I heard this handwriting tip at a homeschool convention years ago. When teaching your children how to write their name, teach them in all lowercase letters. If you think about it, most of the letters we write are lowercase, yet so often children learn their uppercase letters first.
If you teach them to write in all lowercase first, later you can show them how to write and use capitals. It is much easier than teaching them what not to capitalize.
We’ve used Handwriting Without Tears for 8 years and love it. What handwriting curriculum are you using?
We use handwriting without tears as well. Have also need using the Leapfrog Scribble and Write. I like to vary it up
Huh. I find this tip to be interesting given the curriculum that you use since HWT advocated all capitals first.
We do use HWT, but before my children ever officially start school and want to practice their letters I only introduce lowercase. Once they begin HWT they are usually writing their name and a few other simple words in lowercase letters.
Ah. And that would be a difference between my child and your children. He showed little to no interest in handwriting until very recently.
That’s a great tip! It makes perfect sense. I’ll have to file that away for future use when I’m ready to start teaching my toddler.
*advocates not advocated
I use A Reason for Handwriting for manuscript. I do use HWT to teach cursive. I like how it is not loopy.
We used A Reason For Handwriting with our daughter. She loved how little time it took.
We were on a seriously low budget when we homeschooled, so I simply used a sheet of purchased-cheap-in-the-fall notebook paper, and showed them how to form letters on it. If you have time, it’s a great alternative to a purchased curricula, as long as you can write decently yourself. I have no illusions about my own handwriting, but I checked out one book from the library, and wrote out the alpahbet “properly” until I could do it from memory, then used one copy of my own letters to teach them how to do it.
I also used a set of flashcards I made from 3×5 cards as prompters.
I also use HWOT, my kids love it! Even if you get just the workbooks it’s a very reasonable price, too.
My girl is a very auditory learner, and their CD songs are great for young ones, as well as make handwriting time “special”
I use a reason for handwriting but considering switching to HWT for my younger 3.
Thanks for sharing this. 8 years thats great! So the program has stood the test of time? I think we might give it a try! Also, thanks for your post on the gov shutting down. It was a reminder to us to remember our military families and how they would be affected. Blessings!
I haven’t officially started, but we will do HWT since I have been through their expensive training before (highly recommended if you have a weekend and the money or a generous student’s parent who can pay while you are working at a preschool). The problem with lowercase first is that lowercase has more difficulties with the shapes. That is why HWT does uppercase first. They do however say for the child’s name to teach it correctly and not in all uppers. The alternative is picking a name like Joy where the upper and lower of the letters other than the first are almost identical so it really doesn’t effect the teaching until you use lines
We use HWT, too. I think it’s great for all kids, but is especially helpful for boys, for some reason. I love the simplicity of the letters. They can always add their own “style” later.
I agree about teaching lower case letters first. As a former public school kindergarten teacher I always had a hard time with the kids who came to school writing in all caps and surprisingly the kids who didn’t write at all were actually easier to teach. So much for coming to kindergarten “prepared”, we had to unteach the all caps style writing before they could be taught the right way to write! Sounds like you’re doing a great job Happy!
My son is not yet five, so we haven’t started a concentrated handwriting curriculum yet, but we are almost done with “Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.” At the end of each lesson, you work on writing 2 letters at a time. They ONLY teach lowercase. It definitely makes more sense!