Music and movement activities to develop pre-writing skills
· activities · writing
Drumming, dancing and rhythm games build the fine motor control, coordination and timing that writing needs. How music prepares little hands for the pencil.
Blog / Writing
Writing
9 articles about writing.
Common handwriting challenges and their remedies
· writing · activities
Spacing, letter shapes, grip and posture: the three big handwriting problems, why 10 to 30 percent of children struggle, and practical remedies that work.
Choosing the right tools for your child's handwriting
· writing · parenting
The wrong pencil trains the wrong habits. How to pick pencils by softness, thickness, length and shape, and how to choose the first pen when the time comes.
The art of handwriting: its importance and benefits
· writing · learning
Writing by hand activates the brain, reinforces reading, and beats typing for young learners. Six benefits of handwriting in a typing-first world for kids.
How to summarize and paraphrase effectively
· learning · writing
Summarizing condenses to main points; paraphrasing restates in your own words. The difference, the benefits for students, and steps for doing each well.
Helpful tips on the right pressure and grip for better handwriting
· writing · activities
Pressing too hard tires the hand; too light and the page is unreadable. How grips develop by age, and playful fixes for heavy and light pencil pressure.
Why are pre-writing skills important, and how do you build them?
· writing · activities
Pre-writing skills are the strokes and strength a child masters before letters. The age-by-age sequence, readiness signs, and hands-on activities to build them.
Spelling is not a matter of memorization
· writing · learning
Rote memory holds two or three letters at best. Spelling is learned through sounds, patterns and word origins: the grade-by-grade path, and what works better.
The history of English writing: why our spelling is the way it is
· writing · learning
From Sumerian clay to Shakespeare, English writing is layers of borrowed alphabets and vocabularies. That history explains every spelling quirk kids fight.