As a member of the Old Schoolhouse Crew, I was asked to review a handwriting program for Peterson Directed Handwriting this month. The adventure started with an online meeting with creator, Rand Nelson, and I must say, I was impressed from that first meeting how passionate he is about this program, and how committed the company is to helping it's customers and making sure you get all of the support needed to make the program work.
For example, several of us at that first meeting had students that were left handed, and Rand offered to have an extra meeting, just to give some tips and hints to help our lefties succeed. We were given copies of their e-books for printing instruction, and asked to try it out and give an honest review.
The program is based, at least in part, on scientific principles of muscle memory. By using both large and small muscle groups to learn the starting point, direction and end-point of the strokes required to make each letter, those movements get recorded in their muscle memory.
There are 4 steps to each lesson:
1. Illustrate and Describe
2. Write in the Air and Say
3. Finger Trace and Say
4. Write and Say
Each letter and number (I chose to focus on numbers for our trial) is broken down into strokes, and each type of stroke is given a name. For instance (try to visualize this), a 2 is chanted as "Roll, Slant, Slide."
Click this link for examples of some others.
They also put focus on rhythm, which helps improve fluency. This online presentation describes the program better than I have, complete with the scientific principles behind the method.
The online store is here, so you can see all of the products they offer. There are programs for Kindergarten, on up, both print and cursive. They also offer special triangular pencils and pencil grippers to help your students hold their writing utensil properly, alphabet charts and more. Their Homeschool Complete Kit for Pre-K and K sells for $44.50, but there's a basic kit for $20.80 also. In fact, there are so many different options,it's worth clicking around to see what they have to offer and what may be right for your students. The e-books that I reviewed are available to peruse here, and you can purchase a license for $19.95 each. The benefit of the e-books, of course, is the ability to use the practice sheets over and over. (The negative to that, of course, is LOTS of printing!)
Can I be brutally honest here? I didn't WANT to like this program. Just bein' real. The programs my children have used in the past gave me at least a few minutes of the school day that I didn't have to guide them... it was just the children and their workbooks. (Does that sound horrible? Much of what we do is accomplished together, so these breaks were a nice interlude in our busy days. Time for me to start lunch or oh, I don't know... blog?) So a program so involved, that required me to lead them through the formation of these muscle memories didn't sound like what I wanted to add to this school year, what with trying to get things rolling with our new children, giving them a solid, peaceful start to their homeschool career. (I've got a 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st grader this year.) But the truth is, their handwriting wasn't improving much with the old workbooks. And in just a few lessons, I'm already seeing real improvement in their number formation. Hallie had about 5 digits backwards in her pre-test... and got them ALL the right direction when I re-tested tonight. And that's amazing if you ask me.
I also expected my children to balk at the idea of tracing the letters in the air and chanting the movements. I actually though they'd miss their workbooks. Silly Mama.
Tonight I kept them up WAY too late to finish up what we'd been working on, so I could give a complete review, so there was some whining, some frustration, even a few tears when THEY didn't think they were doing it "perfect" (**I** thought they were all doing GREAT, but it was their tiredness talking. And how in the world did I end up with FOUR perfectionists?) But even through their exhaustion, they voted unanimously that this program was fun and preferred it to the workbooks.
"Even if I MAKE you do the finger tracing in the air and MAKE you say the words?"
And they all nodded vigorously.
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I have not been compensated in any other way.
I was also hesitant about this product at first. But I learned so much and I am very thankful! The biggest thing to me is how I've been teaching drawing rather than handwriting b/c that's what happens when you pass out the "trace over these models" handwriting books. You are teaching drawing, not training the muscle memory to actually write legibly!
Posted by: Nikki | 08/30/2010 at 08:20 AM
This is what we use. I chose this program for the sole reason that the handwriting is pretty. I can't say the same for many other handwriting programs I looked at. My only complaint is that it is so teacher-intensive, too. :) But I'm happy to keep at it because of the results!
Great review!
Posted by: Stacy | 08/30/2010 at 10:44 AM
Not at all silly, Mama. We reviewed the cursive program and found the same thing. The kids preferred it to their workbook approach... so we're sticking with it... even though I have already purchased their "old" curriculum for this year. Wish we had received this product to review just a few weeks earlier so I could have saved myself the trouble! Well, at least now I'm convinced we'll be using the right program for us! Nice review!
Posted by: Jennifer | 08/30/2010 at 09:19 PM
I stopped by to see your Peterson Review, just randomly clicking on links on the TOS blog... and then I caught a glimpse of your comment above on adoption, and I've spent the last hour perusing your posts on your foster children and adoption. Adoption is something that has been on my heart for many years now. My husband is warming to the idea more and more. Our boys have been saying they're ready to adopt their brothers and sisters for at least a couple of years. Anyway, for a long time, I was thinking we would do international adoption, but something has stopped me each time we started to move forward. It just didn't feel like it was the way we were supposed to be headed. I wonder if you would be willing to talk with me personally on your experiences with fostering for adoption: how you knew this was the way for you, how you started out, things you wish someone had told you up front, things you've learned. I know you are very busy, but I just can't help thinking the Lord led me to click on your link for a reason. Thank you for your time, even if it's to decide you don't really have the time.
God bless you and your family,
Jennifer jesmcq at hotmail dot com
Posted by: Jennifer | 08/30/2010 at 09:52 PM
For breakfast this morning, we had some plain (white and whole wheat) mini bagels to use up, but nothing exciting to put on them. Brian loves fruit-flaaaadsavored cream cheese, but I hate paying $3 a tub! So this morning I set out to make some homemade. Since regular cream cheese can be found for just a dollar on sale sometimes, I'm sure this recipe will be used again and again by our family, and I thought I should sharea
Posted by: Coach Outlet | 07/10/2011 at 08:44 PM