My daughter is in first grade. I know writing is very important at this point, but we just can't seem to fit it in. When we get done with our lessons, she wants to go and so do I! How much should she be writing and what do I make her write? Also, when do they move to the smaller pencils and wide rule paper? Thanks!
Hi, Last year I started with DS hs'ing. He hated writing and so we left it essentially until later in the year. Now with DD hsing too in SK we have implemented writing again. What we have been doing is having each child dictate a story to me and I write it on the whiteboard. Then I ask that DS copywork his down on paper. He uses a regular pencil and always has. I still have to remind him to use the proper grip though. He is on to me though and says he will make his stories short so he won't have to copy much. I say that's fine it just means you will have to do more then one during the week lol. Usually stories are at least five sentences. I like this method because it allows their ideas to flow as kids are natural story tellers. And they aren't being hung up on spelling or speed of hand movement.
I like the program Hand Writing Without Tears. It was written by a teacher with a child who has processing and grip problems and allows the child to learn to form the letters and numbers with play-doh and other things. It is not a fight to get the work done; in fact it is my son's favorite time of the day. He is in kindergarten and doing the first grade book now. Best of all it is very inexpensive! My son started out using "fat" pencils, but we moved onto the regular pencils when we started kindergarten this year. I know my 2nd grade neice just started with wide rule paper and off of the primary paper this year. Hope that helps some!
I also like Handwriting w/o Tears. We've never used a fat pencil. My son's occupational therapist never mentioned using one, either, so I guess it's alright.
When my kids were littler, I had them keep notebooks on their reading. I kept it at one sentence per grade they were in. It works beautifully. YOu can use it for history or science reading, for literature you are reading, either aloud or independent reading. It helps reinforce what they've read and keeps them writing. As they get older, you can focus it "Write about this character" or "Write about what caused this to happen" Then when they get writing project as older students they are more familiar with focusing their writing as well.
My 1st grader is using A REason for Handwriting. She likes it. It starts out doing two letters and two words per day for about 28 days. Then it switches to a four day program practicing a leter ad word each day and then on the 4th day they write a scripture verse using the words they had practiced. She enjoys picking out the page she is going to use on Thurs and coloring it after she writes. Also she does workbooks for some of her other subjects and has to ill in the blanks or write sentences depending on what she is working on. Hope that helps.
My first grader uses primary paper, my second grader uses primary paper, we will continue with the primary paper until they run out and then we'll move into wide rule paper. As for how much writing, my first grader does the work in his workbooks and his math paper daily, and then he does one sentence of copywork per day (once in cursive and once in print daily). My second graders does the same, plus he has a handwriting notebook where he works on one letter per day.
