We received the 2nd Grade Printing Teacher's Guide, the Printing Power workbook, and the Kick Start Cursive. They are priced at very affordable prices. The 2nd Grade Printing Teacher's Guide is just $9.25 and the Printing Power workbook is only $8.25. You also have the option of choosing the Printing Power Plus pack which includes the Kick Start Cursive workbook in addition to the Printing Power workbook for $10.25 - for both. I was pretty amazed at how great of a deal they are!
"The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum draws from years of innovation and research to provide developmentally appropriate, multisensory tools and strategies for your classroom. The program follows research that demonstrates children learn more effectively by actively doing, with materials that address all styles of learning."
The first 28 pages of the 2nd Grade Printing Teacher's Guide has a lot of information for the teacher. It goes into a lot of detail on their philosophy and how to use the student workbook. It has pages devoted to the Active Teaching side of the program and Teacher Support with internet links such as "A Click Away" found at hwtears.com/click. The teaching guidelines/suggested schedule is found starting at page 165. There you will find that during the first week of lessons no handwriting actually takes place, rather there are activities to do each day that are designed to review letter positions, good posture, paper placement, and pencil grip. Handwriting starts in the second week with capitals and capital review. Week three, lowercase letters are introduced as well as numbers. Many days have activities along with the workbook writing. In the middle section of the Printing Teacher's Guide, you will find the complete lesson and details for each individual day. It walks you through each day's lesson, including what you should say, and how you should demonstrate the writing for the day on the white/chalkboard, etc. There is a section labeled "connections" at the bottom of each page with additional help/tips which helps to connect the lesson to another subject, technology, or a Home Link. Home Links are additional resources for parents to use at home (in the case of homeschooling, as extra practice). There are links to video lessons as well. Handwriting Without Tears also sales a CD called Rock, Rap, Tap & Learn that has songs to help children remember rules such as "Where Do You Start Your Letters? (At the top!)".
The student workbook, Printing Power, is meant to be used over an 18-week period. It introduces all letters (capital and lowercase), numbers 1-10, and at the end; sentences, poems, and paragraphs. It is all in black & white; no bright colors/pictures to distract the child. Usually only one or two pages are meant to be completed each day. The silly character "Magic C Bunny" is used throughout to help the child remember how to write the letter c and how the letter c can be made into many other letters (a, d, etc.). Detailed and fun demonstrations are across the top of each page to introduce the new letter and the proper formation. The student is also taught and encouraged to "check" their work at the end of the page, where they can mark off the box to show they checked their work and deemed it correct. Weeks 19-29 are included in the Teacher's Guide with resources found online, as are weeks 30-36 which use the Kick Start Cursive book.
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| Josiah working on Capitals |
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We skipped a lot of the activities. Josiah has not been interested in doing them. We did watch some of the video lessons that include music and the teacher/class dancing to the songs. The first week, we spent about two days looking over the activities and discussing letter positions, good posture, paper placement, and pencil grip. Then we moved on to the workbook lessons. Josiah enjoys the silly illustrations, along with Frog Jump Capitals and Magic C Bunny. He has done very well with the writing technique presented in the workbook. He really LOVES that there is not much writing to do each day and that he is usually done within 15 minutes. I love that he doesn't complain about doing his writing lesson! I think this could be used with a beginning writer, since it really starts at the beginning for letter formation. There are full sentences to copy in most lessons, which are more of a challenge and great for the more advanced writer. Josiah falls somewhere in between. He knows how to write each letter, but he simply doesn't enjoy doing it. This has been an okay fit for him, since it is easy enough to keep him feeling confident, yet has some meat (sentences, etc.) to it to keep him from being bored. So far, the "multi sensory" side of it has not been a good fit for us at this time. I do see how it could help the child who thrives on hands-on and active learning. The activities range from song & dance, to air writing and using your voice. I have seen improvement in Josiah's handwriting over the last month, especially the fact that he usually remembers to start his letters at the top now. In fact, he just said to me the other day, "I like how my letters look when I start at the top!". The fact that he doesn't dread his daily writing, has been a huge improvement!
I found it difficult to wade through the first 20-something pages of the Teacher's Guide to grasp the whole idea behind Handwriting Without Tears. There is a lot for the teacher to absorb. I was confused on when to start the student workbook, since the lesson plans are at the very back of the book. But, once I found the lesson plans, it was very easy to get started. It is definitely geared towards the classroom setting, particularly in the public school. I found that a bit distracting for myself. Also, some of the activities use technology that wouldn't normally be found in a humble homeschool. But, I've learned to overlook these "cons" and have bent it to fit our homeschooling methods.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.
Good review. I can see that it probably wouldn't be a good fit for us. I'm looking into copywork for most of Damara's writing at this time. She writes quite well, but has a hard time with reading and spelling so she doesn't write very much by herself yet. Though she does go through spurts of more interest. It's really nice to get an opinion I respect on different curriculum.
ReplyDeleteSomething that has encouraged Josiah to write, is that I gave him a notebook and told him he can use it to write whatever and however he wants and that I will look through it once in awhile, but will not "grade" it at all. He uses it for drawing, too... but has been writing more!
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