Handwriting Helps for Beginners

Or others with poor small motor skills:

Use a magnadoodle for practice shaping the letters, this requires less pressure, and they can erase it all when frustrated.

Make penmanship a separate topic from other schoolwork. Let him give oran answers for his work in his other subjects, limit penmanship to a few minutes a day- fifteen at *most*. Five minutes of focused work is probably better and less frustrating to both of you. Watch, so you can help him make immediate corrections to the way he holds his pencil or shapes his letters so bad habits do not form.

Work on exercising those small motor skills and hand muscles other ways:

• tinkering with a screwdriver, 
• learning to knit or crochet a chain, 
• stringing beads, 
• modeling with clay, 
• playing jacks, 
• playing with a light brite,
• putting nuts on and off of bolts, 
• kneading bread dough and shaping it into letters 

Make sure your child sees you writing.  Write short notes back and forth, ask him to help you with the shopping list (he can copy down the letters from the empty peanut butter jar, for example)