Handwriting can make kids cry. I think Charlotte knew this. She said it would be better to have a single line of perfect As, than a whole page of progressively sloppy ones.We only do handwriting for a few minutes each day. Copywork is how it's done. They can pick a line from a favorite hymn, poem, or book and copy it. At their current ages, 1-2 lines is all it takes. For Isaac (because he's a boy and all boys hate writing), one little line is plenty. Elena, on the other hand (because she's a firstborn and a girl) will copy a whole paragraph just because she wants to and will write it all in cursive because having a page of "pretty words" is her goal.
Once a week, I have them write a letter to a grandparent or friend. (I tend to have them write most often to those who I know will write them back. Kyle reminds me that they write letters to be a blessing, but I just love seeing the joy on their little faces when they get mail!) They dictate to me what they want to write, I type it out in letter format, and they copy it. Four sentences max! The next day, I'll have them copy the addresses on the envelope. (Isaac would just kill me if I asked him to do it all in one day!)
2 comments:
I soooooooooooooooooo enjoy these posts. Thank you!
This was an encouraging post for me- my 7 year old son would probably rather eat worms than write a whole paragraph. I'm trying to have him do little reports on the books he reads for the summer, but it's not going so well. Maybe I'm expecting too much!?
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