We’re about to wrap up our first full week of home school. It has been quite an experience. I think I’ve learned more about the way my oldest son thinks in the past week then I have in the past 5 years. We’ve had a few struggles, and we’ve had plenty of fun.
We’re using www.k12.com and totally loving it as it is entirely computer-based. Don’t get me wrong, in kindergarten, most of my son’s work is offline, meaning, I get to print the worksheets because I was too cheap to buy the student pages. But, there are plenty of things for him to do with me at the computer, which is AWESOME! DS5 loves the computer! I’ve even been able to allow him to do some of the simple review worksheets online, using my Wacom tablet pen, and Paint Shop Pro. He loves it! Any excuse to use the computer is fine with him.
My issue comes with Handwriting. I was given the Handwriting Without Tears program as part of the curriculm with k12.com. I’m sure it’s a great program, but….
Let me preface by saying, I was told at the end of last school year by my son’s preschool teacher that my son made his letter incorrectly. Oh, he writes the letters just fine, but he starts them at the bottom, and they are supposed to start at the top. There are a few that sometimes come out backwards, but seriously people, he’s 5! He just needs practice is all.
So anyway, there I was, staring at this book that tells me he must start his letters at the top. My first thought, “Why?” Maybe it’s just the rebel in me, but why is it so dang important to start at the top? The only thing the HWT book says is because it makes the letters neater, and children who start at the bottom are “slow or sloppy.” Somehow, this just doesn’t cut it as a reason for me. “Slow & Sloppy” can be fixed witht he 3 P’s, Practice, Practice, Practice. So I asked my Yahoo Groups friends, and I Googled it. The only other reason I could find, was “It makes it easier to transition to cursive.”
But I don’t like cursive writing, I don’t use it at all. Plus, further Google searches on cursive writing reveals that many schools are abandoning traditional cursive writing in favor of test prep or, what else, typing. So I still don’t have a satisfactory answer for forcing my son into a different way of writing. Why should I battle him on this, if I don’t have a reason to give him?
We’ve discussed it, and decided, I’ll make my own practice sheets for him, and we will work on getting him to write neater, then faster, in his own way. When the time comes, he can work on typing instead of cursive. Because in today’s world, it is way more important to type fast than it is to write fancy.