Hi there. My 7 yo (end of Grade 1 in South Africa) is needing more practice with her handwriting. It’s been a bad year of homeschooling due to my health, and a session of hospital, a move, and disruptions. I’ve noticed that she forms several letters incorrectly. We’ve looked at posture too and pencil grip too. I was thinking of quickly reviewing all the upper and lower case manuscript in our new school year and then of course doing copywork more routinely. Which of these books is best in these circumstances ?
Sorry I haven’t used either of these with my kids. With my 6 yr old beginner I put down words that are dashed for him to trace and I watch and hover over him to make sure he does it properly. Now I have just started to give him one or two words to write without tracing in his best penmanship.
Sorry I wasn’t much help but thanks for the Thanksgiving wishes!
Well, I looked at a couple of options. If I looked at the right Beginning Manuscript, you would have a choice of letters and styles…but I would suspect that they would all be the same thing over and over with each letter. Another thing that I noticed is that you probably would have to hunt up each letter as you went, which is time-consuming and can get annoying on days when time is limited.
There are several advantages of the Child’s Copywork Reader in that it would reinforce the correct way to make a letter, but still allow the child to progress in her reading abilities since it has her writing words so she can continue to make the connection between the letters and words. So it might provide more motivation. Another is that is all in one place easy to access or print all at once.
If I were to be doing this with my dd, I think that I would use the Delightful Handwriting to review the letter formation and then use the Child’s Copywork Reader. Both accomplish what you need and it would stay fresh and interesting because the letters and words are used in context. You can move through them as quickly or slowly as needed too, printing only letters that you need to work on; although she may enjoy it enough to want to do the whole thing so she can read them to you!
My 7yo is using the copybook reader and really likes it. The very first book starts off with a long poem to read/copy in short segments. After the first lesson, my dd said it was beautiful and she is very excited to get it out each morning. The bonus is that she is working on some reading/spelling skills while copying and segments are so short they do not overwhelm her.
All that to say, I think the copybook reader would be more motivating an enjoyable for a 7yo. I’m thinking you could look over the letters she will be forming for the day and practice the formation of those on a small marker board or container of cornmeal before she begins her copywork for the day, and then just watch her as she does it.
Thank you Missy, that is a great idea. I’ve just realized that the Delightful Handwriting might require a student book and a TM which could be costly, so perhaps I’ll just get the Copywork reader.
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