8 year old and handwriting

[OohMrDarcy]

Any advice how to help a year 3 leaver (8.5 YO) with her handwriting and spelling...?

In my mind it has improved massively this year, but is certainly not consistent and is a key weakness when reading her report (working towards year 3 goals still)

In her mind, all her friends have achieved some bloody handwriting scribe award that allows them to use a pen or something

I will obviously be chatting to her teacher this week about ways I can support her over the holidays, and I have a sinking feeling it will be simply encouraging writing every day!

I'm trying to get her to slow down on her writing at the moment and think about the spellings, as often - when she thinks about it a bit more, the spelling is right (or better at least). I think maybe at the moment she is struggling with putting it all together - ie the ideas, the sentence structure, the spelling AND writing neatly!

Any ideas or suggestions for fun things to support her before I talk to the teacher ??

thanks

bump?

I am looking for help for a younger DC but I found this site today and hope it might help us make some progress over the holidays. There is a pdf for parents to work through to try to spot which element is causing the trouble: www.nha-handwriting.org.uk/

When my dd was about 9 y o i bought her a calligraphy pen set with a simple to follow book. I only got it from the Works so cheap and cheerful. She loved practising her writing for a while. Her teacher did say her hand writing improved alot.

Also drawing and colouring are useful for younger children.

I had exactly the same problem. Many people do. Especially with spelling. Most people read in whole words rather than single letters. So for example most people will read : wehn I sctiwh the lerttes in the mlddie of a wrod but keep the frist and lsat lerttes the smae as: when I switch the middle letters of a word but keep the forst and last letters the same. Check whther this is happening to her. As simple tip to help her focus on her spelling is to get her to check her spelling after she has finished writing by reading the word backwards to check whether they are spelled correctly. As for handwrinting-teach her cursive, my handwirng was shocking until I naturally assumed link script-this helped to facilitate the fast speeds at which I wrote. if your daughter has any words she particularly struggles with just get her to practice writing and rewriting the word repeatedly correctly. this will teach muscle memory and she wil just do it automatically.

There are lots of great handwriting worksheets to be found on pinterest.com - Here is a great site I found for you, after a quick look: www.pinterest.com/explore/handwriting-worksheets/
Often, young children enjoy copying out their favourite stories and printing handwriting guides to do this on will help - just type this into google images. I hope those couple of tips are helpful.

Scott (Co-Founder of www.tutora.co.uk)

I'd avoid handwriting sheets and use handwriting lines. Make sure she's forming the letters correctly and beginning/ending each letter in the correct place. It's a common problem when children have used handwriting books /sheets that they learn to "draw" the shape of the letter but not how to write with correct sequence of movements to develop a flowing style.
I would always work with her rather than leaving her to get on with it and risk reinforcing poor habits.
Teach letters in "families" with the same movements so - c,a, o, g, f,d,q,s and e - i, l ,j, t , y, u - r,n, ,m h, b, p - z,x,v,w

Some may vary slightly depending on particular style this us just general guide