How to improve handwriting without dying of boredom?

[Bakingtins]

DS1 is just finishing yr1 and got a very good report, but his handwriting has been identified as an area that needs work. He can form his letters correctly but he's very slap-dash, he does it as quickly as possible and sometimes they end up with tails facing the wrong way. The letters are often varying sizes and not on the line. He scored beyond expectations for his sentence construction, spelling etc, it is how he writes rather than what he writes that is an issue.

Any tips for helping him improve over the summer without it being really dull?

Well, here's how we did it (at school!):

Copy out a poem, read the poem together and act it out.

Write out the same (short!) passage every day. Each time it improves, you get one lolly to eat then and one in a bag, you get the bag at the end of the week if you write the passage every day (neatly).

How many words can you write in a minute? A reward for each one (or maybe every five) that are written neatly with all letters the right way. Spelling may or may not be a factor here. Rewards optional, as well, sometimes the game is fun enough by itself.

Creative writing together and draw a picture on the top. Then proofread with him and have him rewrite words he got wrong three times.

Are his fine motor skills up to snuff? His pencil grip, posture and eyesight may pose challenges.

Here are some websites

How to use mazes to improve writing

Handwriting for 5-6 year olds and suggested activities to improve it.

Motor skills therapy to do with handwriting

Links look great. DD's handwriting isn't great either - particularly with the joins in cursive, she ends up writing in a downward slope if that makes sense. We found a handwriting-ruled exercise book (99p in whsmith) which she is looking forward to writing in as she uses similar at school. I hadn't actually thought about what she might like to write in it though!

I am a bit confused about cursive though - I was looking in a workbook type thing and they say you don't join all letters (eg s, p, b) but DD is definitely supposed to join all lowercase letters at school (sorry for hijack)

Fuzzpig, yes, lined paper makes a big difference (for me, even now ).

Cursive actually just means "joined-up writing" it isn't the name of any particular font or script, so the workbook may have taught one script and your DDs school may have taught another. Personally, I think joining s, p and b doesn't matter. If you can do it neatly, join because it makes your writing faster, but if you can't, don't bother!

Oh, and fuzzpig this has a couple of good tips in it. Using a squeaky pen to measure how even strokes are, for example.

If you want a massive amount of resources, here you are:

from a homeschooling website.

Thanks ICan - haven't had a chance to ask the teacher so that's good to know. :)

Thanks Ican lots of suggestions there!