My 6 year old hates writing. Whenever we come to part in our lesson where he has to write, it becomes a battle between us. He tries to refuse and throws his pencil. I've noticed that he has trouble getting some of his letters and numbers straight. Often they are mirror imaged or backwards or upside down. I think that this is the main cause of his not wanting to write. He's frustrated. He loves when I read to him.....stories, poems, history, science. He loves science experiments. We could do those things all day, every day. But I'd like to teach him basic reading, writing and math as well. Does anyone have any advice they'd like to share on how to motivate him a little. I hate that it turns into a fight between us. :cry:
I think writing can be really hard for little boys. Seems like I read some studies about how they can be slow to master the mechanics of it. BTW, reversing letters, mirror-imaging them, etc. is developmentally normal at this age, and can be up to age 8 or so (according to a teacher/tutor friend of mine...I asked her when mine was still doing that earlier this year). If it were me, I'd probably back off for a while and make his only writing activities something fun. Have him write on a big dry erase board, or with his fingertip in some flour sprinkled on a cookie sheet, or draw big letters in shaving cream on a tray. Or just back off completely on writing for a month or two then gradually come back to it. Maybe start off with one of those basic pre-K or K writing workbooks so he can get more practice writing each letter and number. It's always gone against my instincts to back off like that, but so many of the moms here have encouraged me to in the past, and guess what? They were right! LOL Sometimes they just need a break, a chance to develop a little more and then they do well. P.S. I've not tried it, but I've also heard good things about Handwriting Without Tears. OH, and one last thing...when mine go through reluctant writing stages, I just let them answer questions orally instead of writing them down. Or maybe if a workbook says, "Circle the correct word then write it on the line" I'll let them just circle the word instead of writing it, too.
Thank you for your advice! I actually thought that writing in reverse and mirror image etc. wasn't a problem up to age 6. Well, then what you've said has me relieved! I like the idea of letting him do it orally. Thank you again!
I agree. I'd back off just a little and try things like the dry erase board like she suggested. A lot of people have told me the same thing, and it's really working for us. This is a very helpful document. Most of it is about writing readiness and preschool, but there are a lot of helpful tips for any age, especially further toward the end. http://www.fcpsteach.org/docs/Handwriting.pdf
My 12 year old hates writing too. Today he was whining about short answer questions even after I told him he didn't have to wriote the report that went along with it... I don't think that most boys out grow this.
No - ds here wants to type everything and is shocked I asked him to please write in complete sentences. The dry erase board is some special gift from God I have decided. I got each kid a small one and they were so worth it. DD carrys hers with her (oh and she's 9 and some of her letters still get done backwards sometimes.... not sure why there but if she sees it she will correct it). We actually have a dry erase board with the letters on it for tracing and such. DD loves to pick out a different colored pen for each letter and make the thing a rainbow. We did a lot of work orally up to this year - so don't sweat it. I also found getting her a journal and just letting her write when she wants without me looking at it seemed to encourage her to write more.
My son was like that at that age. Maturity made a big difference. Meanwhile I didn't want to stop working on handwriting so I backtracked and bought him a pre-K handwriting book that was all about tracing fun shapes and mazes. He enjoyed that and got practice writing. I also switched to Italic handwriting from Handwriting Without Tears because Italic makes the transition to cursive easier. I bought him the Kindergarten version which he did along with the pre-k book. In addition I got my son started on his own blog and started him on a typing program. In the second half of first grade he caught up to his grade level in handwriting. If your son is like mine the issue may just be maturity. Meanwhile, I would change things up to give your child a more positive experience.
We actually did HWOT last year (LOL..he was in 6th grade) because he "forgot" how to write in cursive. He wanted to learn...weird...again because we did it in third like we were supposed to but he siad he couldn't read my writing. Hmmmm...little dig at my writing I can now see... He hates to write, and although typing is better, he hates to type as well unless it is on his own computer and it has nothing to do with school... Go figure.
"He loves science experiments. We could do those things all day, every day. But I'd like to teach him basic reading, writing and math as well. Does anyone have any advice they'd like to share on how to motivate him a little. I hate that it turns into a fight between us." Its good to know that your child loves his sciences, mrbstephens! At least he has a very good place to start. It seems like your child is inclined to doing practical work. I'm not sure if Math games will help in jump starting his interest in Math. You might want to try googling for Math printables or you can PM me for a free download of a collection of Math games =)
My ds is in K this year. We are putting his penmanship pages in a dry erase folder and her uses a dry erase marker to practice. It is sooo much easier to erase when a mistake is done and he is getting the basics. On one side I have the penmanship lines and curves and the other side we insert the page for the day. We also to handwriting first. Get it done with and give praise for the efforts and the control and mention how great it is to have handwriting class done with and now we get to move on.
I was going to post this almost exact question. Except my boy is 5. He is reading well, and I was going to move on to handwriting. But after reading these answers I am thinking we will wait just a little bit. Two things that we do do is use a worksheet generator to print off a sentence for ds to copy. The one that we use puts your sentence on each line in dots for the kids to trace. http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/ I make ds copy one line perfect each day. It only takes a few minutes and it is tracing. It also keeps the whining down. Somebody told me to just let them trace until they are like 7 or 8. I make up silly sentences with site words or science vocab words. We also do Kumon workbooks, because they work the fine motor skills in fun ways. I didn't like the alphabet ones, or the math ones. But the tracing, cutting etc. Those we did as a fun opener sheet. Thanks for the answers to the OP I think I will stick with what we are doing.
I think use science books for reading, and copy work for writting that is science related.. I have seen this suggested before and have heard good results. Personally my ds likes writting but hates to write? Figure that one out! I would let him do some practice with the erasable stuff too. The white board books? They can write it and wipe it away when they are done so it makes it fun. I also think you dont need to worry too much, if you push now it will be harder later, if you relax with his writting for now you can slowly increase it as he goes.
OH and if you can get one of those REALLY BIG HUGEAMONGOUS note books that are for writing stories! Let him write on huge paper for fun! He will have to concentrate more to write bigger and then smaller sized pages will be easier too! We loved taking turns writing a story. I would write the starter then let dcs write a sentence at a time no more! Sometimes they begged to add the next one too but that was a encouragement in it!
I am taking these answers to heart even though ds is 12. He will type and is typing about 30 words a minute. I know that it will get better. This is why we are homeschooling. My younger son loves cursive (not meaning he doesn't whine at actually doing it) maybe I should say he loves the idea of cursive. We struggled a bit with it in the beginning, but now I am making up his "worksheets" I have looked all over for a dry erase board with the handwriting lines on it. (I am sure I saw one.) but the ones I see now are full of stuff. (the letters are there for them to trace) I guess I could just make one with a permanent marker. Anyway to get to my point...ds2 (he is nine) likes cursive because you cannot get the b and d's backward! and it is nicer looking.
MOTIVATION??? I am sitting here at my computer, looking at the dishes from lunch and thinking, movitvation, it's not just with our children, but ourselves. I need movtivation right now to get up from this computer and do my dishes
There are two things that strike me from your original post. "6 year old" and "he". It's a boy thing! They HATE to write. It's a fine motor thing. My son is 8 and still hates writing (although, he's loving learning cursive, go figure....maybe it's easier on his hand?) Anyway... www.worksheetworks.com handwriting sheet generator has saved our relationship. I type up a quote or something from our historical fiction as a TRACING page for a few days. And once or twice a week it's copy work. I think tracing really helps with a control and build muscle function. It's done wonders. My oldest did entirely tracing for kinder and first. I never MADE her write anything. We did formal handwriting in 3rd grade. She did writing in her own time....her handwriting is beautiful. My son's is on it's way....I think. I hope. I see flashes of brilliance.
