What do you think, opinion please

[sditz1]

I have a 4 year old (5 in November), who was writing her letters before I formally taught her. I am now using handwriting without tears to teach her the right way to form her letters. Like for an example, she starts from the bottom when writing her letters. Has anyone else ever dealt with this? I have corrected her in the past, but just started HWT this week. She forms her letters the right way when working in the workbook, but then goes right back to starting from the bottom when writing anything else. I will give her gentle reminders and continue using the program. Do you think this will work?

And my other question is when it comes to spelling? My dd has always asked since she started writing, how do you spell this? And I have always told her. Am I wrong to be doing this? Should I tell her try to sound it out and let her spell it out how she thinks it should be? And then do I correct
her spelling if it's wrong? What should I do?
Thanks
Susan

[Brooke]

I have not used HWT, so I'm not sure what goes along with the program. But I can tell you that my daughter began writing by copying letters the way she wanted to write them--often from the bottom up. She is an artist, and letters to her were artwork to immitate. She has lovely handwriting now, and somewhere along the way she discovered it was more efficient to start most letters from the top. I didn't fuss about it, and I'm glad I didn't. She stills loves to write and she is now 11.

About spelling, I think if she asks you how to spell a word, spell it to her. You can always talk about the phonics--or the way phonics doesn't work--for that particular word. Sounding it out in the English language seems to backfire for a beginning speller, IMHO.

[2littleboys]

I wouldn't worry about either. My 4 year old is the same way. He writes great in the HWT book, but terrible, and from the bottom, on any other page. He'll either grow out of it, or he'll do great in cursive writing (I introduced cursive before going to HWT, so that might be the reason).

I also spell things when asked. I talk about why it's spelled that way, and if there are any similar words, I spell them, too. So far, I have an excellent speller on my hands. This is the first year we'll actually "do" spelling as a subject, but he's already spelling great. I almost decided to skip it, but there are still things he needs to learn.

[cmreed4822]

My 6yo ds is the same way. When writing in his Learning Log he keeps for our spelling program, he writes his letters correctly and neatly. Other times, though, he is much more sloppy and writes some of his letters incorrectly. I don't really worry about it. I know at some point he will get it. I'm sure we all wrote like that when we were the same age, but now write correctly.

[Minthia]

My kids have all written their letters from the bottom up and other weird ways even though they have been taught the correct way. I have seen that as they get older the slowly start to write their letters tha correct way.

As for spelling it depends on which child asks me. If I know they are being lazy and just want me to spell something for them I ask them how they would spell it and then I will correct them if necessary. For some of my kids I just spell things for them when they ask because I know that they need me to spell the word.

[aggie01]

I have the same question for writing, both of my kids do the same thing. My ds has horrible handwriting, my dd is great.
For spelling, I always try to have ds sound it out if he can, and help where he messes up. If it can't be sound out properly then I just spell it. I just started a spelling program, and was placing him in it. He spelled all but 15 of the first grade words correctly and he is only 6.

[crazymama]

I'm with Brooke.

Little Miss Rylee is a draw-er.. she draws constantly. She also loves to write... and almost always asks when we are going to the store if she can write the shopping list for me. Her letters are always full of little swirls and things. Honestly, I'm pretty impressed because I NEVER sat down with her and said this is how you write an "S" or this is how you write an "M". She usually asks me how to spell stuff, and I tell her... at least when she is asking me what she should be writing (I never assign her anything to wright right now, just when she asks to help me write like the shopping list). If she is drawing on her own, she will often include words.. and she spells them on her own, and yep most of the time, they are wrong... sometimes you have no clue what they could possibly be. I have her read it to me and then I ask her if she wants to know how to spell it so others can read it... but it's her thing and right now as long as she can read it, I'm ok with that.

Reagan on the other hand, he is just starting to like drawing, and I know Ry liked drawing quite a while before she started writing letters so I think it will be a while till he starts "writing"... but I'm sure someday he will.

[Blessed_Life]

A former preschool teacher taught me a little song to remind kids to start letters at the top, "If you're gonna write a letter, oh you better, better, better...yes, you better start your letter from the top!" I sing this to my ds when we do HWT. However, I am thinking after observing him that maybe it is natural for kids to start from the bottom when writing a letter? I even found myself doing it with certain letters when I print. So, this led me to ask a hs veteran who works at our local bookstore why we taught kids to start letters and numbers from the top. She gave me a blank stare and said, "I don't know. That's just how we do it." Anyone know if there is a reason? Maybe I'm a rebel but the "that's just how we do it" answer doesn't work for me!

[Embassy]

My 6.5 still does bottom to top writing, but it is lessening. He was writing his letters a long time before we started any writing instruction. We have been working on writing for 1.5 years now and he still does bottom to top writing. If he stops and thinks about it he will do it the correct way. We will get there. Just keep reminding her.

As for spelling, inventive spelling is controversial. I encouraged my boys to sound out a word and try to spell it on their own when they were in Kindergarten. I started correcting spelling in 1st grade.

[Brooke]

I should have added that, depending on the situation, I will ask them how they think a word is spelled. Dd that I mentioned above got 4th place in her school spelling bee last year (public school while building our home)--she was in 5th grade and was competing against 8th graders. I know when she asks it's because she has already put a lot of thought into it and just wants to know the correct spelling. Ds14 on the other hand....just lazy with it!