When to Get Help--Handwriting
 

Sophia still has trouble with two areas: hitting the target line exactly and keeping her lines perfectly vertical or horizontal. Her lines look, to be frank, snaggletoothed. At her age, should she be doing better than this? Do I need to get help from the homeschool office when they reopen on July 1?

Re: When to Get Help--Handwriting
 

How are her fine motor skills otherwise? How is her drawing?

Re: When to Get Help--Handwriting
 

That would ping my radar as a teacher.

Re: When to Get Help--Handwriting
 

She is currently at a level of "stick figures with expressive faces." She can also compose a picture from a description, such as a ship steaming past a smoking volcano on a moonlit night, and draw from memory, although the drawings are filled with symbols such as swirls for wind.

---------- Post added at 06:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:23 PM ----------

Can I scan in some of her latest copywork and PM it to you?

FYI, her dad can imagine a piece of furniture in his head, freehand a diagram, and build it from the diagram, and he can draw cute little cats and faces with depth and shading, but his handwriting is about on her level. Actually I think hers may be slightly better now. He didn't get a formal diagnosis AFAIK, but seeing as how he had to have a nun standing behind him helping him point his Rs and Ks the right way with her hand over his on the pencil, I think he has dysgraphia. He also shows signs of dyslexia, and Sophia still mixes up b and d when reading if she feels tired.

Time to get her into the resource room? :/

Re: When to Get Help--Handwriting
 

She's 9, right? So...finished 3rd, going into 4th? Stick figures at 4th grade would concern me, too. And sure, if you'd like to scan in some samples and PM, go for it. :hug Did her teacher say anything about it last year? Is it the same if she prints or if she writes in cursive?

Re: When to Get Help--Handwriting
 

Homeschool director hasn't said anything one way or another although I submit writing samples with every report. Also, she's been doing things "my own style," as she puts it, when I'm not standing over her. This includes pushing up from the baseline when she's supposed to pull down from the headline, etc. She thinks she's ready to go on to cursive. I disagree.

Re: When to Get Help--Handwriting
 

You might find it helpful to read some articles on http://www.diannecraft.org/ while you wait for feedback from the office or from Novelmama. That might help you assess where she should be and what the problem might be.

Re: When to Get Help--Handwriting
 

:yes I would totally look into Dianne Craft :hugheart

Re: When to Get Help--Handwriting
 

Thanks for the tips--I'm trying the midline exercise this week.

Re: When to Get Help--Handwriting
 

So today's exercise was to have Sophia look at arm's length through a hole poked in a piece of paper and focus on an object on the wall. I was to cover one of her eyes, then the other, and have Sophia report when the object disappeared. I tried it on myself and, yep, my dominant eye is on the same side as my dominant hand.

But Sophia can't even resolve the signal from both eyes at arm's length. She sees two holes with two images through them. If she wants to see just one hole, she has to close one eye! How did I never notice this?!

She reads well, occasionally skipping a line, and she can focus on objects farther away, but arm's length defeats her ability to focus. Any other mamas have kids with this problem? Does it affect their writing or other fine motor skills?