holding a pencil correctly

Hi Melinda,

I posted this question about my child’s pencil grip a few years back:

http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/pencil-grip

After receiving the replies, I decided not to change his grip. He now has the same grip and really nice handwriting. I’ve also noticed in that time — through documentaries I’ve seen — that children in Finland and in Japan hold their pencils like my son, though he is left-handed and the children I observed were right-handed. This leads me to wonder if the question of “wrong way, right way” might be cultural.

Anyhow, that was our experience and I’m glad I didn’t make him change his grip.

Warmly,

Richele

My younger daughter always held her pencil in a way that I thought was incorrect. Her middle finger holds it in place instead of her pointer. I have seen others hold their pencils this way and after trying to get her to change last year in 1st grade I quit and just let her hold it how she wants. Her handwriting doesn’t seem to suffer although I did have her change the angle of her arm as she was starting to write like some left handers do with their hand at the top of the page almost like they are writing upside down. I corrected that but not her grip and she writes neatly just the same.

Oh Gem!  That is so funny. My neighbor came back today and we were discussing the same thing!  Amazing. LOL  Anyway, We were discussing that her Grandmother taught her an underhanded crochet.  I said, “Boy that looks like you are doing that left handed.  She said, ” That’s funny because my Grandmother was Left handed.”  My friend was also left handed, Well omnidexterous until her father broke her left hand to get her to use her right.  Well, I think that is a little extreme but she is now right handed. 

  Anyway, We wanted to teach my daughter to crochet.  she said,” she is to young because she doesn’t hold it right.” I laughed and said, “I learned when I was under 5 years old.”   So, we compared how we held our strings and our hooks and I hold mine like a pencil and so does my daughter.  So, I guess it all depends on who is going to teach her.  I am guessing it will be me. LOL…   My daughter loves to spend time with her and has adopted her as a Grandma.  So she wanted her to teach her… I think it would be more of a problem though since she already has been holding her pencil correctly all this time… 🙂

  On the other hand.  My son was never caught holding his pencil the right way so I tried to retrain him.  He does have better hand writing when he holds it wrong but I had heard that it will fatigue his hand and he won’t write very long.  

   We also discussed how my friends husband was taught how to hold a pencil and he said he learned the “electic” way.  You should be able to hold a pencil so softly that someone could grab it out of your hand when you were writing. They made big circles and curls to learn how to hold the pencil.  I do remember my dad teaching me this when I was a young girl.  His mom studied to be a secretary and had beautiful handwriting and that is how she taught him. This is also how I taught my daughter and tried to teach my son. When he didn’t learn I bought those pencil grips that look like bubble gum stuck around the pencil.  He used them for awhile but then went back to his own style.  So, I guess I should let him be fatiqued and not worry about it. ????   Or move to Japan or China and we will just fit in. 🙂