Learning to Write, Type, & Draw with The Good & The Beautiful
Handwriting Through the Years
Handwriting can be one of those things that easily slip through the cracks. But, I think it’s so important to try and offer consistent opportunities for handwriting practice because it is such an easy way to aid in the development of fine motor skills. These type of skills impact writing, reading, hand-eye coordination, concentration, and memory. When we hear fine motor I think people think that is for little kids and that is certainly true, but I think it’s still crucial to work on into the middle school years too and it literally takes less than 10 minutes a day.
For almost 5 years I have used The Good and The Beautiful’s leveled handwriting. It is something I have used almost every day with every child—primarily because they are so easy to use and with consistent use they have produced excellent writing results. These book also serve as our main resource for copy work.
First off, I started with the Doodles and Prewriting for Littles books with both of my boys at the age of 3. I took an informal approach with these and just offered them when they were excited to do “school” like their big sisters. By Kindergarten both of them were more than ready for Level K Handwriting and to start learning more formal letter formations.
At this point, our learning rhythm is more formal and I usually encourage everyone to do one handwriting page a day. For my girl’s (who are now 11) I started them on Level 1 because we pulled them out of school mid-year and they’re now on Level 6. So, now, between all my kids I’ve been through 8 of the handwriting books and I am just so pleased with all of their progress. Cursive begins in Level 3 and I absolutely love how it’s taught by using a dotted rainbow approach. It’s also completely self directed as long as your kids know the order of the colors of the rainbow.
Another tool I’ve consistently used when it comes to learning letter formation for both print and cursive are sandpaper letters. There are so many ways to use these, but my go-to is to simply have my kids trace the letter with their finger and then turn around and write it in their books or, for younger kids, practice writing it in sand or sugar.
Establishing Consistency
Handwriting practice is apart of my kid’s daily independent work so this year to help my 5 year old get start developing this habit I brought back out our Morning Handwriting Basket. The kids all do handwriting together first thing while I make breakfast and this way my little guy can model his older siblings. I like my younger kids to practice handwriting once a day at least 4x a week. In upper elementary, as long as I feel like their development is progressing well, we scale handwriting back to 2-3 days a week. Right now we keep all their books stored right by our kitchen in a basket (the one I have is not available, but I linked a very similar one). In years past we’ve also just kept them in my kid’s independent work pile.
Typing & Drawing
And just because I know someone will ask and it’s along these lines— we start typing in 3rd grade. I love TGTB typing books, but my girls struggled with Level 1 because they had a hard time looking at the books while learning to type. Instead, they did really great with Typing.com and Typingclub.com. Now that they have the basics down, this year they are back to using Level 3 with TGTB to work on their typing fluency. My favorite thing about these books are that they are full of scripture, uplifting quotes, and poetry (a huge step above the other typing resources we’ve used). I will say though— I know quite a few people who have had great success teaching their kids just using TGTB typing books so you’ll just have to try it and see what’s best for your family. When we started typing we did it 2x a week and now the girls practice it a few times each week between their TGTB book and other writing projects they have.
Last, but not least, I wanted to also put a quick plug in for The Good & The Beautiful’s drawing books because handwriting and drawing go hand in hand. Again, this is because directed drawing is just another great way to develop those fine motor skills. And, obviously, it helps kids learn how to draw. The Draw Vintage Set starts out super simple and move to more advanced so they grow with skill level just like the handwriting books. The birds and the trees books are great to use just for fun and we’ve also pulled from these at random during our unit studies. I love having all these on hand because you’ll never know when you’ll need them!
Have you tried any of these resources? I’d love to know which are your favorite!
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