Teaching letters

[Mama Rophe]

What do you use to teach your child to write letters? The school system here uses the D'nealian letters. They say it makes the transition to cursive easier. Is this the best to do?

[Mama Rophe]

Anybody have any advice??

[KatieMae]

We'll be using Handwriting Without Tears.

[Garland]

We use Handwriting Without Tears as well. I like the wooden manipulatives.

[Amber]

I've been using Handwriting Without Tears too.

[Singingmom]

I used ball and stick with my boys because I was fresh out of public school teaching K and I thought it was cuter. :shrug3 I do think it was more difficult to transition to cursive, although they both did very well. They don't feel as comfortable writing in cursive even now, and I wonder if that would be the case if they had started with letters that transitioned more easily.

My dd uses her own creative mix of uppercase and lowercase at the moment, and it's time for me to choose a method for her... I'm leaning towards something that would more naturally transition, so I'm all ears... :)

[christineka]

I used Cursive First and just taught them to write in cursive to begin with. They still know how to print, they just know that they should be writing in cursive. I've bought Spencerian Cursive to follow up and refine their writing skills.

[Codi]

:cup

[Mama Rophe]

Basically the d'nealian letters are more like cursive as they flow a bit easier, but they are still print.

I'm not sure I'm comfy with teaching cursive first. I'm not sure if that's just because I was taught print first or what though. Why is it that we "have" to write in cursive anyway. My handwriting is a mix of print and cursive. :shrug3

[ReedleBeetle]

My handwriting is a mix as well. My husband was taught Zaner-Bloser. I think I was taught maybe the Peterson method or something? Or Frank Shaffer? Something like that? Anyway, we were both taught ball and stick. By default, we are teaching ball and stick printing wihtout ever really thinking about it. :shrug3

[Singingmom]

They have to learn cursive to be able to read cursive, at least that was the best reason I came up with when my boys demanded one over and over!

It seems logical to me to print first since they learn to read in print.

[MaiMama]

I love the montessori method of tracing sandpaper letters, while saying the *sound,* not name of the letter. Although the shape of the letters is standard print, the method of tracing is more flowy (not just ball and stick, but start at top right corner for "a", go around, up, and down, all together. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be as consistent/insistent about it at her school as we were where I used to work. :sigh, so she's really using as many straight lines as possible. :( I need to work with her on it, but had been giving her school the reins. Now that she'll be home for summer more, I think I'll try to be more diligent about practicing the shapes with her.

That said, I do like the Handwriting Without Tears manipulatives, even though it's a totally different method.

Bottom line: something sensorial with whatever shapes you like, so they have the motor memory of the strokes.

[Mama Rophe]

They have to learn cursive to be able to read cursive, at least that was the best reason I came up with when my boys demanded one over and over!

It seems logical to me to print first since they learn to read in print.


I agree that they do have to learn cursive.

If I just have him work on printout worksheets of the letters is that enough? I planned on working on one letter and one number a week. We have one worksheet per day. They have different pics on them and stuff so it's not just one boring letter that he has to write over and over. Does this sound okay?

[Singingmom]

If I just have him work on printout worksheets of the letters is that enough? I planned on working on one letter and one number a week. We have one worksheet per day. They have different pics on them and stuff so it's not just one boring letter that he has to write over and over. Does this sound okay?

:yes It good that they're not too repetitive and he can stop when he tires...he's so little. :heart

Can you share a link for the printable worksheets?

[Codi]

If I just have him work on printout worksheets of the letters is that enough? I planned on working on one letter and one number a week. We have one worksheet per day. They have different pics on them and stuff so it's not just one boring letter that he has to write over and over. Does this sound okay?


:yes It good that they're not too repetitive and he can stop when he tires...he's so little. :heart

Can you share a link for the printable worksheets?


:cup

[Mama Rophe]

Absolutely! http://www.learningpage.com/pages/menu_basics/alpha_dnealian.html


Lightening does just one a day. If he doesn't want to, we don't. I just ask him if he wants to do it. Most days he will want to. He loves doing worksheets. Even Thunder likes to do some. I printed some of these http://www.donnayoung.org/penmanship/redines.htm for him to do. He has fun with them.

[Singingmom]

:ty3  Those are great! For my dd, I can just have her do 2 letters (or whatever) on each row, not a whole row if she's not up to it.   :)


eta: Can I register as a homeschool? I chose homeschooler as occupation, but I can't get in without choosing a school on their list. Should I choose the one my kids would go to if they were in PS? :scratch

[MaiMama]

You could say you were at a private school and have a name for your own. It is too bad that HS is not included as an option. I put the montessori school where T is going at the moment. :shrug3

[Singingmom]

The name has to be from their list, I think...

[Singingmom]

This is neat... you can put your child's name or a sentence in the box and it will print it out on a worksheet for you!
http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/denelian-1/make-d.htm

I'm finding other free worksheets searching for D'Nealian printables, but none as cute as Laura's...

[Mama Rophe]

I just selected private school and "school not on this list" or whatever they have as the equivilent. I'm not exactly sure why you have to choose a school though. I don't think it matters much though.

[Singingmom]

I tried it again with homeschool as the school and it worked! I don't know what I was doing last night... :shrug3