I was surfing the net this week and I found this very simple writing helper. Do your children have trouble spacing their words properly when they are printing? Well, this simple spacer might be just the thing they need.
Writing Spacer
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Tag Archives: Penmanship
5 Awesome Places To Get Fun Writing Paper
My kids are much more amicable to do their printing or creative writing if I provide some fun writing pages for them to print on. I went on a search recently to see what I could see.
Here are a few of the fun pages I found:
- Free Printable Writing Paper
- Shape Books
- Printable Stationary
- Printable Stationary
- Animal Story Paper and Animal Writing Pages
And here are few basic pages, just in case you need them:
What are your favorite sources for printable papers?
Having Higher Expectations
I realized something this week, I am guilty of always thinking that my kids can't do things. I am pretty sure this line of thought stems from Elisha's ADHD and autism and wanting to avoid stress added stress in our home.
When you have a child with ADHD or autism, you already have a complex child and you want to make life as simple and calm as possible. At least that is what we wanted to do. Even the simplest things would cause meltdowns in the past. All of these things below have caused some form of sensory issue for Elisha in the past.
- putting on socks
- putting on shoes
- clothing needs to be simple and comfortable (no zippers or buttons)
- change in routine
- brushing teeth
- bathing
Let me tell you, we have seen marked improvement in the past year and see little to no issues for most of these areas most of the time.
In the past, anytime that Elisha would try something new he would have a meltdown. We have seen this over and over again over the years. Instead of challenging him and pushing him to try new things, we avoided them. This was the best solution for us at the time, but I am rethinking that solution (for the season we are in now) because Elisha is coping with everyday things much more easily and I want to stretch him a little bit.
I have realized that we need to let the other kids surpass Elisha in whatever areas they need to. This has been a hard lesson for me grasp. I have always held it in my head that he is the oldest, so the other kids can't move on until he does, but this kind of thinking is only holding all the other kids back.
I have also realized that because Elisha has been allowed to get away with saying, "I can't," the other kids are starting to use that excuse too, before they even try. I want to curb that excuse now before it becomes paralyzing for them. They need to grow up believing they can do anything they set their minds to, but for some things they may just have to work harder than others.
These thoughts were on my mind because I instituted daily journal writing and two children complied, while one complained (and not the one you would think). While talking to our support teacher recently, I was inspired to have the kids work REALLY HARD on their printing this year. The idea that we came up with was a SIMPLE daily journal that would increase in difficulty through out the year.
For the first little while we are going to go back to basics and work on printing the date, our name, and ONE word. Now, before you think this is crazy for kids who are in 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades, let me tell you something. We do most of our work orally or with projects that require very little printing. Printing has always caused a great deal of stress (and we avoid stress, remember).
For Elisha the stress was due to fatigue. He has low muscle tone and his hand and arm get tired very quickly when he is printing. This is compounded by the need to hold the pencil tightly and push very hard so he has some sensory feedback.
For the other kids, I just didn't push hard. They would cry and say they couldn't and I would back off (because I had been conditioned to prevent the meltdowns). I am not saying that I was right or wrong to not push them, but we are now at the place where they need to be pushed, so that we can move forward. They need to master printing this year, it is as simple as that. We are going to take it one step at a time and see how far we can grow in our skills this year.
If this is something that your child/children struggle with, you might find it useful to print out this week's journal page and follow along with us on our journey.
The Struggles With Writing
We have struggles with writing at our house. Two of our five children struggle with writing. Our ten year old Elisha struggles with penmanship and creative writing; while our eight year old Moses struggles with penmanship and spelling.
Elisha has struggled with printing since he was little. He has Autism and ADHD. I am amazed at the leaps and bounds that this child has made since he was first diagnosed almost 5 years ago. This boy is bright. He retains just about everything that he hears, sees, and reads. In kindergarten, he was testing at a high school level in some of his subjects.
Even though Elisha is approaching grade five, he still cannot print more than a couple of sentences at a time without fatigue. Most of our work is done together in a quiet space, away from the noise of the rest of the kids. A great portion of his work is oral and I scribe what he cannot write.
His printing has improved dramatically from when he was little. He actually has very legible and beautiful printing, but it is exhausting and stressful for him to print. Last year we decided to lower his requirements for printing and it is working wonderfully (most days).
We have an awesome OT and Elisha has an IEP that limits the amount of writing that he is actually required to do. We spent this year focusing on strengthening his fine motor abilities. He has been enjoying activities such as K'nex, Lego, chop sticks, typing, and other fine motor activities.
Moses does not have a diagnoses, but he has struggled with penmanship and spelling among other things. Moses' struggles seem to be different than Elisha's.
Moses still prints upper and lower case letters intermingled. He often prints the wrong letters, or the right letters in the wrong direction and says that his brain made him do it (in all sincerity). His printing is difficult to read and inconsistent in size and form. Often he will print entirely the wrong word.
His struggles with spelling are interesting. He can copy words if they are placed beside the paper he is copying onto. He cannot sound out words to spell them, but he can read.
Moses also struggles with understanding and following directions. Directions often need to be broken down into smaller parts and repeated more than once to actually be something that he can follow.
I found an interesting little paragraph while doing some research one day. It talked about dysgraphia. I had heard of this before, but needed to do more research. I am looking into this as a possible diagnoses for some of the issues that Moses is having right now.
Whether or not we pursue a diagnoses (I really dislike labels), I will be looking at ways we can adapt our homeschool for him next year to better meet his needs.
Moses really has an amazing ability to tell stories and is very creative. I want to help him this coming year with his phonics, spelling, reading, and writing so that he can get those stories out.
We make adaptations to fit our family because it works. Every family has different struggles. Right now, we struggle with writing (printing, spelling, etc). We take a very low key, stress free approach to the subject and take our time.
What things do you struggle with in your homeschool?