Anyone know anything about children writing?
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    Default Anyone know anything about children writing?

    Hi
    My DD is in Year 1. I have noticed she is not forming her letters correctly, she can write them but she is not forming them in the correct way so as an example when she is writing a lower case d she will start at the top, come down and then do the curly bit. They are now being taught cursive writing. Will the fact that she is not correctly forming her letters hinder this? I would have thought she should be getting the "basics" correct before starting to do cursive writing. Can anyone tell me if I am worrying unnecessarily about this?? It's really bugging me.

    xxxx

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    It differs from school to school, it's down to the head as to what they teach, ours start cursive the day they start school not sure I'm a fan of it though!

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    sometimes cursive writing can correct the habit of forming letters incorrectly as they wont join up properly, go in and have a chat with the teacher.

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    Thank you. I have mentioned it to her teacher but didn't really get a definitive resoonse. I told the teacher I had printed some letter practise off for her with arrows showing the way the letters are formed and that she was practising at home. She is also unaware of where the letters sit on the lines eg for a d the curly part would sit in the smaller line and the tail goes above the line. Maybe I'm just old but to me it's all basic stuff and I feel writing is so important throughout life that I want her to be able to write neatly and legibly unlike her father who's writing looks like it's been done by a 4 year old lol.
    Xxx

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    I'm afraid some teachers do not give a d. and if we do not do the job ourselves our hildren will never be taught the "proper" way to write them.
    I have had to teach my children, and they are in quite a good caring school, and I tutor countless children in early literacy who are not taught at school enough/at all.

    I think the teachers have so much to do that as long as they themselves can recognise the child's letters, they will not bother to look how they have been written.
    A bit harsh but this is what I have seen. Loads of parents "hometeach" after school and during the weekend.
    Yet hardly any one of them will admit doing so. Private!
    So if I were you I would have her practice at home everyday for 5/10 minutes until it becomes automatic.

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    Quote Originally Posted by lynnfi View Post
    I'm afraid some teachers do not give a d. and if we do not do the job ourselves our hildren will never be taught the "proper" way to write them.
    I have had to teach my children, and they are in quite a good caring school, and I tutor countless children in early literacy who are not taught at school enough/at all.

    I think the teachers have so much to do that as long as they themselves can recognise the child's letters, they will not bother to look how they have been written.
    A bit harsh but this is what I have seen. Loads of parents "hometeach" after school and during the weekend.
    Yet hardly any one of them will admit doing so. Private!
    So if I were you I would have her practice at home everyday for 5/10 minutes until it becomes automatic.
    Thank you. You have confirmed my thoughts
    I'm going to carry on helping her at home.

    xxx

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    Okay, I taught reception and year one for years before childminding, and as Literacy co-ordinator handwriting was one of my favourite 'subjects'. You don't need to worry yet, but now is the time to start working on it. Handwriting is one of those things that really requires some one-to-one teaching and so it is good to do some at home. I am now doing it with my DD each night as although they have handwriting sessions they are done as a whole class and so when I went to Parents Eve I saw that she had done rows of letters, but as no one was sitting with her, she had rows of incorrectly formed letters, grrrr, total waste of her time and was reinforcing bad habits.

    I have bought DD a handwriting book from WH Smith so that she can learn about tall and short letters etc. We do a couple of rows each evening, no more as their little hands get tired. It is best to group the letters, so cursive letters which start with a 'curly caterpillar shape' are 'c,o,a,d,g,q' are good ones to start with. Focus on one at a time until she has grasped it. Her handwriting will not change over night which will be frustrating for you. Also, she will start to write them perfectly in her handwriting sessions, but once she goes back to general writing (whole sentences etc) she will revert back to her old habits as there are just so many things for them to be focusing on, such as spelling, content, spaces etc. This is why she needs little and often in terms of practising. Make sure you have a copy of the exact script that the school uses because even with cursive writing it can vary, for example, some schools 'loop' g and y and some don't. The letter f varies a lot too. Cursive writing is great because all letters start on the line. Let me know if you need more advice. x

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    Quote Originally Posted by Maza View Post
    Okay, I taught reception and year one for years before childminding, and as Literacy co-ordinator handwriting was one of my favourite 'subjects'. You don't need to worry yet, but now is the time to start working on it. Handwriting is one of those things that really requires some one-to-one teaching and so it is good to do some at home. I am now doing it with my DD each night as although they have handwriting sessions they are done as a whole class and so when I went to Parents Eve I saw that she had done rows of letters, but as no one was sitting with her, she had rows of incorrectly formed letters, grrrr, total waste of her time and was reinforcing bad habits.

    I have bought DD a handwriting book from WH Smith so that she can learn about tall and short letters etc. We do a couple of rows each evening, no more as their little hands get tired. It is best to group the letters, so cursive letters which start with a 'curly caterpillar shape' are 'c,o,a,d,g,q' are good ones to start with. Focus on one at a time until she has grasped it. Her handwriting will not change over night which will be frustrating for you. Also, she will start to write them perfectly in her handwriting sessions, but once she goes back to general writing (whole sentences etc) she will revert back to her old habits as there are just so many things for them to be focusing on, such as spelling, content, spaces etc. This is why she needs little and often in terms of practising. Make sure you have a copy of the exact script that the school uses because even with cursive writing it can vary, for example, some schools 'loop' g and y and some don't. The letter f varies a lot too. Cursive writing is great because all letters start on the line. Let me know if you need more advice. x
    Wow, thank you so much that is so helpful. Funnily enough we were practising her writing the word "dog" today so that was all curly caterpillar shapes.
    Bad habits is exactly the reason I want to help her now because surely the longer she carries on forming letters incorrectly the harder it will be to re-do it all.
    After my conversation with her teacher about this her teacher sent her home with some pages with cursive letters on for practising so I will get her to start on those. Funnily enough when I got all the worksheets out today she sighed really hard when she thought I was going to get her to practise cursive letters so I decided not to and so she just practised normal writing of "dog. She is very keen to do practise and I don't want to put her off.
    Thanks again
    xx

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    It is just practice practice practice! I used handwriting books with my children and older mindees. I also have whiteboards with the alphabet printed on both cursive and block letters. All mindees love them!

    I help with handwriting at school and I start with making sure the children are holding the pencil correctly and then we practice groups of letters that are formed the same way. But like someone else said ... As soon as the children start writing and thinking about other things they are doing, the correct formation of letters is forgotten which is why doing 5/10 mins each day at home will really help.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AliceK View Post
    Hi
    My DD is in Year 1. I have noticed she is not forming her letters correctly, she can write them but she is not forming them in the correct way so as an example when she is writing a lower case d she will start at the top, come down and then do the curly bit. They are now being taught cursive writing. Will the fact that she is not correctly forming her letters hinder this? I would have thought she should be getting the "basics" correct before starting to do cursive writing. Can anyone tell me if I am worrying unnecessarily about this?? It's really bugging me.

    xxxx
    My DD is also Year 1 and does not form her letters correctly - the school are also teaching cursive which I didn't think was a good idea until she has mastered the basics. Great advice and tips from everyone so thank you for posting in the first place! x

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