they get the feeling of *writing*. 3. Writing is about counterclockwise moves as well as others, so you ask them to punch holes in the pattern going from right to left instead of the clockwise direction they want to go. One son, did color his pictures and was extremely happy to see the punch holes when you hold the paper up against the light you can see the pattern on the opposite side..Its kinda of cool:roll: Its just this exercise was simple and most effective than any other I tried when I needed them to fine tune their fine motor skills a little more faster. Phew, yada yada, yada:lol: Hope that helps some..
Tina that is excellent advice. A craft this time of year you can get foille christmas paper and a color page .Santa Noel candle or what ever and punch holes around the candle.We used to tape it to the outside of the lamp shade
