I AM right, I know I am, please will you all come and confirm it?

[LiegeAndLief]

Ds is learning to write and is forming his number 5 like an S. I have tried to teach him to do the downstroke first, then the roundy bit, then take his pencil off the paper and go back to do the top flat bit (all very technical, hope that makes sense). This is the right way, yes?

Dh says this is madness, and he should just start with the top flat bit and continue to the downstroke and the roundy bit all in one go, so writing it just like an S but making it look like a 5 by being a bit more angular about it. Surely this is wrong? I have vague memories of being severely chastised for forming a 5 like that as a child and being told it was lazy and would look like an S. Dh convinced he is right. Neither of us will back down. We are probably scarring ds for life. I put it to you (to tell me I am right).

And yes, the long winter evenings do fly by in our house

excellent idea Moln DS is 5 soon but maybe he'll be 7? Time will tell.

YOU'RE ALL WRONG!!!

I start with the curve. Then do the hat. Then the backbone.

I'm with DH...

You are right

Speaking as a teacher...

First draw his neck, then his big fat tummy and then put his hat on.

DD has been taught the exact same method at her school too.

You are right. :) HTH

Clearly there's no 'hat'. That'd look like a T with a pendulous belly. We're talking a right-facing cap or kepi (for those who like the French 7). I can think of no other hat which isn't symmetrical whichever way you swivel.

::Stands tall::

I love the music of Fairport Convention and I write my 5s in the approved two-stroke way.

::dances off to the strains of Matty Groves and not Matty Grove5::

OP is right! I was taught 2 stroke way and feel like I am cheating if I do it in one stroke (must get out more)

I was taught like you.

FOLKIES OF THE WORLD UNITE

Perhaps under a number 5 banner. Written the right way. I love Fairport and so does ds, don't you dear? He says vfhrthfg. Actually we're listening to Ashley Hutchings atm. I say listening. He's asleep.

OP is right

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I do it the same way you do LiegeAndLief

OP is right!

Nooo Nooo Nooo Must be in one stroke. Your DH is absolutely, definitely right.

Your DH is rights. Why would you pick the more complicated way if doing it in one stroke is easier and faster? Why? It takes a whole fraction of a second longer and those all add up over the lifetime.

With the OP. DH is wrong wrong wrong. Neck, belly and hat is how I was taught.

(But Lefty DD is finding it hard not to make them look like S's)

No no he isn't! There's something totally counter-intuitive about doing it in one stroke because you end the letter going right-to-left instead of left-to-right. With an s that doesn't matter, you just loop back through it and join it to the next letter, but you can't do that with a 5 because it ends up looking like an 8. FLAT TOP LAST!

I disagree with the DH. It would feel weird to me to do it in one go. Why is there a 'correct' way anyway? Surely as long as it looks like a five, it shouldn't matter how it got there?

That is to say, no no he isn't right!

If you learn calligraphy - ie proper handwriting with proper pens* - you will always be taught to draw the 5 with two strokes.

• as previously discussed

::gavel::

I'm with fairenuff, valiumredhead and others - Down the body, round the fat tummy then put the hat on.

You are right OP!

NO wait! your DH is wrong TOO. Just had to write a bunch of 5's to check and the correct way is
Top first, BUT from left to right.
Pen back to the beginning of top, down, curve.

Nothing unnatural there, but the distance the pen has to travel is a lot shorter.