White Board Practice

This was an idea I got from my limited exposure to the curriculum, Handwriting Without Tears. A couple of my friends with older children use it and I have seen bits and pieces of it in action. Thomas never likes to write letters even though he can identify the whole alphabet and knows how to spell several words, including his name. It's just the physical act of holding pencil to paper that he has been avoiding. The main reason, from what I can tell, is that he wants the letters to be perfect. As soon as his line starts to stray from his intended path, he gets discouraged and gives up.

For this activity, I wrote his name on the white board along with some other shapes and let him practice ERASING them. We happen to have some dry erase markers with a small eraser on the tip of the cap so he has to hold it just as if he was writing. He loved it!

I can already tell with just an hour or two of erasing letters, his confidence is building. He did try writing a few letters on his own and, even though they were not perfect, he didn't stress out about it because he was able to erase it and start over.

We will definitely be including more dry erase board practice in our school time!