How to get 5yo DS to write neatly and on the lines!s

[GentlyGentlyOhDear]

5yo DS is summer born in year 1 and a very reluctant writer. His reading is ok; he's on blue band and his phonics seems good but his writing is awful - both his motivation to do any and his presentation.

He finds it such a chore and has to be constantly reminded to keep his letters small and close together. He starts on one line and veers down to another or some words float up. I am trying to remind him when we sit down and do school work but I feel like I am constantly badgering him. Yet if I didnt badget him the writing would be practically illegible!

Does anyone have any tips?! We have done things like just getting him to do words on post its etc and do lots of play doh and painting. I feel like it is more a case of trying to get him to care!

Don't forget that in Scandinavian counties, Germany and Austria children do not start school before 6 or 7 and do not learn to read and write before that age. I would say this will come in time and he's very young & as long as he is trying his best, that should be enough x

Yep, same here! Autumn born reception boy. It just doesn’t come naturally to him and he finds it boring, although his reading and phonetic spelling seems good. I was exactly the same as a child and remember the frustration as to why the grown ups seemed to care about my writing so much! I’m trying not to put too much pressure on DS, although probably am a bit. I just feel like if I can crack it with him now, it might help save him a bunch of the stress I got about my writing throughout Primary school. Although, pps are correct- it doesn’t matter in the end. I did well at school, uni etc and have a decent job. Nobody cares that my writing and drawing is still bloody terrible!

Dd2 is yr1 & 6 and her writing varies between nice and legible but with sizing issues to all over the place.
I wouldn't worry too much though just make sure he's holding pencil correctly and forming letters correctly and doing plenty writing so his hand doesn't hurt.
Dd1's writing was hideous in yr1 & beautiful by end yr3/beg yr4.

I work with 5 yr-olds. Very few of them have neat handwriting. At this stage, ensuring that they form the letter in the correct 'order' is something of a victory - let alone keeping on the line. Most tend to start on one line and end up at least one line below.

The neatest writers in my class also have a tendency to take ages forming each letter. It looks lovely but they could easily have written three whole sentences of average writing in the time it's taken them to write a single word perfectly.

Pre-lockdown the class would do handwriting practice as a separate activity. When doing their normal written work we would maybe pick a letter that they could improve on for the next time but not make too much of it.

As time goes on, they gradually incorporate what they've learned in handwriting practice into their other work. At this stage though many are still getting their p's, g's, q's, b's and d's mixed up and writing '2' instead of 's'.