Thursday, June 21, 2012

Handwriting Help

Handwriting seems to be a dying art, but there are some of us who still believe in it and want our children to master it.

If your child hates handwriting, try to discover the cause. Have you unknowingly criticized your child’s handwriting too much. “That is too sloppy.” “You still are not making that letter correctly.” Evaluate what you say to your child. Maybe your child has dysgraphia or ADHD and handwriting is a big challenge. Maybe your child’s fine motor skills need some work.

Here are some activities that will help with the fine motor skills needed for handwriting:

1.Give your child clay or play-dough to play with to strengthen the major muscles used in handwriting.
2.Have your child push a thumb tack into a wooden yard stick at every inch mark.
3.Encourage her to play with Legos, miniature cars, small blocks, action figures, and other small toys.
4.Do puzzles with your child.
5.Have your child practice walking on a balance beam.
6.Provide fun art projects that involve using crayons, marking pens, scissors, and finger paints, as well as tearing paper.
7.Play games with your child that involve handling cards and small game pieces.
8.Ask your child to sort collections of loose coins into stacks of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Outside Learning

The weather is perfect for learning outside in June. There is so much to explore all around our home. Children are natural scientists and are eager to explore and discover how things work. Use this natural curiosity in children to broaden your homeschool curriculum.

Indoor and outdoor learning and playing are vital academics. Kids need to be able to test theories, ask questions, apply their skills and so forth. When the weather is good, we need to head out the door and hit the hiking trails, the park, go geocaching, catch tad poles, fly kites, visit the zoo or farm and encourage our children to learn something new. Just don’t forget the sunscreen!