Handwriting Without Tears is a curricular program that addresses fine motor skills in developmentally appropriate ways. It is being used in the Lower School. Here in The Nest, we have adopted aspects of the program as well.
Over the course of the year, children will be introduced to sensory experiences that help them begin to confidently identify and draw the key components necessary to write capital letters: big lines, little lines, big curves, and little curves.
You may have noticed your child’s clipboard filling with pages of lines. At first the lines are wobbly and they start at the bottom of the paper. Now we are seeing growth in confidence and fluency as the children practice these marks and make strong, straight lines remembering to start at the top. This becomes important for forming letters properly.
The emphasis in our program is on multi-sensory and play experiences, so the children are also making and exploring lines in clay.
After all this line work, soon children will practice writing the first letters of their name, learning a proper handwriting form that will support fluent writing in the future.
