Writing 8

When Jon and I went to the Homeschool Convention in July, I attended a workshop entitled "Smart Kids Who Hate to Write."  It was quite an informative class.  I learned the following:

• Left brain = Thinking
• Right brain = Doing
• When an activity transfers from the left brain (thinking) to the right brain (doing), you no longer have to expend energy thinking about what you are doing.  (Example: driving.  When you first learn you are constantly thinking about how far to press down on the pedals, checking your mirrors, paying attention to your speed, staying between the lines, etc.  After you pass your course and get your license, you can drive and think about other things, not how you are driving.)
• For children who hate to write, the activity of writing hasn't fully moved over to the right brain.  So they expend more energy on writing because they have to think about how to form each letter much more than those who have had the act of writing move over to the right brain.  Thinking about what they are going to write, and then the actual forming of the letters takes more thinking ... and more energy.
• Those who have both hands on the paper usually are using both parts of the brain easily.

The speaker presented an activity to help move the simple writing skills from the left brain to the right brain.  She also presented symptoms to watch for when trying to decide if your child would benefit from this exercise.

Andrew has always had a hard time with writing.  I couldn't get him to sit down and write his name until he was almost 5, but all of my other children have done just fine earlier.  He also would say that things were too hard, or that he didn't know what to write, and he'd just sit there staring at the sheet of paper.  I decided that doing the exercise with him wouldn't hurt at all.

So, basically, what he does is draw on this "figure 8" everyday, four days a week, for six months (at least).  He starts by placing his crayon on the dot in the center, then he goes counter clockwise around the left circle, through the dot and then clockwise around the right center, stopping when he gets to the dot again.  He does this three times, then he writes a letter of the alphabet (starting with "a" and continuing to "z").  After each letter, he writes the "figure 8" again three times.  He's not supposed to go around it so fast that the track is wider than 1-1 1/2 inches.

The first day was torture.  It took him a really long time.  He struggled a lot with keeping his left hand on the page in the middle.  (I forgot, he is supposed to line up the center of his body with the center line on the paper too.)  Then, by the time he got to the letter "h" he was really tired and needed a break.

But, now?  When I tell him he needs to do his handwriting, he sits down and gets it done ... no problems.  He still has no interest in writing, but it's only been two weeks.  I am hopeful.  And, if he still struggles, that's okay.  That's why we're homeschooling ... to give him the time and attention he needs to improve and be his best self.