Handwriting programs

[Alice]

Any advice on handwriting programs for a 4 yr old? I'm not necessarily looking to do anything super structured but he is starting to write on his own without having been taught. I'm wondering if I should teach him or just let him do his thing and worry about it later.

It seems a lot of people use HWOT...do you have to use the teacher's manual? And for a child who is already doing letters what level would you start at? Are all the manipulatives necessary? It seems like it can get kind of pricey.

Thanks!

[momofkhm]

I did buy the TM but after reading through it once, I never opened it again. Then the different manipulatives you can buy much cheaper. The wooden pieces you can make yourself. But I don't remember if the patterns are in the tm or in the student book, probably the tm. The chalkboard - just buy an individual chalkboard and draw your own smilie. That's all the extras we had and used. BUT my mom is an OT and used the program so I got the extras free. I only had to pay for the TM the first time around.

[Tina in WA]

I have HWOT and nope you don't need the manual or the manipulative's. The manual provides all the extra instruction, songs, games, etc. But if you just want to do handwriting, then you don't need it.

Something I did when my kids were under was to use pages with dots on them. I purchased some from History Scribe: Copybooks (http://www.thehomeschoolshop.com/sh-happyscribe.htm) (still use these) and Hold That Thought: My Bible Book (http://holdthatthought.com/kindergarten.php). Both of these have the font in dot form for them to trace over. And HTT has pictures to color too. :)

Since your son knows his letters, and if he formation is nice, then I would just use copywork. But if he is still struggling with formation, History Scribe Copybooks might be the way to go. :D

HTH's~Tina

[Mama Lynx]

I ended up not liking HWOT because it teaches capital letters first. It took a long time to retrain my kids to not use capital letters for everything. Of course, you could fix that by using it and teaching the lowercase letters first.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I ended up not liking HWOT because it teaches capital letters first. It took a long time to retrain my kids to not use capital letters for everything. Of course, you could fix that by using it and teaching the lowercase letters first.

Speaking of this, which handwriting programs do teach lowercase letters first? TIA.

[Alice]

Thanks for all the advice! I'll probably let him keep doing his own thing and maybe get the HWOT book for him to start working in sometime soon.