Writing support

[melbob]

DS (5 in July) is in yr 1 and struggling with handwriting. Have had parents night and teacher said he is bright, enthusiastic, happy populargood reader, speller and good at numbers etc but handwriting not good so he will have additional support this half term. We want to support him at home with out in anyway putting pressure on, I have sat down with him to write menu's for our cafe (Pretend) superhero instruction list etc but if he gets a sniff that it is anyway educational he stops. He is very young and we dont want to make this a big dela but could do with some ideas how to help. He is getting frustrated that we cant read his writing etc and that he cant get his ieas/answers down in class

Apart from the usual building fine motor skills and finger strength using things like Lego etc - get him to write on a white board - Asda sell a good variety of colours outside the red, green, blue & black. For some reason my kids are drawn to the white board, drawing pictures, writing messages, menus, stories - they use them in school too. So much more exciting than pencil & paper.

Definitely work with the school, so you're backing up what they're doing. They might well tell you not to push it at home, but to leave it to them. But if not howabout just doing one letter a day for a couple of minutes? DS had a massive hangup about writing, so I did it over the summer with him. The teacher said it would really help. Bribe with a favourite game afterwards, or book or something. We used to do daft exercises to loosen his hand up, and I'd let him jump up and down twenty times shrieking the numbers out as he bounced once he'd written a letter five times well. Also, I used to put my finger on the paper to show where to aim the pen at - if you tell him to 'hit your finger', I'd bet he'll love that (works well with letters like 'z', 'k' or 'v'). Laugh a lot and make it fun. obviously stop if it turns into a trauma...

Perhaps whatever you and the school decide to do could lead up to a fun piece of writing for Christmas such as a list/letter for father xmas?

My DC is forming the letters incorrectly in year one. I second the white board and making it fun. We also have a 'Write Start' wipe clean book that has clear arrows to show how the strokes are ordered. This helps a lot.

We do one letter a night after our story.

Thanks everyone

My DS is similar.

School have given me an excellent sheet of things to do at home that help fine motor skills but are not "writing" as such:

• chalk drawings outside
• kneading dough
• play cards
• french knitting
• picking up raisins with tweezers
• threading macaroni
• sewing
• making paper planes

I try and do one of these things a day. We also do a couple of these sheets a week which I make with his spelling words:
handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/manuscript/javascripts/_my8linestext.htm

How is his pencil grip? DS was given a "grippy" by school which really helped. Like this one:
www.leftshoponline.co.uk/start-right-pencil-grip.ir?cName=can-be-used-right-or-left-handed

He loves bath crayons as well.