Improving writing in year 4 boy

[celticclan]

My son has always been slightly behind with writing but ahead in reading and Maths. Ds has had some one to one tuition with school this year which has helped, however his writing is still holding him back.

He does well in spelling tests but does not spell well in his school work, his handwriting can be lovely but if he works independently it is scruffy and inconsistent. He just doesn't seem able to proof-read, write decent adjectives and spell at the same time!

I'm starting to be concerned that it will hold him back if he doesn't master the skill of producing decent written work. I would like to tutor him myself. Does anyone know of any resources that we could use. I don't mind paying but don't have the funds for private tuition .

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Don't want to leave you unanswered, but I am in a very similar boat with my dd -same age. In the parent consultation meeting I found out lovely things about her and how she is doing, but the checking and handwriting are just not improving. The teacher said that she did worry that it will, in time, hold her back as she will need to write faster for timed tests. In our case her spellings are a bit odd too.

We are going to go with a private tutor in September to see if it helps, although telling her what the teacher said does seem to have motivated her to try harder.

At her school they had extra lunchtime classes in handwriting, during which they did things like drawing the lines on a page to show where the different height letters go to. They did timed writing too.

Another who wanted to reply but has no useful help.
My Y4 DS sounds very like yours. His writing is poor compared to his reading and maths. More worryingly he really hates to write ? when he has writing homework he does the bare minimum he can get away with, and resists any advice (even as simple as ?why not put an adjective in front of that noun?). MN wisdom for poor writers seems to be to get them engaged in writing something at home (e.g. letter to granny) ? frankly DS sees any writing as akin to pulling teeth so this just doesn?t work.

I think ds must be a twin to your ds trees as he sounds just the same.

I don't want to go down the private tutor route just yet. I was hoping to do something myself and if there is no improvement by the end of year 5 we would then have to consider getting a tutor for year 6.

We have tried the writing letters etc but to no avail. The tuition ds had through school helped a lot but we need to continue on a regular basis otherwise ds slips back.

I think he actually has the ability his problem is he doesn't have the interest and he lacks focus.

He wants to run around fields he has no interest in doing anything that requires sitting still with a pencil in his hand.

I would ask school if they have suggestions, if they have already been giving him extra. It won't be too much of a battle though, will it, if you are forcing him to do writing?

I think it will be a battle trees so I'm trying to think of ways to motivate ds into having the interest to do it in the first place!

Found some useful information on www.everyschool.co. uk

There is a national handwriting association that has some links to resources you could use to teach at home.