How to improve your child's handwriting

LP loves his sports, from football to badminton he likes nothing more than being outdoors running around burning off energy. He's an active boy and enjoys playing sociable games. He also enjoys maths (he relishes a challenge) and reading. LP is an insatiable reader and at bedtime he will often stay up late reading his favourite books. 

The problem is handwriting.

At 7 years old LP's handwriting is not great, his letters are all one size and he will often write letters backwards. When I attended parent's evening at the end of last year his handwriting was one of the things mentioned and his teacher said he needed to work on it. 

LP practises his handwriting every day after school. When trying to get him practising it can be tough to think of things for him to write but over the last few months I've come up with a few ideas.



Writing out his favourite stories


LP has an exercise book that he uses for his handwriting practise at home and I will give him one of his favourite books, like The Odd Squad or Horrid Henry, and tell him to copy one or two pages. While this doesn't help him with spelling it gets him reading and, more importantly, writing. 




Writing about his day at school


This writing comes from LP, there's no copying or reading. He uses words he knows to describe his day. I'm not specific about the kinds of things I want to see, I just let him write. It gets him thinking about his day, thinking about how to describe his day, and writing those thoughts down.



Writing questions


If there's something LP wants to ask me I may ask him to write it down. This way he is writing and I can tell him if I don't understand or can't work out what he's written. He can work on particular words and his letter formation gets better.



Writing stories


LP isn't great at coming up with stories just yet, he's only 7 after all, but on occasion I'll tell him to write a short story. It doesn't have to be long but it has to come from him, it's his ideas and his imagination. I particularly like this handwriting practise because it involves being creative as well as practising writing. 


With these four things LP has made a lot of progress. In just 2 days his handwriting is much neater, I have less trouble reading his writing and his letter formation is coming along nicely. The great thing is he can see the progress too. 

When looking at the pages in his exercise book it is clear when he's been practising daily. He can tell when he's had a break and works harder to get his handwriting neat again. 


If you're struggling to get your little one's handwriting on track why not try a few of these ideas.


Do you have any ideas you would add to my list to get your little ones practising handwriting?



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