Homeschooling Resources: Academic Resources

Handwriting: Handwriting Help for Home Education
By Mimi Rothschild

Homeschoolers who learn handwriting will be better off for it. Don't let those kids fool you, handwriting has been around for centuries and its usefulness will never been entirely removed by the advent of keyboard technology. The home education environment is a wonderful place for students to learn handwriting. Just follow these tips.

1. Some students have trouble forming letters. This could be because many children grip their writing utensils too hard. You can encourage the child to hold their pen more lightly by playing games that build force modulation abilities such as “Topple” and “Jenga”. These games are a great way to have fun and tell your student that brute force isn't always a good thing.

2. Engage the child in fun activities that will build his or her handwriting skills in the home education environment. Introduce students to a pen-pal from a different country or make a grocery list. Whatever you do, make sure that the focus should be on handwriting style, not content. Leave spelling and creativity to another lesson and focus on symmetry, spacing, slant, and formation here.

3. Teach letters in groups. Start off with easy round letters (a,c,o) and then move to slightly more complex letters (p,q,b,d). End with tricky letters like “z”, “f”, and “k”.

4. Speed trials are a great way to prepare your student for the future while still in a home education environment. Colleges will demand that students write clearly and legibly on essay responses. Students have a limited amount of time to prepare their essays, so good writing skills will be a great boon to the student.