Tuesday 4 April 2017

C is for Careful Calligraphy


Clever Cat, Curly Caterpillar, Cuckoo Clock
children's careful calligraphy
Tongues poking out slightly as hands grip pencils tightly

I have taught letters and sounds through various schemes to children over the years - Letterland, Ruth Miskin, Jolly Phonics and know how hard it is to get them to form those letters correctly once they know their sounds.  I can't really remember learning how to form my early letters but I do know I used to sit at the dinner table with my plastic placemat on which there were the letters of the alphabet in both upper and lowercase along with the object depicting that letter. I can recall the red apple for a and the blue yacht for y and I can remember tracing around each letter as I waited for food - my own careful calligraphy.


Can you remember your first letters and how you came to write them?  Do you rate your handwriting now or not?  You know I'd love to know so leave a comment below :)

10 comments:

  1. I think I will rate my handwriting a 9/10
    Its clear, Its pretty, its cursive.

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    1. That sounds like a definite 9 or even 10 out of 10 :) Thanks for stopping by.

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  2. I remember practicing my handwriting in the first grade...with that special paper that had two parallel lines on top and bottom with a dashed line in between. I think my handwriting turned out pretty decent. My son's handwriting is horrific! I feel bad for his teachers!
    Blog hopping from A to Z!
    ~Katie
    TheCyborgMom

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    1. Oh yes - I've seen plenty of that paper in my time!! Trying to improve handwriting is difficult if the child doesn't really care but young children seem to quite like practising :)

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  3. Handwriting is a touchy subject for me. I guess I wasn’t very good at it. I remember going home in tears one day because my teacher said my handwriting looked like “chicken scratch”. Here in the US I believe they are considering stopping teaching cursive writing. I suppose that is because keyboarding has replaced a pencil.

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    1. Yes some teachers can forget just how difficult handwriting can be - I too never had (and still don't) beautiful handwriting but it is readable and I can write quickly. You can imagine how I found writing on a classroom board for others to copy!!

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  4. I love handwriting! It will be a sad day not to see cursive writing any more

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    1. Many children find it much easier to learn to spell words with cursive handwriting because they learn the "feel" of the word as they write it - typing skills have their place but surely we will continue to need to be able to write things down too??

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  5. I used to have beautiful handwriting. Now my hands crap after awhile.

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    1. Hi Debby - children when learning to write often experience cramp because they are holding their pencil tightly to form each letter carefully - we used to do finger exercise breaks to try to stop this happening :)

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