Handwriting Games?

[becka]

DS is in K and while he is enjoying school he does not like handwriting. As a result he is very slow or he rushes through it and has to repeat the work. He gets very easily frustrated with it. We did some writing sheets this weekend as homework and he declared himself a "total failure" because his letters were not perfect. He tends to learn most things very quickly and easily so this is very frustrating for him. He is a young K (will be 6 in May) and I know boys fine motor skills typically lag behind girls. He really just needs more practice but it is hard to make it enjoyable. He really gets frustrated and just hates doing it and I don't want to force him to spend a lot of time practicing at home since he already does quite a bit at school. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for games we could play with him that would force him to write? He loves to play games (Uno, Disney Scrabble Jr., Monopoly Jr, Sorry, etc..) but none of those require him to actually write. He loves Pokemon and ideally we could find something that is Pokemon related that will help him get some additional handwriting practice but be fun at the same time.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

 

[wowsmom]

Hmmmm, can't think of any games that involve writing (other than maybe hangman?) but when my boys struggled with their writing, their teachers suggested having them work with play-doh to strengthen their hands.

 

[janette]

We had something like this http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2302187 It had a little writing pad to make the letters and different levels. My DD liked it and seemed to help by working on so many aspects of letters.

 

[Cindy B]

I'm actually a writing major (as well as Elem. Ed and Special Ed) and we have had tons of instruction in teaching writing to younger students.


Writing is a skill and it takes practice-remember writing is a fine motor skill and is difficult to master (especially for boys) If you make it fun and not boring worksheets--I've seen students groan at worksheets and erase thier mistakes until there are holes in the paper.

Stress to him that the more he practices the more he will do well. Save the worksheets for school. I would personally do more fun things at home so there is more of a separation. Stress to him that it doesn't need to be perfect and the more he writes the better he will do at forming the letters and such.


Here are a couple of things right off the bat:

Try to find a book of bigger width/wide rule books with room for pictures. You can get these books at teacher stores and sometimes Target.

Make a fun journal. 5 minutes picture, 10 minutes writing. Check for spacing between letters either they will be like 5 inches between words or all the wordswilllooklikethis. I generally guage a finger width.

Write Me a Letter

(Instead of asking your son "How was your day?" and him telling you.. tell him that he needs to write you a letter about what he did today. Dont stress over the format of date/address because he will be frustrated before it is over. If he balks at writing, tell him that Mommy and Daddy use writing all the time.. to write notes, writing at work (technically email is writing as well but with keys...) and when he writes he is doing a grown up thing.

If you even have some preprinted sheets that say Dear Mom or Dad, and he fills in the rest would work well.



Picture prompts.

If you are familiar with picture prompts, these are usually action based pictures in which students use as a basis to write stories. Picture prompts are a component of my states standardized testing (which begins in third grade) so you are giving him a taste of what is to come.

I used to get some antique and art magazines and I would tear out the interesting pictures and have my kids write about it. I remember one was a boy on a boat by himself.

My instruction would be: Write me a story about the boy.

Somedays instead of fine art, we would do Spongebob Pictures.


Other times it were crazy prompts:

If I had a million dollars
My wish is
If I had 100.... tie in with 100th day of school
My favorite animal
If I was a grown up I would.....

 

[Aunt Michelle]

I PM'd you.

 

[jagafen]

Occupational Therapist throwing in her 2 cents.....

What handwriting curriculum is he using?? D'Nealian (with the curly cues at the end of some of the letters) or Zaner-Bloser (more traditional, plain letters)? D"Nealian is used to "prepare" kids for the tranistion to cursive writing by introudcing the beginning connecting strokes at an early age. When kids are learning to write, they don't need to learn the "fancy" way (my opinion)...Learning simple letter formation and writing simple LEGIBLE letters is more important than preparing them for cursive writing... you could try talking to his teacher about this and see where it gets you. I work in a private school/residential setting, so I don't know what "regular" public/private school kids are learning in Kindergarten!!

Children struggling with writing skills are more common than you'd think. Just about any activity that involves putting pencil/crayon to paper will foster the development of writing skills. It sounds like he's getting a little upset about all the "practicing" without being happy with the results....how does he do with dot to dots, mazes, word searches, and other non-letter formation writing activities? They are excellent tools for developing visual motor skills which have a positive impact on his letter formation.

Other ideas....rolling "snakes" out of playdough and having him form his letters that way. This is a more play based way of working on letter formation without putting a pencil in his hands. Take turns making letters, building something else, then make more letters. Or make a pancake and use a pencil to poke holes into the playdough in the form of the letter, he can then "trace" the letter. If you have a decent $ store nearby, I've seen placemats with the alphabet on it. Let him trace the letters with a dry erase marker. Have him erase the letters using his index finger to trace over the lines he's written.

Another idea that my "kiddos" like are the little magnetic drawing boards...sometimes just changing the tools used makes the activity more fun. They are relatively cheap (check Walmart for the travel sized ones)...other ideas. Have him close his eyes and hold out his palm. Use your index finger to "Trace" a letter on his hand (or on his back) and have him guess what it is. Then he gets to do it to you.

Try going to the Handwriting Without Tears website... www.hwtears.com

There's a parent section, and other ideas for activities that you can do with your kids to promote their handwriting skills!!!

Also check out:
www.learningpages.com

Those are just some ideas to get you started...hope it helps!!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Why not play school with him and let him be the teacher? He could teach YOU how to do the work. It might be fun and offer some insight into his day as well. Good luck!

 

[ElizK]

Occupational Therapist throwing in her 2 cents.....

What handwriting curriculum is he using?? D'Nealian (with the curly cues at the end of some of the letters) or Zaner-Bloser (more traditional, plain letters)? D"Nealian is used to "prepare" kids for the tranistion to cursive writing by introudcing the beginning connecting strokes at an early age. When kids are learning to write, they don't need to learn the "fancy" way (my opinion)...Learning simple letter formation and writing simple LEGIBLE letters is more important than preparing them for cursive writing... you could try talking to his teacher about this and see where it gets you. I work in a private school/residential setting, so I don't know what "regular" public/private school kids are learning in Kindergarten!!

Children struggling with writing skills are more common than you'd think. Just about any activity that involves putting pencil/crayon to paper will foster the development of writing skills. It sounds like he's getting a little upset about all the "practicing" without being happy with the results....how does he do with dot to dots, mazes, word searches, and other non-letter formation writing activities? They are excellent tools for developing visual motor skills which have a positive impact on his letter formation.

Other ideas....rolling "snakes" out of playdough and having him form his letters that way. This is a more play based way of working on letter formation without putting a pencil in his hands. Take turns making letters, building something else, then make more letters. Or make a pancake and use a pencil to poke holes into the playdough in the form of the letter, he can then "trace" the letter. If you have a decent $ store nearby, I've seen placemats with the alphabet on it. Let him trace the letters with a dry erase marker. Have him erase the letters using his index finger to trace over the lines he's written.

Another idea that my "kiddos" like are the little magnetic drawing boards...sometimes just changing the tools used makes the activity more fun. They are relatively cheap (check Walmart for the travel sized ones)...other ideas. Have him close his eyes and hold out his palm. Use your index finger to "Trace" a letter on his hand (or on his back) and have him guess what it is. Then he gets to do it to you.

Try going to the Handwriting Without Tears website... www.hwtears.com

There's a parent section, and other ideas for activities that you can do with your kids to promote their handwriting skills!!!

Also check out:
www.learningpages.com

Those are just some ideas to get you started...hope it helps!!

I was going to suggest www.hwtears.com too. DD12 has a mild learning disability w/writing. This is what we used for her to practice. She actually liked doing it, and it only took about 5-10 mins a day (she was older when she was using it, though).

 

[Plantlady]

my mom will write any of my children a letter, that write to her. That is great incentive to them. ONLY the person that writes the letter, gets mail. It's fun.

That being said. I'm dealing with a 6 year old kindergartener that doesn't like writing or coloring. He likes video games. I FINALLY just got him to learn to tie a shoe.. his teacher was thrilled. Same issue though, fine motor skills are frustrating to him.

He's got math down though. So, whenever I see his sloppy handwriting, and lack of interest in most things school.. I just have to ask him.. "What's the square root of 4,000,000?" Then, I know he's ok.

 

[Mkrop]

I was aslo going to suggest Handwriting without Tears. DS5 has low muscle tone in his trunk and works with an OT once a week and she uses this.

With letter writing she also has him do a lot of tracing and to make it fun she uses the markers that write on each other or make the color change. Like you would draw the letter B in Blue and then he would come along and trace your B and it would turn yellow.

She also has him use the fat pencils(preferably short), chunky crayons and the short markers (Crayola makes a set). There is much less instability if the writing instrument is shorter.

Other things she has him to do for hand strengthening, is hiding a penny or plastic dinosaur in silly puty and having him try to get it out, pop beads, and also making crafts by pinching tissue paper. Like for VDay she covered a red heart with glue and had him pinch bits of tissue paper to fill in the heart. Maybe he could mail it to Grandma or give to his teacher when he is done.

There are other things but I am drawing a blank.

GL.

 

[Mkrop]

oh yeah if he has a leapster there is a game called Mr Pencil that involves tracing the letters with the stylus.

Aslo she has asmall tupperwear container and she has a samll slit cut into and she has him out bingo chips in thru the slit. A lot of it is about strenthening the pincer grasp.

 

[golfgal]

I agree with the short pencils/crayons. It forces them to hold it properly. Also, don't focus so much on the actual writing and more on the fine motor control issue. Doing puzzles and other 'grasping' games will improve his fine motor control faster then just writing because they put the muscles through more range of motion work.

Have him help you make dinner, have him fill up a bowl of frozen corn or peas by picking them out of the bag one at a time or something along those lines.

Play-dough is great, have him make a lot of snowballs and small stuff. Make a snow fort out of play dough and have a snowball fight on the counter.

Take a cake pan and fill it with sand our rice and have him form letters in that. Get a chalk board in his room and have him write his letters on that.

 

[Cindy B]

My younger kids loved to work with letters in shaving cream. We would shoot shaving cream on a table and they would form letters in the shaving cream.

Sure the table was a mess and the classroom smelled like a barber shop but the kids love it.

 

[CJBaby]

My daughter loves this:

http://www.amazon.com/Vtech-Write-L...=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1201962024&sr=1-15

(Why isn't it letting me insert an image?)

Anyway, it has you follow the correct way to write letters and shapes. She even brings it along for car rides!

 

[golfgal]

My younger kids loved to work with letters in shaving cream. We would shoot shaving cream on a table and they would form letters in the shaving cream.

Sure the table was a mess and the classroom smelled like a barber shop but the kids love it.

Bonus to this activity--it cleans your table tops really well!

 

[DorkyDisneyMom]

My son has small motor isues and works with an OT. She has him work with things called sticky wickys, she has him do some sheets that are from The Sensible Pencil. They are not letters, they are just the strokes, one at a time. One day he will make a line straight down. The next time he will work on across. She has him work with stencils too. He thinks it is fun to trace them. We have a pencil grip that he has on his pencil too. You said he likes to play games, what about Pictionary Jr.? I have never played it but, he might think that was fun. My kids like the maganadoodle, and we also have a small dry erase board.

 

[becka]

Thanks for all the suggestions...I will definitely have to try them out. It is hard to see him struggling and getting so frustrated.

We do have that Mr. Pencil game for the Leapster but he doesn't like to play it very much because he gets so frustrated at not being able to get the letters right. DD loves it though....in fact she played it last night before bed and then I heard her say "Good night Mr. Pencil Learn To Draw and Write".