Magic Link Handwriting

[Gigwidow]

Having just had a really bad parent's evening, I am about to panic buy the Magic Link handwriting course online. There isn't an awful lot of information about what it is that you are actually buying other than the pre-recorded tuition videos and printable worksheets, and amazing testimonials of course! But I was wondering if anyone has first hand knowledge they would be willing to share. Thanks in advance.

I’ve tried everything, Magic Link, OT, maze books, special classes. Now all of my children just touch type….

Yes, it’s very good indeed. My left handed son wrote horribly. Now year 9, he’s constantly commended for his beautiful handwriting. Magic link transformed his, age about 7 or 8. It’s a bit of a slog though. But if you persevere I think it’s worth it. It’s a real gift I’ve given to him, now I think on it :-)

Also: it is quite expensive. But this is a one band show, a small business. As far as I could tell. She’s not a charity. And she’s very good. (I say this as a small business owner, too; where people constantly expect everything for cut prices. It’s mot possible!) Anyway, it’s as though you’re sitting with her, it’s a very thorough course. My son didn’t madly like doing it. You have to chunk through it, almost as a non negotiable habit. We ordered all three levels, if I recall rightly there were three? whatever the case, he didn’t finish the final book. But by that time, his handwriting was truly truly transformed. And it was pretty illegible before then. Left handed plus the school tried to teach them a dreadful form of copperplate which made everything even more illegible (lots of silly loops, looked like everything was misspelled with extra “e’s” etc. good luck, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough!

@Managing2020 thanks for the response, 8 totally relate. Feel like we’ve tried everything too and will probably end up touch typing. Also just shelled out on the write from the start books which I’m instantly regretting as they are pretty babyish.

@Doodaadoo that’s really great to hear, thanks so much for the extensive feedback. I think I will try it based on your review. All the online reviews seem to be for in person tutoring but this is really helpful. It’s true, if you are trying to make a living as a small business, this price is fair. So glad it worked for you!

DS writing was/is awful. It turns out he was/is dyspraxic so used a laptop for everything including exams.

My son (year 2) has been following the online videos for a few weeks now and his handwriting has already massively improved. He doesn’t enjoy doing it, it is a bit of a slog… but it is paying off and he can recognise that it is helping. We will probably take a while to work our way through the first stage, which is all I’ve bought for now, because he does it in short stints. I find the videos quite basic but straight to the point, no fuss.

After a pretty miserable parents evening like yourself OP I am looking at magic link as well!

Found your post on the subject and wondered how you found it?

Hi @Giraffefantastico, we tried it and it wasn’t very sucessful in our case. My child has a short attention span and there were lots of issues with getting the videos to load, by the time they did he’d lost interest! Also, because he’s had cursive drummed into him from an early age at school, he effectively had to unlearn that and relearn this method which caused loads of confusion and stress. I even emailed the writer of the course to see if they could merge the techniques a little, e.g. starting points of the letter on the page and she insisted that it couldn't, so we’ve dropped it. Which is a shame as it cost over £200!! I think it would probably be a lot better if you had an in person tutor but none near us sadly.
On the other hand, we started doing the apples and pears and dancing bears books over the summer and have seen an absolute transformation! Although not technically handwriting books (encoding and decoding) there is a lot of handwriting involved and it helped enormously.
Sorry to hear about the bad parents evening , totally been there! Good luck.

Thanks for the reply! This is useful to know. £200 feels like a lot to spend on something that might be hit or miss!

Just wanted to drop a message here to say a thanks to you @Gigwidow. I followed your recommendation for Apples and Pears and it has done absolute wonders for my son’s writing after only a couple of months. Considering Dancing Bears books too but already finding it a struggle to fit in what we are doing.

We did magic link in person with child 2 and it worked really well. Can’t say she massively enjoyed the process, but she did it which is more than she’d have done with me sat next to her coaxing her. And there has been a huge improvement in her writing. It is £££ though.