To think I've been doing '5' wrong...

[FurrySlipperBoots]

my whole life?!

teachingmama.org/number-formation-rhymes/?fbclid=IwAR1_4E-PRQWOgMEmfkGMZeKsmexISYL1Ca-_zKPRMTLspq9g2nzaeEUxre0

I learnt to write in early seventies and we were taught 5 like that - down and around and a hat on top

That's how I was taught how to do my fives in the 80s (well, no rhymes were involved).

i start with the hat...

I always do mine like that (in the film/website). I also do a cross over the middle of 7. Went to school in the 70's, but struggled a lot with maths, so my DGM taught me to play cards, mainly Crib, Rummy and Poker. Now THAT is an education in how to count.

I've always done mine with just one stroke, but it does sometimes look like an S. This way would solve that problem if I can remember to do it. I've seen people do it the two stroke way and always thought it looked a bit awkward. I thought they were the ones doing it wrong!

One stroke here too.

Mad to think there’s a right way to write a number 😂

I was taught the same way as the rhyme in the 70s. No rhyme though that I can remember. I think I do it in one go now through laziness, unless I'm writing it for a sign or something.

We were taught to do a five like that when I was at school in the 1960s. An old teacher friend of mine said it was to stop a 5 looking like an S if you were a sloppy writer.

I can't quite think of an occasion when you'd write a 5 and it being mistaken for S could be important but that's the reason I was given.

I used to work in construction and we used to have to make lots of notes and reports using numbers - alot. Lengths, weights, density etc...

One week one of the lads on site went on holiday and we spent ALL WEEK trying to emulate his way of writing the number 5.

We made him judge our efforts when he got back.

True story.

I won of course.

I'm in the minority here. I do it with one stroke too, and that's not how I do an 8 either.

@Sturmundcalm I also do the hat first!

Hat first. Why wouldn't you? You don't have to lift the pen from the paper.

oh, i do the hat first but left to right and then lift my pen...

I write number 5 with two pens, starting at either end and working towards the top of the bulge with both pens at the same time. I think most people write it this way.

Well, that is just gormless!

It is not like numbers need to get joined up,.

I do it like the chart but have no idea how I was taught - infant school 1956-1958. I don't remember any rhymes!

I'm more intrigued by the 8 - that's the way I do it, but there was a thing about it on FB recently & some people do an 8 either backwards or starting in the middle

Never heard of putting a hat on it either, one continuous stroke here. But I also do my 7’s the German way (i’ve never lived in Germany) so i’m probably beyond hope.

9 is controversial too. Theirs is like a lower case Q, but I do mine like an upside down 6. I start on the circle part and just loop one line round to the bottom.

I write number 5 with two pens, starting at either end and working towards the top of the bulge with both pens at the same time. I think most people write it this way.

same as @stinky - along the top down and round

I'm a maverick.

Sometimes I start with 5's hat and do it all in one go. Seamless, easy, no nonsense.

Other times, I finish with the hat. Clunky, hard work, pointed.

The latter means more work for me what with the pen having to leave the paper and alll, but ultimately more satisfaction when I fling the end of the hat outwards. I save this way for when I don't really want to write a 5 but someone is making me. Like Mrs Lord in lower thirds.

You should see how I write my 4. You'd faint clean away!

I get a worm to perform the number 5 using the medium of mime and multicoloured paint.

I do the hat if I'm moving onto another number, then it's seamless.

Who fuck arses about like that with two strokes? No wonder kids are leaving school illiterate...

I do mine backwards starting at the bottom but it's still all in one stroke.

One stroke. Too impatient for 2, time wasting! 😂