*(question: uh, how does one say 'sneak out' in the past tense? ...sneaked out just does NOT sound right.)
Below, I will be posting a picture of some of my boys' handwriting/copywork samples from this past week. I know that once you see my boys' handwriting you will be able to say to yourself, heh! ... my kid IS normal! So, let's just go ahead and get this out in the open... My kids are not over-acheiver homeschooler super-human specimans who have impeccable handwriting (...are you okay with that? will you still read my blog sometimes?) Now that I've made my confession, you can admit it too, and we'll all breathe a sigh of relief because we all know exactly what to expect of each other... normalness.
Phew.
I'm glad we got that out of the way...
OKAY. Moving right along...
Please take into account that Siah has yet to be introduced
While, this sample is a far cry from what I taught him using Cursive First,
Now, a certain other child of mine (who alas, disallowed his sample from being posted) is of the opinion that neat handwriting is not really very necessary as it is becoming somewhat of a lost art. He reasons that typing skills are much more necessary. And how might you think I responded to that? I said the teacherly thing. of course. I sung the praises of having neat handwriting, how admirable a trait it is, and I did not fail to mention that I write notes when I'm studying my Bible in the morning by hand, and that I journal by hand, and...
Well, I'm curious, what would you have said?
So how would you rate your kids' handwriting on a scale of 1 - 10?
Is there a difference between your girl's and boy's handwriting?
Does anyone even care about handwriting nowadays?
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13 comments:
What a coincidence .. I just picked up a series of handwriting books at a local homeschool gathering and we got started this morning implementing.
I can definitely tell a difference between my girl and boy ... my little guy used to have better handwriting but the past year its gotten progressively worse. I finally said enough! I definitely care .. I have actually applied for a job position and been asked for a handwriting sample.
@Makita,
Just for the record, I care too! I take pride in having pretty and legible handwriting ;)
And, although I am not willing to think that my children will not succeed if they have messy handwriting, I do compel them to concentrate on making a perfect copy...
If you were at my house you would probably hear the following at least a couple of times a day!
"Doing things well the first time saves time!" ;)
...but it's definitely not something I'm not gonna beat them or myself up about either!
thanks for that input about the job interview! that'll definitely be my fuel for our next copywork session! ;)
I'm going to take the easy way out of this and point you to my blog post about writing versus typing; http://www.nlfamily.net/2010/09/writing-versus-typing.html
There were a few comments that I thought were good/interesting. :)
I personally think handwriting (nice handwriting) is still necessary and I would like for my kids to do it..but..uh, it doesn't happen too often. :/
OH and how I rate the handwriting when they do their 'best' is a 9.5 (or so...perhaps I'm partial?) but in general they get 2 or 3...it can get downright atrocious...
Dd's is definitely better but she is almost 3 years older than ds.
Sorry for double-commenting (is that as bad as double-dipping??) I always think of something after I hit the publish button.
With dysgraphia and dyslexia rampant at my house, you don't want to see our handwriting samples! All but my autistic write backwards!
I would rate my son's (age 11) handwriting at a pretty solid 8. He still writes kind of slowly though. My daughter (age 9) is at about a 7. She doesn't slant enough for my liking. ;) But, it's still very nice. I think she'll still see improvements though.
I think neat handwriting is very important. When my kids were in private school, they talked a lot about character and handwriting. I'm not sure I agree with that because some people work very hard at it and still don't have lovely writing. But, the important thing is to work hard and do the best that you can do. Obviously, in this day and age, typing skills are pretty important too!
I am so impressed with your little guy doing cursive. Do you skip manuscript writing with the little ones?
@Jenny,
We do NOW start straightaway with cursive, though I did not with my eldest two. They made the switch in AOy3 and at that time were STILL having some difficulty in reversing letters in print. It was a VERY easy transition though (about 3wks).
With my youngers, I have decided to start with cursive first because of some compelling articles I read some time back. Of course, you'd probably like it if I could tell you something about that... hahaha. My memory doesn't extend THAT far, sorry. I just know that after my reading, I determined that it would be best for my kids to start off with cursive ;) so there you go!
:)
We use Cursive First, and LOVE it.
Buy here: http://www.swrtraining.com/id52.html#Cursive
Hmmm, handwriting. Very important, I think. Would even be one of the reasons to homeschool for me (although there is no guarantee for nice handwriting then, but still). The way children learn to write in schools here is just ugly. Even if they do it well, it is still not nice. Just the way they learn to form the letters, I don't like it! I am impressed by Josiahs handwriting though! Leon is writing in manuscript and he does well. Malou always writes backwards (e.g. her name), I think because she is left-handed ;-).
I was horrified that my 10 year old struggled to read cursive since they never used it is school. She was taught to write cursive by being given a packet to work on during free time. Now that she is home we practice daily, just one sentence a day. We use Learn Cursive through Copy Work from Queens Homeschooling Catalog. It combines cursive and art history. We love it.
If your dear child is so enamored with typing, have you taught him to touch type yet? We are using this website with my 5 yo ds because he LOVES to type: http://www.typeonline.co.uk/lesson1.html
We do 10 minutes of copywork 3 days a week, and 10 minutes of typing the other 2. Plus he gets to type on off days if he wishes. He loves it! :) Jen
@Jessica,
That curriculum sounds neat! Thanks for sharing it! :)
@Jennifer,
They ARE learning typing just this year! We use BBC Dance Mat Typing and they REALLY like it! The kids love the voices, and of the sites I've tried, I think I like it the best too.
Here, we do copywork everyday and typing practice 2x/week. :)
Wow! I'm in awe of your 5-year-old's handwriting! My 6-year-old boy isn't really even writing yet. His copywork is still individual letters and parts of letters. He can copy a single letter pretty well, but he can't write yet. We're just starting Getty-Dubay italics.
The main difference that I see between my boy and my girls is that my boy really has no desire to write. My girl (age 5) would write all day long! I haven't really started teaching her how, but she's always asking about this letter or that. She fills whole pages with her name, written over and over again.
I think handwriting is very important. You can tell a lot about someone by their handwriting- so would you want that to be a childish scrawl? I love your 5 year old's handwriting. I have decided to teach my younger children cursive first, as I think that if I had taught my older dd cursive first, she wouldn't have as much trouble with letter reversals. I am teaching her cursive now, and she likes it. I would rate her print (for her age) as an 8.
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