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copywork for kindergarten?
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I just re-read the copywork thread and it got me wondering–my 5yo struggles with handwriting. It’s led to a few meltdowns in the last five weeks. At first I let him free write anything he wanted, one or two words, and I’d help him spell them if he asked. But the kindergarten standards in our state require him to write his first and last name and the numbers to 20 (and that’s all), so I’ve started concentrating on that. Should I try some short passages that include his name, perhaps? Or ditch the tablets for awhile and go back to unlined paper? I’m trying to get him to write the letters uniformly, which unlined paper isn’t doing.
Thanks,
Karen
I asked Sonya about this at a seminar the other week. My son is wanting to learn to learn to write but the lines and him aren’t getting along. She suggested letting him write in sand and also just letting him write on unlined paper. I also asked her about teaching him to write the letters and how long to spend on each one. She suggested to just teach him how to make each letter but not dwell on letter by letter until it is perfect but rather let him write words (what he really wants to do – yesterday he said he wanted to write a poem about his morning – I don’t think it really qualified as a poem, but glad he likes poetry) and realize it will take him a while to get better. I guess just “get through” the letter by letter instruction and then move on to more fun things. Maybe you could come up with short sentences (like you were saying) that incorporate his name and some numbers – perhaps make it an ongoing story where each day he does something with a different number, do you think that would keep his interest? Then you could do what it required in a more gentle way. Do they require written proof? If not then I would think whatever medium was working for you would suffice? Maybe try different pencils or crayons that are more comfortable or he would just enjoy the colors?
And I hope Sonya corrects me if I understood wrong – I hate trying to quote someone and not get it right, but that is how I understood her 🙂
My advice is to back off from the writing for now and try again later. Personally, I don’t think a 5yo needs to be doing writing if it causes meltdowns.
Regarding your state standards, usually those are what are expected to be accomplished by the end of the school year, not the beginning.
I think a little more time will do wonders.
Just to clarify–he knows how to make the letters. He just doesn’t want to. If he says he wants to trace, he hurries and won’t trace the entire letter (he might leave off the middle of the A, for example). I know the standards are for the end of kindergarten, but I’m thinking if I take a break from it he won’t master it in time. Our state doesn’t have any testing requirements, but since he will be in speech therapy at our ps, they may want him to write something, I don’t know. Maybe I should cut back to 2-3 times a week instead of every day?
Karen
I think cutting back is a good idea – IMO you are probably right that stopping altogether may loose momentum and you may find yourself pushing too hard at the end of the year. Maybe every other day would help it not seem like such drudgery to him. I do think it is frustrating sometimes that the State tries to put our kids in a box and makes it harder for us to let them learn at a more comfortable pace for them (be it faster or slower). I guess we as moms just have to get creative and figure out how to bridge the gap. This is a completely off the top of my head (no testing done on this at our house) idea, but what if you made the letters look a bit like characters or objects, maybe add eyes or something to make it look more appealing – that way he has to get the basic structure of the letter first but then can turn it into something fun? I have no idea if this would be helpful or hurtful, but sounds like fun. I hope you figure out a good solution to this.
Lesley
I think cutting back is a good idea – IMO you are probably right that stopping altogether may loose momentum and you may find yourself pushing too hard at the end of the year. Maybe every other day would help it not seem like such drudgery to him. I do think it is frustrating sometimes that the State tries to put our kids in a box and makes it harder for us to let them learn at a more comfortable pace for them (be it faster or slower). I guess we as moms just have to get creative and figure out how to bridge the gap. This is a completely off the top of my head (no testing done on this at our house) idea, but what if you made the letters look a bit like characters or objects, maybe add eyes or something to make it look more appealing – that way he has to get the basic structure of the letter first but then can turn it into something fun? I have no idea if this would be helpful or hurtful, but sounds like fun. I hope you figure out a good solution to this.
Lesley
Karen,
Some ideas, assuming you’re at the beginning of the year, you could use unlined paper and crayons, transitioning into a short, fat pencil towards the end of the year.
One of the teachings of Handwriting Without Tears, (which if you haven’t looked at I recommend), is the hand development of a child that age, and notoriously boy’s development. Using a fat crayon, instead of a pencil, is the right length and width for his little hands. HWT also has some wonderful Pre-k Wall cards that my dd loved coloring and placing up on her wall after she learned a letter. They also have a stamp and see screen and chalkboard that she enjoyed immensly you may want to look at. If you use the Kindergarten book of theirs, I think he will be able to meet those standards. And he’s much less likely to look at it with such drudgery; my dd is quite active and she wizzed through it and enjoyed it.
scroll to Kindergarten section and look at products.
Rachel
I’ve looked at HWT and thought I could duplicate it myself without buying anything. We’re using fat pencils now, and I bought regular chalk for when he used the chalkboard. This week, though, I let him use the sidewalk chalk and it’s worked out better. Maybe I should go back to using crayons for awhile. When we started last month, I would do cornmeal on Monday, then MagnaDoodle on Tuesday (which I scrapped because he couldn’t feel the letter), highlighter on Wed, crayon on Thursday, and pencil on Friday. Then Wal-Mart put out the school supplies, and I bought some kindergarten tablets and thought I had to use them right away. I don’t know how soon they use them in the “regular” classroom.
But I still don’t know if having him write words in isolation is part of the problem, or if giving him a sentence to write would work.
Karen
that’s strange – my other post posted twice – sorry everyone. In my experience with my son I saw a huge jump in his enthusiasm when we moved from writing just letters or words to writing sentences – to him writing a complete thought was more worthwhile. I tried to think of words that used the letters he had just learned or was good at writing. Another thing we did was write letters to friends/family – I would let him write as much as he wanted to (sometimes that was just his name) and I’d finish the rest for him, then he would draw a picture or two and we’d mail it. I would use a sticky note to help keep him on a “line”. We did duplicate some of what HWT did at a fraction of the cost – i.e. we made our own wooden letter pieces, used play dough, and our own magna doodle. It really sounds like you have great ideas and are on the right track, just keep trying and hopefully you’ll stumble upon something that he is ready to run with.
Lesley
I have a K-son also and he doesn’t care for writing much. I don’t think he can form all of his letters yet either..so your son is ahead of him. The one thing I have found that works well with all my kiddos is to using a tracing sheet in a page protector and then use dry/wet erase markers…they really like using a different color each day and squirting the page with water to wipe off (very messy for hands though).
I think your idea of cutting back to 2-3 times a week is a great idea. All my kiddos sit at the table and have their copywork but my K doesn’t always do his..I just let him do as much or as little as he wants and then he can get up from the table. So it probably averages out to 2 days a week that he does true copywork.
Keep up the good work.
Shelly
We used Games for Writing and it really helped. I think at that age, some kids, especially boys, still really struggle with copywork. I agree with the other posters in letting him decide how much he can handle at a time. I also found these lined dry erase boards for $1 each at Target the other day and bought some for all of my kids to use. There’s something about using markers that makes it more fun. 🙂
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