| Copyright 2006 Julie Shepherd Knapp |
| Copyright 2006 Julie Shepherd Knapp. All rights reserved. |
| about the book |
| The Homeschool Diner's Guide to Homeschooling by Subject Handwriting Instruction for Homeschoolers by Julie Shepherd Knapp, copyright 2006 Resources for writing-readiness, pre-writing activities, teaching printing, and cursive to right and left handers. Before you start a formal handwriting program work with your child to help develop fine motor skills, hand strength and finger dexterity. Some possible activities might include -- using large plastic tweezers to sort small items; try to do daily hand exercises or play games that use the fingers; play with playdoh and modeling clay; and be on the look-out for push-button toys, squeezy things, poppers, shooters, and stretchy toys that might appeal to your child. See the resources below for more great ideas :-) The Basics Pre-Writing Skills for Children under Five -- games and activities designed by an occupational therapist to strengthen writing muscles and improve dexterity Fine Motor Exercises to Improve Skills for Handwriting Pencil Grasp Guidance by AGAPE Learning Center - photos with descriptions show several good ("Functional") options for properly holding pencil, plus shows common "Immature" grasps that need changing Ready Set Write! by DeLana Honaker -- a brochure for an OT workshop that has many useful charts, such as developmental milestones in writing, sensory-motor components of handwriting, typical handwriting speed by grade, goals for handwriting therapy, developmental aspects that affect handwriting success, and much more Teaching Left-Handers to Write - tips from the Handedness Research Institute Left Hand Writing Skills by Robinswood Press -- skills workbooks and CD-Rom The Left Hand -- left-handed products galore, including writing helps, lefty spiral notebooks, and a lefty mouse Handwriting Research Review: Six Questions Educators Should Ask Before Choosing a Handwriting Program -- an article reviewing the merits of verticle vs slanted letter formation handwriting programs (from the Zaner-Bloser website) Maybe you could let your child choose what style they prefer to learn? Here are some Handwriting Samples from Draw Your World so you can compare the look of different styles. Scored Writing Samples -- for grades 3, 5, 6, and 8 -- four types of writing are analyzed for various elements and scored from low quality to high quality, with explanations and comments, useful as a sample of typical work at different grade levels. Handwriting Programs and Resources Handwriting Without Tears -- a complete handwriting program designed by an Occupational Therapist, uses a simple, no-frills, vertical, writing style (especially good for those who struggle with writing), includes multi-sensory activities for letter identification and formation, basic printing, and cursive Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting -- a complete handwriting program based on italic letter forms, letters include beginning and ending curves - to make the transition to cursive easier, there is only one alphabet - cursive results from joining the printed letters, includes pre-writing activities that encourage gross and fine motor development Zaner-Bloser Handwriting -- a complete handwriting program that teaches traditional, vertical, circle-and-stick letter formation, also offers calligraphy workbooks D'Nealian Handwriting -- a complete handwriting program that teaches a slanted (italic-style) printing that reportedly eases the transition to cursive instruction Better Letters--a downloadable iPod Touch or iPhone application created by Kate Gladstone ("the Handwriting Repairwoman") to help people improve their handwriting, "...inspired by the instructional handwriting font work of UK handwriting specialist Christopher Jarman. The app provides instructional lectures, both audio and written, along with practice fonts providing choices of writing style, guidelines, and directional arrows..." ABC Cursive Writing also available Alphabet Pages by Jan Brett -- wonderful free printouts, make a book or hang up as reminders of how letters are shaped Kidzone Cursive Worksheets -- free online printouts to guide kids in learning cursive Blank Writing Paper -- print out blank lined paper for practicing Stage Write Raised Line Paper--writing paper with tactile/visual cues StartWrite Handwriting Software from Draw Your World -- this software makes it easy to create your own copywork, workbook pages and handwriting practice sheets, comes with fonts that match most of those used for handwriting instruction in the US, UK, and Australia, also can print out blank lined paper and grey or dashed letters for tracing "Copywork -- The Art of Writing" -- advice and strategy from the Parker Family, includes links to online Christian and Classic resources Fun With Handwriting: See 'n Write -- a keyboard that will draw letters one stroke at a time for kids to copy (you choose manuscript, cursive, upper or lower case), also has a guessing game where it traces a letter (but doesn't draw it) Try their online demo Handwriting by George by Cindy Shearer -- practice cursive by copying from George's childhood journal Draw Write Now -- workbooks that combine step-by-step drawing lessons with writing practice, the workbooks are themed so they can also be used with unit studies, software for creating your own drawing/writing workbook pages available, too Keep it Fun with Doodles and Funky Hand-drawn Fonts by Jacci Howard Bear -- try some different fonts and styles of writing :-) The Happy Scribe Copybooks -- short phrases for students to copy, come in dozens of fun topics, including horses, cats, video games, military things, Lord of the Rings, Bible verses, Irish Proverbs, etc English Handwriting from 1500 to 1700 -- a free online course by Cambridge University What Is Handwriting Analysis? -- info and resources Linotype Font Inspirations -- explore the world of down-loadable fonts, can add an element of fun to compositions StartWrite Handwriting Software from Draw Your World -- this software makes it easy to create your own copywork, workbook pages, and handwriting practice sheets, comes with fonts that match most of those used for handwriting instruction in the US, UK, and Australia, also can print out blank lined paper and grey or dashed letters for tracing Trouble With Handwriting: Might your child have Dysgraphia? The Handwriting is on the Wall by Margaret Webb Pressler -- is it really necessary to learn to write by hand? Handwriting Problem Solutions -- advice, suggestions, and consultations -- get professional help with handwriting problems Typing and Keyboarding Resources: Dance Mat Typing -- a free online tutorial from the BBC, fun and clever, host goat narrates with a Scottish accent Type-E-Chi -- free online keyboardng program from e-Learning for Kids, has an alien/space theme, collect medals to become a Type-E-Chi master Mario Teaches Typing 2 -- set up like the Nintendo Mario games, a free demo can be downloaded Super Kids Software Reviews: Typing Programs -- a nice resource for choosing a program |
| (back to) language arts |