Handwriting update

The biggest compliment you can give a six year old…. is that an adult wrote what they wrote???

At a party this week we handed over a home made Christmas Card that Freya had done the message for.

For those of you who avidly read our blogs you will know that Freya’s handwriting was a cause for concern, which led to much research and a new cursive approach for her and her sisters.

The card was passed around and appreciated. One party gore mentioned in jest ‘the children’s handwriting has improved’ meaning that the adult had done a nice job of writing the card, with a touch if sarcasm.

When I explained it was Freya who had written the message I was met with shocked faces.

We know she had made great progress, however in our family bubble we had taken for granted how beautiful her cursive script now is.

So, how have we done it?

Having watched and learnt from the website ‘the rhythm of handwriting’ I reverted back to my mentor, Barbara Cook Claridge, and found some of her old handwriting exercises.

We started the girls on handwriting paper and had them draw repeated patterns to build up muscle memory and stamina.

We moved onto letter groups that have the same initial formation, such as c, o, d and g so that they became confident with the flow of the letters.

Finally we taught them horizontal and diagonal joins.

The girls really enjoy the flow of the writing and have made so much progress!

Here is an example from the Christmas card – just beautiful:-) what a difference three months makes!