Handwriting problems using Handwriting Without Tears

When my son came home from his summer school when he was 5.6 years old, he gave this card to me.

Ice at 5.6

With 2 years of pre-school before that 2-week summer play school, his teachers were telling me about the huge problem on his handwriting, pencil grip, reversals of letters, and left/right handwriting confusion. I thought, this was not a big deal.

A few days after summer school, I went to the school and saw a bulletin board with works of some 3-4 year olds, I saw my son's work and that alarmed me - my almost 6 year old's handwriting is awful.

I asked the teachers on how we could brush up his skills. They advised us to do lots of copywork, after-school tutorials, use pencil grippers or check if he was left-handed (he uses his right hand to write) - importantly, just make him WRITE. But, my son just hated to write! Just asking him to write his first name makes him so stressed and doesn't know how to copy anything. My son was frustrated and so was I.

The Lord told me that I need to stop comparing and being frustrated with my son.  Education is not who finishes first or being the best on one or two things, but what one learns through the process. God showed me, that he made me a mother and am the only physical being to really help and teach my son more effectively. So, he opened my heart for the very first time to homeschool.

When I began homeschooling, that meant, giving up my beloved 9-12 hour work and be a work-at-home mom. It was hard to give up something you love, but my son and kids were all worth it.

At 5, this is the way he colors the trees and monkeys.
The strokes on his letters are like of a 3 year old.

I've met with veteran homeschoolers when I shared my heart to them about homeschooling. One mom, shared to me about Sonlight. I bought an entire curriculum P4/5 with K readers, Singapore Math and most importantly, Handwriting Without Tears set.

They have other handwriting sets but I chose this because it was meant to correct reversals and does not follow the "dot to dot" letter practice.  If you will get the Teacher's guide, you will get more tips on how to use their 2-lined paper, priper letter strokes, Mat Man activities and many others. 

I learned that dot to dot letter formation won't make the child focus on the stroke of the letter because it will just make them focus on the dots that they follow.  

HWOT (Handwriting Without Tears) focuses on each letters stroke, even if your child has no issues on handwriting, using this as a handwriting curriculum will help them control their letter reversals which is very common to preschoolers to 1st grade.  I am also using this to my 5 year old twin girls and though, the other twin shows very strong tripod grip (as I have already started them with lots of fine motor by 12 months), HWOT still helped her with her letter reversals, letter formations and spacing of words and letters.  This is also very helpful with my left handed child who had severe letter reversals and was writing in complete mirror image of words. This was all corrected with HWOT.

Before going into Handwriting without Tears, my son had lots of trouble with the way he traces the letters.  Handwriting is a skill that has to follow a certain kind of stroke per each letter to prevent reversals. Which my son so struggled with.  This style above was a copywork activity without any strokes taught to a child.  This style won't work all the time esp. for kids struggling with handwriting.

We began homeschooling using Sonlight - P4/5.  I have researched about handwriting problems with children and Handwriting Without Tears (http://www.hwtears.com) was my choice.  I included the 4 volume books of Developing the Early Learner (http://www.sonlight.com/PR01.html)  on our curriculum as well, which made a big significance on my son's interest in puzzles yet having to master Motor-skills, Visual, Problem-solving and Auditory skills.

For a year, I focused on my 5 year old's reading and handwriting.  I saw big improvements just doing 1 year of Handwriting without tears. From a non-writer to an avid story writer (I was still his scribe, during that time).

This was one of our 1st activities.  He was already in K, yet I needed to do "letter of the week" for him.  I let him practice strokes and lines and we only did 1 letter per week for this.  We did not exceed for more than 15 minutes otherwise he just gets tired.

Our first few activities was to focus on pencil grip and mastering the tripod grip.  We sang a song from HWOT CD "Where do you start your letter? On the top!" (from the Handwriting Without Tears book) and a lot of gripping and holding activities.  We did that for 2 weeks then moved on to worksheets.

After an activity, I would let him check his work by putting a circle on the best-looking letter/s he made.

He knows how to write but only up to his nickname (ICE), beyond that, he would scribble and doodle. I did not allow him to do copy work yet, even though we had to, if we follow the curriculum.  I never rush on things, just letting him flow through it and we only moved when he is ready for the next.

Below are some activities we did during the year and you can see how he has improved a lot in that year alone.

This is the beauty of homeschooling. If I let him go to Prep (K) that time, we will just be as frustrated as a mother in waiting for labor. Even if we had to write 1 letter a week (he actually, got the hang of it, and in just 3 months- we were already writing an entire paragraph). 

 would put markings and honestly tell him parts that fell over the lines that he needed to correct next time.  The orange dots were his only guide on where to begin his letter stroke.

After some time, I slowly introduced how to write his name.  You can see that though, some lines were still  a bit crooked as he was still mastering a stronger grip, his name looks a lot better in just a month and a half.

When I introduce a new lesson to him.  I would use a highlighter and would show him how to do the strokes.  After which, he would write over the highlighted letters and finished it.  Then, I would give him a space to do without the highlighted letter by just giving him a highlighted point on the starting stroke of the 1st letter of the word.

We did sentence case for his name.  I had a hard time asking him to finish just this page, but with encouragement and lots of praises, he was able to finish it.  It took him like 3 minutes per name and he got really tired doing so but, bravely, he did.

Since then, I have always asked him to write his first name (and not just writing his 3 letter nickname) on all his worksheets.  I was so proud of him seeing his improvement on this.  This was just after 3 months.

Since, he loves math and we do Singapore Math, t was easier to introduce him to number writing.  This was the time, he had more patience finishing an entire page.  He finished this in about 30 minutes, after that.  We took a break right away after an entire page of activity.

Getting there...

Now, without any number templates.  This was introduced after 5 months and he has quickly picked it up in 3 weeks.

Introduced, sentences and simple copy work which he found terribly boring.  But, lots of praises were his drive to finish this task.  So, from 30 minutes a page.  We were now cut to 15 minutes doing this.

6 months prior to this, my son had no interest whatsoever in drawing or writing. He would never go get a pen or even draw.  I never experienced seeing any drawings on any wall of our house (that was clear, he had no interest in writing). But, just after those 6 months he has learned to be more confident in writing.  He made drawings everyday, every hour of the day.  He grabs a paper and gave me cards.  In a span of just 3 months, he finished a ream of recycled paper I bought for him.  It was just like a light bulb just switched "on" him.

One of our story elaboration activity.  I asked him to draw while I become his scribe.

Just 6 months doing Handwriting without Tears and Developing the Early Learner - I suddenly have a very artistic son.

We finished his curriculum and I was confident of his writing skills more than ever in just a year of focusing on my son.  When he turned 6, we enrolled him in a Montessori-based school.  

I had to work again full-time and so after praying for a school that will best suit his learning style, God showed us the school for him.

We enrolled him to K (or Prep), and he was 6 that time.  We went school hopping and the school where he is now was the one we peacefully have chosen.  But, when I got in the classroom during a school tour I saw a Calligraphy board and asked if they will teach that to kids in pre-school.  The teacher said, yes.  They start at K (Prep) and it is called the Monstessori Style of Calligraphy (not cursive).  They said, they follow Maria Montessori's belief that Calligraphy is the most natural way of writing.  I was so worried!  I pulled-out my child to teach a year on his writing and then... calligraphy for a 6 year old?  Even then, we let it a try.

My son wrote that?!

After 1-2 quarters of the school year, I saw more improvement with my son's handwriting.  At first, he got too overwhelmed but since he loves his school - he was able to do more than expected.

Just 4 months, he was writing really well. More comfortably and a better grip.  But, it was evident that the style we learned in a year of homeschool was still evident in his strokes.

His drawing was not so bad as well for someone who used to struggle in handwriting.
He was 6.5 at this time. 

Then, another setback came on him.  His Calligraphy was pulling him down because it was a totally different stroke that he has never mastered.  But, because I told him the history of Calligraphy, he got excited.  Since, I used to write Calligraphy during my college days and love typography art as well.  I showed him great works of people who write really good. That nailed it and gave him a reason to write beautifully.

For his entire Grade 1, his handwriting uing calligraphy was just as horrible as when we started handwriting! But, rather than feeling so depressed on this again, I praised him and practiced using HWOT 2-lined paper and showed him proper strokes based on it.

His grades were still wonderful inspite the trouble with his writing.

Now, my son is 8 and in Grade 2. He once showed me his notes and told me "Mom, teacher placed a note on my notebook and said 'Very nice calligraphy'." I said, "can I see it?".  When I saw his handwriting, I almost cried.  My son is now free.

Defeating his dragon!

Each child is unique and have a different set of timing in his way to learn things.  Some are early learners while some needs more time.  There are some who are good in 10 things and weak in 1 or the other way around.  If we are there in that 1 or 10 things, we will give them everything they will ever need.

By the way, my son has LD (Learning Disability) in Reading, Writing and Spelling.  It was a tough one for my little man, but slowly and little by little we are defeating these dragons in his life together.

Your thoughts? Do share! I would love to help.

Language-based Disability, Dyslexia and Learning Disability

When my son was 4 years old, his teacher in school said that he wasn't reading well at all for his age level.  He couldn't hear the differences of rhymes, writes letters b and d in reverse, or even hear syllables.  But, what bothered me most was that he never learned to talk in his mother tongue but talked in English (and even UK English) more. Also, we have noticed that his memory is way toooo short (he stumbles to what date his birthday is until now, that he is 8).

We all waited it up thinking that he would just get it someday.  So I decided to homeschool him for a year using Sonlight (a Literature-based rich curriculum), Handwriting without Tears for handwriting, copy work (which he hated doing back then), and Singapore Math.

Homeschooling was the best choice I've made for him because I get to focus on the root cause of what is affecting his reading.  We would do all sorts of Phonemic Awareness exercises, and let him read short stories  like Bob Books which all helped us.

I was so eager to help him that I bought and tried all sorts of reading intervention when he was 5 years old with the following: ClickN'Kids (which bore him but I felt made good results for phonemic awareness), Hooked on Phonics (Didn't used so much but he did looove the music and helped him remember some letter sounds), Reading Eggs (which he loved!), Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD (didn't work well much on him but worked wonders with my 3 year old), RockN'Learn (didn't like it - bore him).

Years went by and he went back to a Montessori based school which actually was perfect fit for his learning style - he is a kinesthetic learner.  His grades in school weren't so bad (ranging from 85% - 95%).

But the problem came up more vividly during the course of his 1st grade. They are reading 2nd to 3rd grade reading and spelling.  They also started writing Montessori style Calligraphy which made his handwriting horrifying to say the least.  What is worse is having Botany and Geography subjects which involves a whole lot of memorization which he was greatly struggling with. As well as a Filipino language class which he would fail almost every quiz he took.

 It was a tough year for him and he would cry and tell me why he couldn't read well and he hated being placed with the students who was obviously he knew was the-not-so-smart-kids table when he was once was with the "smart" kids.

2 days ago, we had a Developmental Pedia assess him.  It took us 3 months to get a slot and finally she had an assessment of my son.  I didn't want to do this at first, because I didn't want to brand him or make him feel that there is something wrong with him. His self-esteem is more important to me than anything else but I also knew we just needed to know so we can on from there.

The Dev. Ped did some series of tests which my son aced when it comes to patterns, blocks, and everything else except for Reading, Writing and Spelling.  His listening comprehension was excellent as well as per his doctor.  The Pedia even commended how articulate he is when he answers some of her questions.  As he answers them more descriptively and intelligently.

The Dev. Pedia said that he has a Language-Based Learning Disability specifically in Reading (phonemic awareness, some reversals of letters), Spelling and Writing.  He had no ADHD symptoms so it would just be a lot easier to give intervention for him in just the areas that he is struggling with.  What was great is that we did it early because he is still at level unlike other kids as to whom it would take so much years for the child to cope just because they delayed early intervention.  I just couldn't imagine how hard it will be for kids to struggle in school for the years that they should have been worked up early on.

So, my son has Dyslexia or LD. Now, our quest has just begun and there are just so much to look at. They don't come at a cheap price so I am hoping to find the best fit for my son.  The DEV Pedia also recommended to assess him for IQ which we will be doing by June 2013 at KidPsych. I would like something we could do at home or over the internet so, I am looking at different products. Some recommendations given were:

• Orton-Gillingham (Ed-Link offers them but only for Math)
• Slingerland (Ed-Link Center in Muntinlupa provides this instruction)
• Lindamood (LIPs) (Ed-Link Center in Muntinlupa provides this instruction)
• Fast Forwords (Provided by i-thinkers in Wack Wack, Mandaluyong, Philippines)
• Reading Specialist (Uses Barton Reading)

I am also looking for reading remediation like All About Reading and All About Spelling or even Davis Dyslexia Correction or even Barton Reading and the most expensive but sounds equally great Easy Read System.

We plan to take on Fast Forwords and still continue on Reading Eggs (as he really loves this system).  Let me update you to his progress once they assess him this week.

I just want to encourage parents who have children that are struggling in learning or are called Dyslexics.  Here is a quote that I found and has given me a great motivation in helping out my learning-challenged kiddo.

"Dyslexia is not a result of brain damage or nerve damage.  Nor is it caused by a malformation of the brain, inner ear or eyeballs.  Dyslexia is a product of thought and a special way of reacting to the feeling of confusion" - Ronald Davis (Founded Davis Dyslexia Correction, also a Dyslexic)

There are also a lot of genius dyslexic! So, it is both a challenge and a cause to feel good about.

If you have a Dyslexic child, have you tried any program that worked best for you? Do share!

What made things easier for my 6 year old to start reading

This made my entire homeschooling adventure days the most memorable of all - My 6 year old boy can now read! Hurrahhh!

There really is no such thing as a slow-learner or even the Big Moose (Archie Comics Character) guy if only learning blocks were identified early on.  Some kids, learn and memorize fast but are having a hard time in gross-motor.  Some can read early and read well but have problems with comprehension. While some, have auditory processing problems and could not even comprehend Rhymes, or letter sounds on words - which my son had.  So, you see not all minds are the same.  Some have learning blocks that needed to be trained.  My son, had it too but I see it as my challenge instead of his.  I want him to learn one thing - to love learning!  But to love it, he must unblock his reading challenge.

Isn't the worst thing any parent could experience is when a teacher or a principal calls on you just to tell you:

• "You're child is a slow-learner"
• "She is not reading (or catching up) at her grade-level"
• "He is Regressing!"
• "All of his classmates are doing well, but I'm sorry to say but your child seems to be having a hard time."
• "He can't even finish copy work and everyone else are already done!"

So you wonder, why my kid is acting this way? He looks fine to me when he's at home or with his peers. But, honestly, there is nothing wrong with your child so stop thinking that you have a slow or dyslexic child!  It's you! He simply needs you to teach him and focus off your problem-focused life to cope with whatever he is having a hard time on.  Parents who wonder, wonder too much about the problem instead of a solution that is readily available.  The teachers are not your child's problem solver - you are!  A simple 30 minutes a day on what your child is struggling on makes a lot of difference!

Honestly, it took me almost 6 months of direct teaching (with a proper homeschool curriculum) of at least 3 hours/day just to identify what is keeping my smart and amazing 6 year old from reading!

We did the usual phonics, alphabetic style of learning sounds then blending them.  Which we did for about 4-5 months but all he could do are sound out C-V-Cs (Bat and Sat... etc) but no blending at all which is really frustrating.

Then, upon doing a workbook Developing the Early Learner Series (Books 1-4) by Simone Bibeau, MA. Sp. Ed.  I found out that my 6 year old is struggling with an Auditory Processing which makes him harder to remember phonics and worse blending those sounds together.

He couldn't even figure out what sounds are heard when I say a word (ex. Bat = Baaaatt).  He knows all of the sounds of the alphabet because of the great stuff on Hooked on Phonics, Click N' Read, Starfall.com songs. But, all of these are left-brained focus.  My child is a right-brained learner with an auditory glitch. He was even having a hard time identifying rhymes (ex. Pail - Nail).

But, now what a lovely day! I have found the way to teach my challenged kiddo to process these sounds into words.  Training his brain to process info and store and retrieve data in a way that is easier for him!

My son is used to guess words from pictures.  So, first, I totally scrap all visual aids.  No words/pictures to look at.  Just listening, and listening to my voice which must be clear as crystal for him to hear.  I even would blindfold him at times just to make his focus on the hearing and not on anything else. He had a hard time on this activity.

We did this simple activity after he practiced the phonics, to relate the sound to writing and so we can also improve and touch a lot on spelling.  At first, he spelled B-O-L as Ball, but that is okay.  It means, he can start chopping off those sounds to form words.  I was delighted.

We did Rhymes for 1 week and started introducing the Jelly Bean Reading! Which I personally conceptualized based on different research I've read.  After 3-4 days, he can now read and blend those sounds very well!

I got an idea on how to do this from Candy Math Program - wherein Candies and treats which are kids favorites are used as actual manipulatives to teach kids about Math!  Click the link to download the free PDF.

Here's how we played the Jelly Bean Reading Game! I didn't plan on this game, it just came right out of my mind - for the love I have to make my son read!

Our Jelly Bean Reading Game!

I didn't do much effort on how it would look like. :P

1. Take out plain white sheets of paper (bond paper would do, just cut them into pieces)
2. Line up 3 or 4 blocks as the numbered block sheet for the phoneme sounds of each word you will be saying. *If your child is a non-reader but knows letter sounds but have a hard time blending them, you can start with 3. Progress to 4 or more when he is ready.  Putting 1,2,3,4 teaches your child to read from Left (1) to Right (3 or 4)
   
   
   
3. Draw a buzzer or find any buzzer that your child can use to ring when he's done. Make it fun!
4. Jelly Beans or any healthy treats/candies/crackers! Do this before a major meal.  They will eat them as an award!
5. For the game do a sample first, sound out the word "Tap, Taaaaapp"
6. Tell them to listen and place in candies to every sound they hear from the word said.  Ask them to place those sounds in order starting on the beginning sound to the last sound.  My kid, had a hard time at the middle sound, but later found out a way to figure it out more.
7. After they have lined up the sounds on the numbered block sheets, ask them to write those sounds to spell out on the lined-out blank (no numbers) sheet.
8. When they're done... ask them to press the buzzer!
9. When they did it correctly, praise them but before they eat it.  Ask them this, Can you eat the /B/ sound, eat the Last Sound, then eat the /A/ sound.  This way, they can recognize which sound is first, last, and middle as well as the phonemes.
10. Do 4-5 of this game and just add on tricks to challenge them.

The rice puffs are not too sweet, so it was for the consonants and the jelly beans for the vowels.

I had 3 and 4 phoneme game that we played just for  the day.  I got the words from the book we will later on read.
We read Fun Tales, tomorrow... Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss!

Since we finish school right before Lunch, I needed to get some of my twin girls' super flavorful Gerber Rice Puffs!
They are light and not too sweet for my little reader bunny!  Of course, he loves Jelly Beans.
Crackers would do great as well!

The resources below were very helpful for my struggling-reader-no-more little guy, which you can check out:

• Dianne Kraft, MA, CNHP - I love her research.  It's very up-to-date and very kid and mom friendly.  Learned about how to teach a right brain child and even how to teach these kids in a way that they will have fun.
• Earobics - A great tool for focus and auditory processing.  Try their online games for kids! They are awesome
• Phonemes - You will have to master this.
• Phonemic Awareness Activites - Download them and check it out! Great resource!

My struggling reader

I am frustrated and so is my 6 year old when we do Alphabetic Reading.  When he attended a multiple intelligence school during his nursery and kindergarten, his teacher's comment was "he is probably regressing".  I cannot accept it, I was worried.  I know he was doing well at 2 years old, knows all the letters, shapes and was very smart.

Just suddenly, when I heard those words and also saw his progress in school.  I knew there has got to be a way for him to catch up.  I don't care if he's not yet reading at his age, or if if I put his level a year down.  What is important is that he would love to learn and discover.

That started my Homeschooling with him.  I pulled him off school and started research on the best homeschool curriculum for him.  I don't like the structured, or pacing series.  He is only 5 that time, I just wanted him to have fun.  That's where I found out about a literature-based curriculum called Sonlight.  No pressure, 1 letter sound per week and he did very well.

All subjects of Science, Math, Read-alouds, Social Studies were all great.  But, handwriting and reading was a dreaded subject for the both of us.

I bought and researched on the best phonics system available.  Looking for a very good reading teacher.  But, really nothing helps.  At 6, he is having a hard time with rhymes.  He just doesn't seem to understand anything at all.  He was looking at patterns as if words are mazes or patterns in math which he's very good at.

So, I crossed path at Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness.  Finally, it has a pattern to follow.  Practicing only different phonemes and no alphabetic way (sight) to understand.  It is being used also by Orto-Gillingham approach.

I love the results and will be blogging on his progress.  We started to read Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss which is full of simple rhymes.  As well as lots of Sesame Street Videos of his favorite Kermit the Frog and Cookie Monster.  This is a break for us.  He's catching on.

I was about to believe that he is Dyslexic.  He has lots of reversed letters and often reverses B to D, P and T, W and M.  But, when I cross upon a site, it said Dyslexia isn't a disease it could be corrected.  I'm seeing it already and I'm happy now and so is my son.

Today, there are no crying bouts and we ended school with a big reward - a big, giant, hug!

If you have a struggling reader, you can try these links:

• http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/322045/lesson_plan_phonemic_awareness_say.html?cat=4
• http://www.lessonsense.com/general/phonemic-awareness.html
• http://www.childrenlearningreading.com/
• http://www.remediationplus.com/
• http://www.orton-gillingham.com/

There is no such thing as slow learner, what these kids need is you - their parent! They need you to help them and understand that we have a great big deal of job to teach them cope in life.

I thank the Lord for giving me the best children in the world and I love them.  I would do everything to help them achieve and see their potential for I know the Lord have great plans for them.