Help. DS forming some letters wrongly and I don't know how to help him

[Blatherskite]

DS is 5 and will finish reception year on Friday. We got his report at the end of last week which mentioned that he really needed to work on his handwriting and suggested we keep a diary over the holidays to encourage him to write regularly.

I'm dreading it.

No matter how many times we practise, he seems to form some letters consistently wrong and no amount of demonstration or tracing or explaining seems to help. He writes a's clockwise then gets confused as to where the 'stick' should go. o's are also done clockwise although these look OK once he's finished. Straight letters like i and l are all started from the bottom. r's are just done up and over, he won't go down then over. He used to do the same with m's and n's but he seems to have resolved this now.

I know he's only little and only just beginning and I don't want to pressure him and put him off writing but I do feel like it's important that we work on this now as it's obviously something the school think he needs to work on and I'd rather he learnt to do it correctly now than carry on like this and have to re-learn how to write later on.

I try to help but I just find myself getting more and more frustrated as he wriggles and fidgets (even after just a couple of minutes) and none of it seems to make the slightest bit of difference. I have total respect for his teachers as they must go through similar with 20-odd kids every single day and I am dreading the thought of trying the same with just 1! We tried writing the tags for his thank you gifts for the teachers tonight and both DH and I gave up as he just couldn't seem to do it

Can anyone suggest any ways of helping him that might make things a little more fun or that might get through to him in a way that we haven't managed yet? I really want to help him but I really don't know how and it's making me feel a bit tearful.

I'm sure I'll look back one day and wonder what I was worried about.

Still feeling concerned from this end looking forward though

I know what you mean stealth. He definitely is knackered and we're all very much looking forward to having a break.

I've got loads of fun things planned for the holidays (including some baking ) and he will be no means be spending 6 weeks at his little desk copying letters out endlessly. There will be lots of chilling out and relaxing.

I had a look at the link Kew supplied and was pleased to see that he's already good at a lot of the fine motor skills things they suggest. He loves dot to dots so I'll find a lot more of those, he's one of the better one's in his class at dressing himself and can manage buttons and zips easily (his report even says he helps others when they're stuck ) and he uses scissors very well. He is a whizz on the computer and can type well and his colouring has gotten a lot neater recently. He is a big fan of LEGO too and manipulates the tiny pieces really well. I'll certainly use that list to make sure we do lots of activities that might help with his fine motor skills through play.

So if fine motor skills are all there, letter formation will no doubt 'click' at some point.

Now, if you can find a way to get my DD not to constantly coat herself in felt tip for me, that would be great .

sorry if i repeat anything, havent read whole thread. id agree with shaving foam, sand, finger painting. what about bath crayons, chalks outside?
draw a big c and turn it into a caterpillar (head at the top, tail at the bottom). c o a d q g are all caterpillar letters, they all start as a c then continue to make other letters.
for r p h k n m b i used to play a game to get ds to go down and back up the line. if you dont go back up the line it leaves a little space. i used to colour it in which meant a point for me. if ds went back ip and over without leaving a gap to colour he'd win.

rainbow letters are good too. you wrote it in pencil then ds goes over it with as many colours as possible, staying on the line.

There are some letters you can make more fun for little ones to remember them... B's are sticks with Big Bellies (or 'b' little big bellies) D's are sticks with big BUMS (or little big bums d). P's go the way you Pee... basically anything rude/funny/toilet humour - seems to stick in little minds!

It must be quite hard really - not only remembering what the letters are 'for', what they look like, then having to write them in a particular way - it must really seem like nit-picking to them!