I've never taught my kids to write before. We have been homeschooling for 6 years now and my older 3 all knew how to write when they were pulled out of public school.. Question 1: Ds9 writes in Capitals and lowercase mixed and all her words are squished together.. No spacing at all. She knows she is supposed to space and will if it's just a few words. But when she has to write a complete sentence forget being able to read it.. Is this normal for a 9 year old.. QUESTION 2: B and D are ALWAYS mixed up.. Even with the sounds.. Not just the writing..And they are written backwards. 5 and s are written backwards as well.. How do I help her with this? I'm thinking that having her do copywork would solve the spacing issues.. Anyone have any suggestions???
For b and d, teach from left to right, so b is a big line then little curve, d is a little curve then big line... We use a penny space. I'm just now working on this but I combine spelling and handwriting. I pick words that have letters in them he needs to work on. I write them out, he has to copy. I tell him leave a penny space between words and I give him a penny (spaceman sounds pretty cool though!). Then I tell him to squish the word together. As he writes he has to read the word, then say each letter he's writing, then read the word again. I give him like 5 words and he has to write them once or twice. 5 is down and around and give it a hat...so you start with the straight line down, then the curve, then the horizontal line at the top. Put a smilie face at the top left corner of the page. S always goes toward the smilie face, where as most other letters start at the smilie face. These ideas are all from Saxon or HWOT.
Oh another b/d trick is 'abcd' for 'd' you make a 'c' then add a line. for 'b' we say 'bat and ball' (but it's easier for my kids to just remember 'abcd' We also did a little 'craft' where we used 'c' for the nose and 'b' & 'd' for the eyes with the 'sticks' being eyeglasses....
I taught my kids "b" and "d" using the word bed. It looks like a bed. If you reverse either letter, you can't sleep on it because there is no room to lay down on a "deb." (clear as mud? lol) We are still working on backwards letters and numbers, but my oldest son is dyslexic so that will be an ongoing thing!
I had the same problem with my kids, writing their letters backwards, and improper spacing. However with daily writing practice, such as writing their spelling words three times each, and then making sentences for those words, the writing got better. Basically I found that this is normal at young ages, having worked with a lot of kids in the past, I learned that most tend to outgrow this phase as long as you keep working with them. Just keep them writing, and it will get better!
For lower case b and d I remind that little b can become big B. Little d can't become big D. But, this may not help if the letters are written backwards...and it almost sounds like it's upper case B and D that is a problem (??). If so, all I can think of (for upper case) is that they both have the long line and both "bumps" (two or one) are always on the right. Maybe a little saying, "On the right to be right" or something. Of course, this won't help if it's lower case b/d reversals. For spacing, I took a popsicle stick and we painted a pink glittery fingernail at one end and a couple little lines with marker near the knuckle (I saw spaceman and then saw the finger popsicle stick too). This works a bit better with a girl, probably. My dd used it for a short while and then got it and didn't need it anymore. Sometimes she still needs a reminder to space though.
b has a belly, and d has a derriere That's what I have been teaching my 5 yr old. My boys get a big laugh out of "derriere" every time. I would agree with others, definitely do copywork or dictation, whichever one suits you better. We just used a finger for spacing, but there are some good ideas on here with the popsicle sticks etc. Handwriting is very important, especially distinguishing upper and lower case letters.
I've heard this before too. But, I think then you'd have to make sure that they know that they letters are facing toward the right....the way we read. Otherwise, it could go either way, right? :lol:
With those ages and trying to improve print, I would buy some redi-space paper. I have used it with all my kids before moving to plain notebook paper. It helps with spacing a lot. http://www.rainbowresource.com/prod...2b2d128484a0374ada7ca?subject=7&category=9676 Also at those ages, I would use something like HWOT Can do Print which would quickly work to re mediate the printing issues without having to use a younger handwriting program. I would have them do copywork in print using the redi-space paper. I would start cursive though. Learning cursive will often improve print.
