Work book to help teach writing

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

My son starts school in September. He is really keen to learn to write - he can do his name and some other letters.

Are there any work books I could buy that would help him with letter formation etc? Ideally ones that would be consistent with how they will be teaching him this coming year.

Thanks!

[catkind]

There are loads of work books out there for basic letter formation if you're not too bothered about the exact style. Most bookshops have them, TheWorks and places often have cheap ones. We got a wipe-clean one from morrisons one year, or www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1849156778?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 this one was popular.

Do you know what style the school teach? Some use cursive from the start, which you're unlikely to find workbooks for.

[DoubtfireDear]

I got some for my son, starting school next week, in Wilkinsons. They have lots to choose from and they're quite well labeled for age group as well.

[mrz]

Workbooks are great for developing tracing and fine motor skills not very good for actually developing handwriting

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

It's more to help with letter formation - he knows what shape an e is, but needs guidance on how to write that shape consistently.

Thanks for the suggestions! Will check them out.

[SeagullsAndSand]

You need to check with the school what style of handwriting they use and how they like the letters formed as they'll only have to correct it.

A lot of the cheaper books ime don't do the style used by schools ie with the flicks.Lower case k can differ as can how lower case s joins.

Collins was quite good for us.

For letter formation I found workbooks quite useful but as I said you do need to check that what you are following is the style used by school.

[catkind]

Why do you say that mrz? Some letters to trace, space to practice your own, some pictures and words using that letter. That's how DS school taught the beginning of handwriting, were they doing it wrong?

[jaynebxl]

Is it letter formation he is interested in or the act of writing? I did very little on the former before mine started school but did lots of actual writing where they would kind of pretend write shopping lists, cafe orders etc when we were playing. Gets them in the flow of actually being writers.

[MimsyBorogroves]

Home bargains usually have some of the Letts ones in for 49-99p.

[mrz]

As as teacher I don't find workbooks helpful for developing correct letter formation OP in fact I find they can encourage incorrect formation which was my point.

[mrz]

Sorry catkind didn't see your question. Children using workbooks can often make the shape of the letters but in order to be effective writers they need to learn the correct sequence of movements, starting and finishing points as well as directionality. It can appear that they are writing the letters but often the teacher has to "unteach" bad habits. Workbooks only work if they are very closely supervised and children aren't left to their own devices.

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

But that's what I thought the workbooks would encourage? So they would have a letter a, drawn in dots, with a big dot to show where to start and an arrow showing which way to move their pencil. Or would that not helpful?

He does lots of writing as part of games - he loves writing me notes. But he will form the letters differently each time. So if he was doing a f, sometimes he will start with the top, sometimes from the bottom.

[mrz]

Only if very carefully supervised - it's impossible to know if a child has traced/written the letters starting on the big dot following the arrow unless you are watching very carefully ... handwriting lines are more effective IMHE.

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

Ok, thanks :)

[Mitzi50]

I agree completely with mrz - as a reception teacher children often start reception writing letters which look correct, but are actually formed incorrectly - this can have become very ingrained if they have done unsupervised hand writing practice at home.

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

So would supervised workbook stuff be ok?

I just want to encourage him while he is so interested!

[SeagullsAndSand]

I will yes absolutely.

I too was a teacher and found workbooks to be a good extra tool if supervised.

We did letter formation in sand,paint,workbooks and lined paper.Lined paper on it's own is boring.Decent quality workbooks can be a good thing to keep them interested.Two of mine liked seeing the progression,illustrations,rewards etc inside them.

[mrz]

If you are going to supervise effectively the workbook is definitely not necessary

[SeagullsAndSand]

Who said anything about necessary.

Jeez it's a workbook,if they keep a child interested they're hardly the book of Satan.If anything they can give non teachers ideas as to letter groups and progression to follow alongside suggested text and formation itself if they're unsure.

Op they can be useful,just watch formation carefully,book quality and check re the style followed by your child's school.

[catkind]

We had that the other way round mrz, DS picked up his bad habits at school and we had to untangle them at home where we could supervise 1:1. (I am starting to have some doubts about the teaching in DS reception class.) As they do cursive, workbooks weren't really helpful, but found a font that matched and printed some stuff out. My tolerance for drawing my own dotted-line cursive is very limited! Googling handwriting lines now, I've not heard of it.

[catkind]

Oh, just spaced lines? Yes, our cursive font came with those, we used them too.

[StripyBanana]

I really really really wouldn't use a workbook.

draw letters in sand, squirt water bottles on the patio, draw with sticks in dirt, make large a4 individual letters to decorate and colour.

Fine to encourage them to "write" if they are as part of a game but just let them do their squiggles for now.

If you have time to supervise properly you've got time to do the more educationally useful ideas like above.

school will do a letter a day and teach good formation alongside readig. It really won't take long. It's counterproductive to force workbooks early, instead work on fine motor skills - threading pasta, beads, making collages.


There are 100s of playbased ideas online you can find wgich wil ultimately be far more useful for your child.

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

DS has some sensory issues. Sand and dirt would not work well for him!

Thanks for all your advice.

[mrz]

How would he react to writing the letter with a finger tip on a rough surface (table top) and then on a smooth surface (window/fridge door)?

[IWillOnlyEatBeans]

Yes, that would work. Rough is ok, any potential for stickyness is BAD!

[Mitzi50]

I think it's great that you want to help him, but don't feel that this is something you have to do. The most important skill he needs for writing at this stage is good fine motor skills.

Go with the work book if you feel this is something he would enjoy - I know some children do enjoy them. Try to make sure it uses the same letter style as his new school (look at k and f in particular) and as mentioned above, it must be supervised.

Try and do some of the fun activities mentioned above for fine motor. My children loved things like bath crayons, writing letters with chalk on the patio, painting letters with a large paintbrush and water on the garden fence.