handwriting

[pheasantchick]

Has anyone got any tips on improving a year 5's child handwriting, and presentation of work in general?

At a recent parents eveining, the teacher said that if their work was subject to a HT appeal, this could let him down, either though he's quite capable of the work in general.

Thanks.

[doodles]

DS1 is l/handed and had dreadful writing until yr3 and then at school they progressed to fountain pen - amazing improvement. Is he allowed to use a fountain pen. I think it slows them down and makes them think about letter formation.

Now in yr 6 writing was going down hill again (think it was having to write at speed) and have found a "shaped" pen by Sta**lo - they do pencil and roller ball for either left or right hand comes with refills and ink eraser and again seems to put hand in the right position for better handwriting. Looks quite funky too pink or blue versions available. Teachers don't seem to have noticed that it is a rollerball and not a fountain pen so we are keeping quiet!!!

Can pm you with pen name if you would like but you can get it in that large high street stationery shop with 2 initials and the most common surname in the English language.

Also does he underline titles, dates etc. Also leaving a blank line between paragraphs seems to tidy things up to the eye.

Do feel for you - have been having the same "battle" for the last 7 years!!!! There are some kids who are naturally neat and mine aren't! They even walk into school looking a mess when they looked tidy leaving the house and all they've done is sit in the car!!!!!

[Ed's mum]

Could that be W H Smith Doodles?
Mods seem to be okay with large high street stores being mentioned!

[doodles]

How did you guess - just being extra careful!

[hermanmunster]

my writing has always been abysmal.. probably why I ended up at medical school . Most of my colleagues handwriting seems to have deteriorated over the years!!

I agree with Doodles about fountain pens - my writing is always heaps better with a fountain pen.

[Midget Man]

I had been trying daily for all of Midget's school life Telling him what felt like daily to "keep the letter's all the same size", or "leave a proper space" etc etc. Now in YR6 and only now is it improving, I think the fact that myself and teachers told him he could end up losing so many marks in his tests and become a lower grade that he seem's to have 'wised up'

[twinkles]

Has anyone got any tips on improving a year 5's child handwriting, and presentation of work in general?

At a recent parents eveining, the teacher said that if their work was subject to a HT appeal, this could let him down, either though he's quite capable of the work in general.

Thanks.

Well at least your school realises it is a problem. I have had the same problem with my son for years - he is always in a hurry to get finished to get on to the next thing and his writing is untidy and presentation is not great. I have lost count of the number of times I have been into the school and complained that he was being allowed to get away with this only to be told that as teachers they are trained to look beyond the messiness at the quality of the work. My son missed passing the 11+ by a few points and it went to HT appeal and they were told that the presentation and neatness of his work wasn't good enough for grammar school!!!!!!!!!!!

I am forever trying to get him to space things out so things look neater and to not squash things up.

He brought a book home the other week and he had done a couple of pieces of work in that that looked really neat and when I said to him how much better it looked he said that he had done that with a fountain pen, but he had since lost the fountain pen (lets not get started about boys losing things all the time!).

My son also has the roller ball pens that doodles mentioned and I don't think they have helped with his writing at all, definitely a fountain pen I would say.

[Amber]

,

but he had since lost the fountain pen (lets not get started about boys losing things all the time!).

we have discovered the perfect pen for handwriting, especially for messy left handers like 2 of mine. In the spirit of Doodles, it sounds like a young sheep but has a 'y' at the end. DD has just lost her 3rd one of these, complete with the entire contents of the lovely new pencil case (from the outlet which is 2 words, second one rhymes with 'case'. first one, 2 syllables, we write on it. Sorry, getting carried away with this game.)

Main point - try a Lammy pen.
Second point - it's not just boys who lose things.

[Ed's mum]

Oh Amber!!
You made me spit my drink out through laughing!!

[doodles]

Lammy - brilliant - seem to especially designed for children, so properly weighted for them light but also quite sturdy. Both mine have them and wouldn't buy anything else for them at the moment. Particularly good for lefties as it is quite hard to buy a child's left handed ink pen that isn't too heavy.

Am sure that other pens are available!

As you can tell this is one of my "things!"