Just how important is handwriting?

I love the fact that as homeschool moms we get to decide for ourselves. No need to rush them when they aren't ready yet. We get to choose what style we prefer and everything, but sometimes it's tough to know just how important neatness is.

According to Kate Gladstone, handwriting repairwoman and national director of the World Handwriting Achievement Contest, handwriting instruction might be neglected in today's classrooms, but it's hardly unnecessary. Each year in the United States, Gladstone says that:

• the health of at least 1 in 10 Americans is endangered by the poor handwriting of their physicians.
• up to $95,000,000 in tax refunds are not delivered because of unreadable tax-forms.
• $200,000,000 in time and money is lost because poor handwriting results in such problems as confused and inefficient employees, phone calls made to wrong or non-existent numbers, and letters and packages delivered to incorrect addresses -- or not delivered at all.

So I guess handwriting is kind of important after all. Drat! We'll keep working on it and we'll keep trying to make it fun.

Enjoy every minute!

Nancy Carter and The Homeschool Minute Team

P.S. Watch your email later today for details about our Back Issue Sale! You won't want to miss this one! Buy One Get One Free!

HOME Where They Belong

To write or not to write; that is the question. At least in my house it is. My daughter (10) has beautiful handwriting. Her brothers? *Ahem.* Let's just say that all three of them need work and lots of it. What is it with boys?! Part of the problem is that we live in the Age of Technology. Listening to my oldest son (computer genius) try and reason with me, I'm almost convinced that there is just no good reason to practice the (lost) art of handwriting. The keypad is the official instrument, after all. It's the wave of the future, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that and the occasional iPod, DS Light, AlphaSmart, and all the rest of what he plays with. I'm not so assured.

Where did all the beautiful, flowery strokes of the hand go? They're keystrokes now and unless we as the parents force the issue, our kids will be typing 100 words per minute but scratching out cryptic-looking hierogylphics like the doctor down the street. Which do you prefer? How about a balance? In our house, handwriting "class" looks like this:

"Paulie, Lukey, Levi, Julia - go get your bibles, pens and notebooks. OK, good. Open to Proverbs 2, now. Git writin'!" There. Done. Once they finish, we can discuss the text if we'd like (always a good idea!). There's nothing like God's word to practice handwriting by, especially the Proverbs. They're getting both handwriting and lessons in wisdom at the same time! Julia won't have to write out a whole chapter; she's little. Maybe a few verses. Keep things age-appropriate of course. This can be done daily or weekly; remember, YOU are customizing your own homeschool. Find your own balance. And if they can write legibly enough to decipher what they've chicken scratched in, hey, progress, right? So commit to a bit of copywork each day; force the issue even if just a little. In ten years they may even be writing up their own wedding invites! Sigh. We'll address THAT later.

- Gena

Homeschool Heart

I learned something new this year. If your child is struggling with handwriting, occupational therapists can be a lot of help! Sometimes the kids need to work more on strengthening their fine motor skills. Sometimes they need to work on gripping the pencil properly. Sometimes they need more visual clues to maintain proper spacing. And sometimes they need to work on improving their posture!

One of my friends had worked for years with her 11 year old son to improve his choppy chicken scratch. She knew he was holding the pencil incorrectly, but it was just really hard to retrain that habit after so many years. Finally she had an OT work with him for a bit. Wow! Apparently part of the reason he kept slipping into his old habit was because he was using his larger muscles when writing rather than his smaller ones! Thus he had compensated by holding the pencil funny and that was causing his hand to hurt and become fatigued when writing.

Now he practices writing with a special pencil grip and writes on top of a mouse pad. If he is pushing too hard, his pencil will break through the paper so it challenges him to use the right muscles when writing. Pretty cool huh?

Even if you can't see an occupational therapist in person, you can find lots of wonderful resources online. Here is an early childhood page with lots of fine motor activities. And don't stress if you realize that your older child needs more practice with these skills, they'll catch on quickly and hopefully be writing much more easily and neatly in no time!

- Nancy

Homeschool Freebies!

I'm probably weird, but I enjoyed handwriting. I would sit for long periods of time and write my name in different ways. I'd copy my friend's handwriting or try to write with my left hand. I even got really good at my Mother's signature...but I promise I never forged anything. As a teenager I bought a calligraphy set and taught myself.

It seems as if girls enjoy doing these things more than boys. But one thing I've noticed my boys getting a kick out of lately is making up codes. They come up with some random symbol and assign it to a letter of the alphabet. Then they write notes to each other. I think I may have discovered a superb way to have them practice their handwriting! Maybe they could even put a bible verse in code and have me de-code it. Aha!

Check out these other places to get handwriting worksheets or ideas:

Free Handwriting Worksheets

Handwriting Worksheets and Printables for Preschool and Kindergarten

How to make paragraph-style handwriting worksheets

Tons of practice worksheets

And hey...before I go, don't forget to check out the special rates for WORLD Magazine and God's World News for TOS Readers.

- Julie

Schoolhouse Store Spotlight

If you like Gena's idea of using Scripture as a basis for handwriting practice you'll surely be delighted with our WisdomKids Copywork Programs. Your children will practice handwriting while learning Scripture and how it applies to their life! Christian Liberty Press also offers a Bible based program focusing on the qualities of Grace, Diligence, Power & Prayer. You can find their series HERE.

Our Knowledge Box Central copywork products offer a good many worthwhile programs focusing on everything from works of literature to the Declaration of Independence. Our many devoted AVKO Sequential Spelling users might want to check out their Sequential Handwriting program as well. And if you're just looking to make handwriting more fun, you can't miss with the popular Draw, Write, Now - Animals & Habitats!

Happy Handwriting!

-Dena

Mercy in the Morning

In my mother's day, beautiful handwriting was taught and awards won. Unfortunately, by the time I got to school, it was a bygone idea. And nowadays, if public school kids aren't able to master cursive by 3rd grade, they might be stuck with whatever scrawl they have for life.

It's a good thing our kids are home and can take a longer more relaxed approach to becoming legible (especially so for boys and special needs kids).

I have read studies that said teachers tend to give students higher grades for those with nice handwriting and that they assume those kids are smarter than their hard to decipher counterparts.

As far as homeschoolers go, I know that SAT's and high school equivalency exams require written essays that need to be legible, so we need to make sure they are.

I don't believe we should let our kid's handwriting look like scrawl, but I don't believe it needs to look like art either. I think we should teach our kids excellence in all they do, but not stress out if their handwriting is not a work of art by the time they are ten.

If you or your kids are stressing out about poor writing, try making it fun by learning fancy calligraphy or even Reformation style "illuminating" of their text. It might be just the break they need.

Line upon line, here a little, there a little, and our kids will probably graduate with readable writing.

-Deb

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"Loved this issue!! Thanks so much."

~Teri ,THM Reader ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We have been so busy remodeling this year that I wonder if ANY schooling has gotten done! When I read the articles on choosing curriculum, not worrying about how much you can or cannot purchase, it really hit home.

We may not have finished a math book this year, but all of my children can cook for a large crowd! They can multiply or divide ingredients in an instant! They can estimate wheelbarrow loads of dirt for a space. They can use a room's dimensions to figure out how many tiles we need. They can mix proportions for mortar. Vocabulary? They've read every tag from every product we have purchased, not to mention all the instruction sheets - many of which are grammatically awful, or contain mis-spelled words (which they point out).

Even though our year has been "horrid" from an educational standpoint, I appreciate your constant reminders that we ARE the best teachers for our children - no matter what our curriculum looks like!"

~Wendy, THM Reader ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I found a lot of helpful information from this week's newsletter as I look forward to the coming school year. Thanks to Julie Nott and the link to the Step by Step Guide to Choosing Curriculum. I followed that link to the National Right to Read Foundation and found a nifty competency test that we can take at home. Thanks so much for all your words of encouragement each week."

~Lee THM Reader