Themes

For my personal blog, I have created themed days.  It helps give me focus when I write.  So here we go.  I am going to theme my days:

Math Monday
Teamwork Tuesdays
Writing Wednesdays
Thoughtful Thursday
Freedom Fridays
Science Saturday
Study Sundays

Today is Wednesday, Oct 5.  My first Writing Wednesday.  Recently, a friend of mine asked for some advice on how help her son with handwriting.  I have to admit I came up absolutely  clueless.  I have never really taught handwriting.  Every once in a while I would get a kid who held their pen a funny but their writing was legible and they didn't complain of pain.  It bothered me that I could offer no help to my friend.  Also, now that I have primary students, I feel that maybe I should gain some skill in this area. 

I was in the camp of handwriting being obsolete.  I grew up in the midst of the technology boom.  I hardly ever handwrite anything despite the fact that I love to write.  I mostly type or create stuff digitally.  However, I have read some articles about handwriting.  This one out of the Wall Street Journal discusses how the act of writing stimulates the brain and is tied to fine motor skills.    This article also discusses how some standardized tests are still handwritten, like Florida Writes and the essay portion of the SAT, and your handwriting can effect your score.  The "scorer" may judge the clarity of your ideas by the neatness of your handwriting...however subconscious it is.

It seems to me, also, that more and more parents are asking about handwriting curriculum and practice for their students.  This is a teacher speculating but I have to wonder if that's because handwriting is perceived as easier to deal with than math or science homework? 

In this article, the author discusses how technology has been blamed for the demise of handwriting.  However, she sites a professor who states the truth is that no is forcing our youth to improve their handwriting.  So, perhaps as more of Generation X, Y, and the Milleniums become teachers, administrators, and policyamkers (and the focus on standardized tests that are more often multiple choice) there is less of a push for handwriting curriculum.

I don't have the answers and a quick scoure of Google about how to fix bad handwriting came up with a lot of handwriting products, but also a lot of forum posts from teachers, parents, and adults wanting to improve their or their kids handwriting.  Most of the sites I visited talked about fine-motor skill development for kids as early as possible, correct pen grips, etc. 

If any of my teacher friends have resouces they want to comment with to help my friend out I would greatly appreciate it!