When it comes to penmanship, an ounce of instruction is worth a pound of correction.

I define good penmanship as legible handwriting that conforms to a standard sample with attention given to placement within guidelines, reasonable slant, good spacing between letters and words, and correct use of capital and lower case letters. (Add fluid connectedness to the list of standards when considering cursive writing.)

I'm a stickler when it comes to requiring neat handwriting. The key to getting kids to produce beautiful strokes, however, is to start early.

Your best bet is to offer planned, intensive instruction in manuscript penmanship during the first year of formal schooling (then again when teaching cursive, usually second or third grade). For my kids, I emphasized handwriting (manuscript printing) during 4-year old pre-school. Now, don't let the word "intensive" scare you. What I really mean is that I provided targeted, one-on-one guidance as the children learned to form letters. Sitting beside them with a smile five minutes a day is all it took. In the following elementary years, I simply provide penmanship correction and instruction as needed, and I've found it unnecessary to use an on-going penmanship curriculum.

Two big keys are to require kids to start most all letters with a stroke at the top of the guideline, and to form circle strokes going in the same direction each time.

Also, it is better to require children to write two or three letters/words correctly than to fill a page with a mess. This is the area where parents with good intentions get failing results. "Perfect practice makes perfect," and sloppy practice creates sloppy habits that are hard to break later.

If a child's effort is good, I offer verbal praise. If the result is nearly perfect, I draw a star above the letter, or a smiley face in the center of it. If the effort and result are poor, then we erase and try again, but I don't make a big deal of it. My kids have loved learning to write, and it has been a no tears endeavor for us.

There are lots of little tricks you can use to help kids learn to write correctly. I'll share a few of my favorites in an upcoming post. In the meantime, if you have penmanship questions, please send them my way through the comment section below.

Happy Home Schooling,
Mrs. Sherry