Could I have some links to handwriting advice and resources please

[vincentvangogh]

ds has a holiday journal that he has to write a few sentences in every day. I've noticed that almost all his letters are formed incorrectly (with the exception of c and a). We've now practised all the curly caterpillar letters (that's what they were called when I was at school) but he's forming all the others in unspeakable ways that will no doubt give him trouble in the future unless it's corrected. I'm a bit surprised that he hasn't been helped more at school.

Does anyone have any links to good handwriting resources. He's been taught to print letters with cursive tails but not entry points. He tends to start at the tail or add it afterwards. [sigh]. He will be going into Y1.

DS has the Robert Brodie handwriting books (fairly cheap from Amazon). I've yet to find anything as good as them online.

I also teach my children letter formation jingles which they recite to ensure they form letters correctly in a smooth single motion

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

www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Jolly-Phonics-letter-formation-sassoon-6020026/

My ds1 formed his letters in really bizarre ways at this age (eg b as an o and then a stick somewhere in the vicinity . It all came together in y1 when they started joining up. He has lovely handwriting now (going into y2) although he is still a reluctant writer.

Thanks mrz for the jingle. I will do that with ds2 in a year or two (he is only just 3)

using mrz's formation...

write the letters...(chant movements as you go, quietly, loudly, squeakily, slowly, sing the formation chant)

in the air... slowly; quickly; big, whole arm movements; small movements.

write them with a finger on the carpet, slowly, quickly, etc

write them with chalk on coloured paper/garden, with pens, wax crayons, pencils, pencil crayons

write them in sand, flour, shaving foam, cornflour mixed with water

write them on the tiles in the bath with bath crayons/finger

write them on the path with squeezy bottles of water

paint them on the path/fence with paintbrushes and water.

little and often, and if you make it fun or silly, they do a lot more and you sneak quite a lot of learning in before they notice...