Last week Matthew was on mid term break. He has been asking me quite a few times during this time when he can go back to school. He actually loves it. We managed two months of school so far. It’s incredible how quick a five year old can learn in such a short space of time. He has learnt so much already. Wherever he sees a letter he always tells me he learnt that one but he hasn’t learnt the other one yet.
After the Halloween break the the school said the junior infant classes would get their first amount of homework for the week. And so they did yesterday. I hope it will last for a long time because he loves doing his homework. He gets a page every day except for Friday. He has done pretty much the whole week already yesterday.
In school the first step to a neat hand writing is finding the right grip on the pencil. It’s all about learning. Before Matthew started school, he never used to hold the pencil the way he should. Within a small period of time, he picked it up very quickly. One of the handwriting worksheets Uni Ball has created, is the right grip on the pencil. The key to a proper grip is the OK sign.
Children don’t have the same amount of strength in their hand like us adults would. It is advised to train this and keep the hands busy. There are many different activities you can do with your child such as squeezing play-doh. Every household should have play-doh for that simple reason and I don’t like mess but if it helps my child improving handwriting, then definitely. Two activities that come in handy are crumpling up paper or squeezing a sponge.
Coordination is also an important fact. Tracing a few dots can be easy but writing a new letter freely can be quite challenging. Matthew likes to get it done quickly and some of the last lines are rather rushed. Develop their motor skills with by tracing a few lines from a to b. Tell them to their time. Practicing is the key.
