How to Improve Your Child's Handwriting
As many of you will be aware, here at Mammaprada we love supporting small businesses which aim to make a difference.
This week we’ve teamed up with Love Writing Co, a company who are passionate about inspiring children to write and making it as enjoyable as possible.
Over the past year, there has been a steep drop in the number of children who were writing at the expected level. It’s not a surprise given how much we’ve all had to deal with. However, children writing with a pencil or pen was already decreasing as the use of tablets and eWriting devices have become more popular and used widely in schools.
Many children associate writing with schoolwork and don’t gain any enjoyment from it. For those of you whose children find it tough and rather a chore, how do you nurture this skill and change your child’s perception of it?
Would you like to help your child improve their handwriting skills with a little summer learning? We decided to try the products created by Love Writing Co with our 5 year old daughter and 9 year old son. They are both at different learning stages so we hope this gives you a real insight into how your children might react to the materials.
How can you improve the handwriting of your child?
For many parents, the main concern is how to improve their child's handwriting. There are many strategies and exercises out there but it can become overwhelming knowing which to try.
They are also often created with the adult’s objective in mind instead of trying to find activities and fun ways to engage the child.
Instead of teaching kids writing we need to look at how easily they find it to write with the tools they are given and how we spark that desire to write for themselves.
Who are Love Writing Co?
Love Writing Co is a passionate small business created by Surlender and Mark. Surlender at the time was a single mum struggling to help her children to learn to write and actually enjoy it! She couldn’t find anything affordable and fun which inspired her children.
I think she sums up how many of us feel here:
Mark began as a mentor but came on board with the business as he has personal experience of the struggles with writing. He has dyslexia and was sent to a special school as a child. Both Mark and Surlender have real personal experience of these issues and are passionate about helping children and making an impact on their learning journey.
So how do they help develop writing skills in a child and encourage them to write?
Right tools
Love Writing Co noticed early on that we are giving young children adult size pencils and expecting them to be able to master them despite their obvious difference in size.
In their words:
Children [are] forced to use products that simply [do] not fit their hands – they [are] not the correct diameter, length or quality needed to create balance and a comfortable grip.
With this in mind, they created age appropriate Writing Pencils and Erasable Colour Pencils which have been specifically developed for a child's hand. They are available in 2 sizes (3-5 years and 6-9 years).
So much thought has gone into the creation. They have a wider diameter so they are easier to hold, a softer core, a hexagonal shape to encourage the correct tripod grip, they are also easier to clean.
What did we think?
We have a 5 year old daughter and a 9 year old son, so we tried two packs, one for each age group and stage of learning.
For ages 3-5
The pack for 3-5 year olds concentrates on developing pencil control, teaching the alphabet with upper and lower case letters along with an introduction to phonics.
The workbooks are really sweet and engaging, every page has colourful images, plus pictures your child can colour whilst they are writing.
Each line of text has arrows to explain which way around the letter the child should write. I notice my daughter often does this incorrectly and that is where her handwriting falters. Having these easy to read arrows makes it much simpler.
Most importantly there is a space on each page for your child to be given a sticker to reward great effort. A range of colourful, amusing, stickers can be found at the back of the book.
For ages 6-9
My son really struggles to find an interest in writing. We have all sorts of complaints from aching hands and being distracted because he doesn’t enjoy it.
I really thought we could have the same issues as he would always rather do something else!
Being older, his workbook for 6-9 year olds reinforces the learning from the first book but has cursive writing examples to copy. These are fun, sometimes amusing sentences with games to complete at the bottom of the page. This book also includes the all important reward sticker per page.
To our complete surprise, this kept him occupied for an hour! Both of my children were quiet and absorbed, to the extent that my husband came to check on them as it was so silent!
It seems to be a very relaxing activity, in the same way that adults are now using colouring books, the design of the words and pictures has a calming effect. After dinner, both of them asked if they could complete some more pages.
I loved the look of the materials as soon as they arrived but I did not expect them to make such a significant difference. I think the balance of being able to write on them but also colour and complete activities means there isn’t that pressure of only writing.
We will definitely continue using them. I think they could be perfect for keeping up our writing skills over the summer holidays.
What else do you need to know?
Like many of you, we are quite particular about which products we use with our children. So this is some more background on the materials.
They are created in line with the most recent national curriculum and have been created with the help of UK teaching professionals and Early Learning Educational Experts.
The products are:
Highly recommended for Special Education Needs departments
Endorsed by the British Dyslexia Association
Made using premium responsibly sourced resources
Loved by children at home and now back at school
Helping children catch up on their literacy
These have really exceeded our expectations both in improving our children’s handwriting but also the positive mindset it develops.
The satisfaction of seeing their beautiful handwriting in the books along with their colourful drawings has given them so much pleasure. And who knew the reward stickers could still be so effective!
If you would like to find out more or to purchase one of these products head over to Love Writing Co HERE or you can find them on Amazon.
AD: This is a sponsored post, however all opinions are 100% my own.