My son is seven years old and I am teaching him to form letters

[IngridBergmann]

We have two weeks' off school, leading up to half term.
I've been trying to give my son some maths tests (at his request) but I cannot read, and worse, he cannot properly form, his numbers.
Worse still are the letters: he starts most of them (as the numbers) from the bottom, does them in two parts eg. a line and a ball for a 9, his 5s look like 6s and his threes are universally the wrong way round.

Letters which have a 'tail' such as f, g and y all begin on the base line so they stand awkwardly among their peers, squashed and falling over.

I can't believe it's been allowed to go on for so long...I've never had a proper chance to address it, well actually I thought the school would, but no, it's appalling and it's going to stop RIGHT now.

We have found an old exercise book and I've drawn him letters to practise.

Is it just me or is anyone else shocked by the way their DCs write? When and if he goes back, he'll be writing properly. I swear.

sorry for errant apostrophe. Good example I am!

Go to second hand book shops - I picked loads of these exercise books that helped my son improve his handwriting - first by over-writing then writing on his own.

Also internet sites have free downloads of handwriting sheets and you can enter words that mean something to him.

Also, sad as this may seem everyday I got him to write one line about what he did that day and at the end of the week we would go to the post box and post his letter to grandma - she lives overseas now. It's like a diary.

My 6 year old writes like this. He's only just started to learn, I don't see the problem? I'm sure he'll be writing properly by the time it matters.

I have the same issue with ds1, who is nearly eight.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Use a yellow marker and make him trace over the top.

Only overwrite and trace if you are watching him do it to make sure he is forming the letters correctly. it is very difficult to tell from a completed piece if they have been written with the correct starting point and direction of movements.

BuzzLiteBeer it is much more difficult to correct once bad habits become established so it matters now.

Great ideas, thanks Scarlett and Colditz...Buzz, the prob is here that school don't seem to be working on it. They gave out a sheet or two last year to practise writing but didn't tell us to do it as homework so I presumed they were using them at school. However I don't think they did much.

He's stayed the same for months now, it's not improving so either school has given up or he's ultra resistant!

He's not though, we did some just now and he's fine once he tries. Just anxious to catch it now before it gets impossible to change.

Have got him tracing patterns now...curly shapes in a joined up line, etc. Tracing in colours on top, paper at an angle to be comfy, his hand is seizing up.

I agree with mrz, it's very hard to change someone's letter formation once it's been established. 7 is quite late, but with focused 1:1 it's possible.
It's a good plan OP, but it may take longer than a couple of weeks. Don't give up.

thanks Mrz, have given him directional arrow drawings iyswim, stroke by stroke next to an example letter. The numbers I did all of them with him and supervised constantly.

Gosh I am so relieved to have him home atm! I think school moves so fast, they don't have time to concentrate on this stuff but it is BASIC. When I was five we did nothing but pattern tracing for weeks, before starting to write letters. It wasn't cursive then either. But am sticking with cursive. Do you think that's Ok? He's used to it.

His formation was all totally all over the place. I have refused further maths tests till he writes numbers the way mummy says

Little but often, 10 mins is enough at a time.
If his hand is cramping, check his pencil grip and try and get him to relax his hand a little.

If I boycott the medieval motte and bailey model for the time being and we do letters and numbers day in day out (breaks for resting muscles etc!) I might crack the start of it in two weeks though...half term as well...hmm.

It needs to be broken and rebuilt. gahhh

x posts, am only joking btw not all day by any means.

His grip looks good, but v tense. Will get him swinging weights around a bit. He was trying to 'dance' the letter moves. Odd boy. Maybe that would work!!!

I used a sand tray for one child, 10 cm of damp sand and using his finger to trace the shapes accurately.

Brilliant will try it. Will try anything!

I actually like this, however for a group of 30 day in day out it would be impossible.

In awe of teachers after two days off.

I got a great tip on here - from Mrz I believe! - that really helped DS. Have him form the letters correctly in the air with a light sabre/plastic sword/big stick/whatever interests him. Helped my DS to get the right starting point and movement to form his letters. We practiced a little each day, and it sorted out the 3's from the E's!

Oh that is great. I will try that too! Thankyou

the longman handwriting books 1&2 are quite good, you can get them from amazon and WH smith have a big range of different titles (letts, DK etc) that practise letter formation. They are about £2 each.

Good luck!

Also try the rexel pyramidal pencils...they are nice and chucky and easy to drip. Tesco do them I think.

I used to love teaching handwriting. Before you start a practice session, make sure he has good posture (feet flat on the floor, bottom back on his chair), and a good pencil grip.

There are some basic rules: e.g.always start at the top.

All letters fit into letter/shape families (loosely remembered):
the 'r' family (r,n,m,h,p,b)
the 'c' family (c, o, a, d, g, q, e, s)
the 'l' family (l, t, f)
the 'u' family (u, y)
The 'i' family (i, j)
the diagonal or 'v' family (v, w, x, z)

k it depends on the way you chose to write it - like a R it fits into the 'r' family, otherwise perhaps the diagonal family.

I also used a lovely set of letters which used pictures - eg egg for e. Each picture had a little script 'Around the egg, across the crack' for e, 'the man marches over the mountains' for m. These matched how you wrote the letter with the letter sound. The Read Write Inc alphabet is quite similar.

You can always try using handwriting paper. Some children benefit from having space between the middle two lines (where the main part of the letter goes) shaded in or highlighted.

If your son needs to learn joined up, it's a good opportunity to learn spelling patterns eg igh, ea etc.

Thankyou so much...brill ideas.

I will look in WHS for some handwriting books, and pencils. I used to think he was left handed but he has abandoned that I think, school never really tried it with him. I'm sure it could be a factor - he does loads of stuff LH, like pushing a bike, riding a scooter.

Omicron these are fantastic suggestions too. Thankyou.

Ensure he starts at the top for all letters except "e"
if teaching joined from the line add a "whoosh" up to the starting point

I recite the movements with the children as they form each letter (every time they write it )until it becomes established

Curly caterpillar family
Anticlockwise movements
c round

o round, round and join

a round, up, down and flick

d round, up, up, down, down and flick

g round, up, down, down and round

q round, up, down, down and tick

s round and round the other way

f round, down, down and round ? across

e across and round
one armed robot family
down, up and over movements

r down, up and over a bit

n down, up, over, down and flick

m down, up, over and down, up, over, down and flick

h down, down, up a bit, over, down and flick

b down, down, up a bit, over and round

p down, down, up, up, over and round

k down, down, up a bit, over, round, out and flick

long ladder family
mainly down and round movements

l down, down and flick

i down and flick ? dot

t down and flick ? across

j down, down and round ? dot

u down, round, up, down and flick

y down, round, up, down, down and round

zig zag monster
diagonal movements

v down, up

w down, up, down, up

x down, stop ? down, stop

z across, down, across

As well as practising letter formation, it is also good to see how he fares with his 'normal' writing.

If you can, also get a nice exercise book for doing a bit of writing in - maybe a holiday diary with some photos stuck in. One or two sentences a day is probably enough (although he can do more if he wants to). Focus on one thing about his handwriting each day, e.g. 'Today, let's try to make all the letters with tails sit on the lines.' Sit with him, praise him when he does it, offer him little reminders if he forgets. Have a sheet with the letters written correctly (on a line) for him to check against. Praise his correctly formed letters (whether or not he needed help), and the next say 'yesterday you did really well at blah, today let's try to...'.

It will be rewarding for both of you to see his handwriting slowly improve (only ever aim to achieve one small difference) and for it to be in a meaningful sentence, not just in a handwriting practice book.

next day*, not say.

whoops

next day*

grrr. next day {grin]

It is really hard to get children to change, once they have got used to another way of doing it. They are usually very resistant and can't see the point of changing - good luck - but as you say you have a better chance than if he is in school.

An activity I like to do is to make "feely" letters:

Draw the cursive letter(s) you want to practice really large on card. Stick string along the letter lines as though you were writing it (ie go back doubling the string in the places where you go back on yourself when writing) so you should be able to do it with one continuous piece of string. Then stick strips of kitchen foil over the string until it is all covered and stuck down firmly. You should then be able to trace the pattern of the letter with your finger by feeling the raised string. You can get him to try with eyes closed which will really get him to focus on the flow/movement of the letter rather than how it looks. It's good too to provide a more fun "making" activity in the middle of a lot of handwriting practice! - But dance moves sound good too!

Sarah (in disguise)