Writing practice

Lily began her day grabbing the alphabet bean bags realizing that the phonics bag was sitting directly next to it on the shelf.  We had a few minutes before we got started and the girls picked activities while they waited.  Lily lined the alphabet up in order and matched it to it’s corresponding beginning sound picture bean bag.

Maggie headed straight to the light table to build a castle before sitting at the kitchen table.  The girls really enjoy their handwriting without tears workbooks.  Lily has finally gotten to the point where she can take each step that the workbooks provide to aide a child with handwriting skills.  In the workbooks you use many different key elements of the handwriting without tears program.  The paper placecards that you will see the girls using are for building the letter with the wooden pieces. The next step is to use the small chalkboard.  This preps the child for the actual handwriting part.  And when used with sandpaper letters from Montessori work it is working wonders.  Lily is becoming much more independent as I’ve mentioned in her handwriting skills.  Though her pencil grip is not perfect still I allow her the freedom to carry on as she is comfortable at times as it gets frustrating with me telling her she is doing it incorrectly each time.  With careful hand over hand guidance I can keep her fingers in the same position as she writes and she moves her hand on her own with my hand as reminder to hold the grip position.  But sometimes its the independence of accomplishment that matters most.  And the look on her face when she got it right was just priceless.

We started out with the simple coloring sheets at the beginning of the workbooks and simple lines to practice for letter writing.

Above Lily is writing the letter H on her chalkboard after having built it with the wooden pieces.