That Doesn’t Even LOOK Like Writing

Posted by Angela | 0 comments

I have said it before and I will say it again…

One of the most awesome, most beautiful things about homeschooling is the gift of time. You are out of the rat race. If you have anything to say about it–and of course, you do– your children WON’T be left behind. They don’t need the village unless they choose to go there later on. They don’t need cookie cutter curricula forcing them into subjects before they are ready. They need to be kids.

Oh yeah, I said it. Let those babies play. Little Bobby at church may be reading and writing straight from the womb and here your Little Johnny is 6 and only wants to play with Legos and watch Star Wars. I know because I have been there.

Right now I have two children struggling to keep up and learn their basic skills. (Except math, for some reason–that is working for us right now!) I have agonized over the lack of reading and writing from the two of them. I have banged my head on the wall trying to figure out where we went wrong as parents. Xander is 7 and a half and Milan will be 6 in a few weeks. Now, in all fairness, Xander has Autism and Milan is the baby.

The things they have in common:

• They love to play outside and would not miss the television if it suddenly disappeared tomorrow.
• They love being messy, but not too messy.
• They both have pretty serious fine motor difficulties.
• Xander is dyslexic and we are starting to think Milan is as well.
• They follow two very gifted overachievers in the academic department–their big brothers–and couldn’t care less.

First things first. We’ve identified their strengths and their weaknesses in just those few sentences above. One of the things I love about homeschooling is the individual attention we can pay to specific special needs. My son recognizes his letters, but still does not recognize words (with the exception of “Star Wars”). On the other hand, it’s like Groundhog Day with my daughter–every day we must start fresh on the lesson we beat to death the day before. She goes to sleep at night and wakes up every morning alphabet-free. I look at the pair of them and realize I was probably that annoying mother of ‘Little Bobby’ with my older two. I will not be that mother to all of you.

I would like to share a few great ways to strengthen those hands and gradually bring those babies to writing.

FABULOUS FINE MOTOR ACTIVITIES:

• Stringing beads.
• Shaping letters from play-dough, a primitive sort of copy work.
• Lacing cards.
• Painting with thread spools (the small ones) You dip the end in the paint and make circles to your heart’s content!
• Using an eye dropper.
• Using a pair of tweezers.
• Serving food with tongs.
• Legos.
• Cutting with scissors.
• Tearing paper.
• Cutting play-dough.
• Using cookie cutters for tracing or in the play-dough.
• Print out a coloring page and let your child make a macaroni collage out of it. Or paper. Or string.
• Let them button.
• Opening and closing containers.
• Mosaics–let them glue those little wooden squares to a small piece of cardstock to create their own masterpiece.
• Jingle bells, buttons, beads—let them put them on a pipe cleaner.

REINFORCING WITH FUN:

Letter recognition. Play games such as Battleship, Zingo, Hi Ho Cherry Oh!, Shoots and Ladders, Bingo, Memory. You know, all those great classic board games that are probably collecting dust in your closet? Bring them out! Especially Bingo. It is letter recognition at its finest.

Cutting skills. I don’t know about you but one of our greatest frustrations has been the use of scissors in our home. Our budding writers have cried, have thrown them and we have spent countless amounts of wasted time trying to master the skill of cutting. You may be wondering what the solution was. No it wasn’t those fancy ‘bounce back’ scissors that they have in the pre-school classrooms. It wasn’t ‘grown up’ scissors.

We went back to the basics. I printed out single straight-lined worksheets for them to cut. We cut one page a day, per week until they mastered it. One page did not overwhelm any of us. I would add in ‘cutting’ playdough with those silly bounce back scissors. They did not mind this because playdough has no rules.

You can find some good cutting printables here:  Positively Autism: Scissor Activities

Tracing. So back to writing. Again…hours of lost time trying to force the issue. Kicking and screaming, hair pulling…exhaustion. (The kids too.) I finally decided that if I could get both children to write their name (in any dialect of their choosing) once a day then we were making progress. I would be able to add tracing and mazes masked in other ‘school work’ in other places. It worked!

Here’s some printable tracing activities for you:  TLSBooks: Tracing Activities

Improving dexterity. Playdough with beads, sequins, glitter, jewels, dry beans, macaroni, scissors, cookie cutters…anything that is in your utensil drawer. Straws, pieces of pipe cleaner (they make good antennas), and don’t forget the googlie eyes.

I admit, I was not a fan at first until I found out how many wonderful things you could do with it within the school day. I mean, what kid doesn’t love playdough?? And as an added bonus for those of us who have children who still put everything in their mouth–it’s non-toxic. You may be wondering why that would be a concern for me since my kiddos are 7 and 6, but as a mother of a 7 year old boy who swallowed a bouncy ball last month I will tell you–it’s a BIG bonus. (By the way, my copycat 6 year old daughter had to follow suit and swallowed a ring a few days ago.)

Notable playdough activities and recipes: PreKinders: Playdough Ideas and PreKinders: Playdough Recipes

Pictorial resources. I am very much a person who learns by having things ‘spelled out’ for me. I need steps. I need to be able to copy and paste these items into my personal schedule. If you look closely at the second website link, you will see that the pig graphic gives detailed pictorial instruction. Those young children who cannot read the word ‘glue’ will surely recognize the picture and this builds confidence.

Hummingbird Educational Resources: Recipes, Great Fine Motor Activities

Education.com: When Pigs Fly

And finally.. for you visual learners, a special treat. The following link will take you to step by step videos that teach you how to strengthen your child’s fine motor skills. Ah, the beauty of the internet!

Expert Village: Wonderful Videos on How to Teach Your Child Fine Motor Skills

Angela DeRossett is military wife, homeschooling mother, and an advocate for autism research. She also serves as the Heart of the Matter Review Coordinator. Angela can be found blogging at Homeschooling the Chaotic Family and Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy.