Handwriting Without Tears
You may be wondering..... can this be possible? Absolutely!
When I think back to my memories of handwriting in school, the words boring, tedious, and hard come to mind. Fortunately, those words have vanished!
Since using this program, I have seen an improvement in letter formation (capital and lowercase), understanding of concepts, and attitude towards handwriting. Each lesson is fun, involves songs and movements, manipulatives for making letters, and an engaging workbook page for reinforcing the lesson learned!
If you still find yourself having some doubts about handwriting being 'fun,' you can find more information at the program's website: www.hwtears.com. I have included some information from their website below.
Teaching Strategies
Handwriting Without Tears® has unique strategies that appeal to all styles of learners.
Lessons and Activities Introduced in Developmental Sequence
The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum teaches the easiest skills first and then builds on prior lessons. Letters are taught in a sequence that makes sense developmentally: in groups of similar formation. After children master the easier letters, they are ready to move on to more difficult letters in both print and cursive.
Multi-Sensory Lessons
Handwriting Without Tears® helps children develop their writing skills through multi-sensory play. Activities with the Wood Pieces Set, Capital Letter Cards, Mat, Roll-A-Dough Letters™, Stamp and See Screen™, CDs, Slate Chalkboard, and Blackboard use all of the senses to teach directionality, vocabulary and imitation, positioning, and sequencing skills. Children move, touch, feel, and manipulate real objects as they learn the habits and skills essential for writing. Other multi-sensory lessons in the teachers’ guides use voices, letter stories, door tracing, imaginary writing, and mystery letters to teach letter formation and placement on lines.
Review and Mastery
Mastery of concepts is reinforced with special Review and Mastery activities throughout student workbooks. The sections follow a group of letters and focus on reinforcing the formation of all previously taught letters.
Learn and Check
In all of our workbooks, we teach children to check their letter, word, and sentence skills after new lessons. Letters are checked for correct start, steps, and bumping the lines. Words are checked for correct size, placement, and closeness. Sentences are checked for correct capitalization, word spacing, and punctuation.
Instruction Based on the Three Stages of Learning
Using Handwriting Without Tears®, children learn to write correctly and easily when instruction follows these three developmental stages:
When I think back to my memories of handwriting in school, the words boring, tedious, and hard come to mind. Fortunately, those words have vanished!
Since using this program, I have seen an improvement in letter formation (capital and lowercase), understanding of concepts, and attitude towards handwriting. Each lesson is fun, involves songs and movements, manipulatives for making letters, and an engaging workbook page for reinforcing the lesson learned!
If you still find yourself having some doubts about handwriting being 'fun,' you can find more information at the program's website: www.hwtears.com. I have included some information from their website below.
Teaching Strategies
Handwriting Without Tears® has unique strategies that appeal to all styles of learners.
Lessons and Activities Introduced in Developmental Sequence
The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum teaches the easiest skills first and then builds on prior lessons. Letters are taught in a sequence that makes sense developmentally: in groups of similar formation. After children master the easier letters, they are ready to move on to more difficult letters in both print and cursive.
Multi-Sensory Lessons
Handwriting Without Tears® helps children develop their writing skills through multi-sensory play. Activities with the Wood Pieces Set, Capital Letter Cards, Mat, Roll-A-Dough Letters™, Stamp and See Screen™, CDs, Slate Chalkboard, and Blackboard use all of the senses to teach directionality, vocabulary and imitation, positioning, and sequencing skills. Children move, touch, feel, and manipulate real objects as they learn the habits and skills essential for writing. Other multi-sensory lessons in the teachers’ guides use voices, letter stories, door tracing, imaginary writing, and mystery letters to teach letter formation and placement on lines.
Review and Mastery
Mastery of concepts is reinforced with special Review and Mastery activities throughout student workbooks. The sections follow a group of letters and focus on reinforcing the formation of all previously taught letters.
Learn and Check
In all of our workbooks, we teach children to check their letter, word, and sentence skills after new lessons. Letters are checked for correct start, steps, and bumping the lines. Words are checked for correct size, placement, and closeness. Sentences are checked for correct capitalization, word spacing, and punctuation.
Instruction Based on the Three Stages of Learning
Using Handwriting Without Tears®, children learn to write correctly and easily when instruction follows these three developmental stages:
- Imitation: The teacher demonstrates the letter formation. The child imitates the teachers.
- Copying: Children are asked to copy a model of a practice word by looking at the word.
- Independent Writing: Children are asked to write a word without demonstration and without a model. They have to write from memory.