Practice Handwriting with Sidewalk Chalk

Sometimes my son (and I) feels like it is a chore to sit down and practice his handwriting. He is still learning to write his letters properly and needs a little guidance.  I love the handwriting sheets with lines and dashes printed on them. And I’ve also used a font to create our own worksheets for him to trace in the past. 

Then I found out about a software program called Startwrite.  Their program lets you do a lot more than just using a penmanship font.  You can create any words you want to go along with your theme or just print the letters your child needs help with. The program lets you print a red dot on the starting point of the letter and lets you customize colors and sizes. It offers a variety of borders and has additional clipart to let you insert onto your page or you can add your own artwork too. It also has print and cursive options.

I created several worksheets this past month that my son has had fun working on.  I say fun because it isn’t just a common workbook I picked up at the store, I customized the pages to his interests and things we are working on.
TIP:  I love to put practice sheets into clear page protectors so we can use dry erase markers and crayons over and over again.

Startwrite has so many different ideas to incorporate handwriting in the classroom and at home that they created a blog series called 52 Weeks of Handwriting. This week they are focusing on handwriting outside and in your yard.

Here are some of the things we’ve done to practice writing outside.

I made a sheet for my son to practice words that I knew he liked to draw.  He practiced the words on the sheet first then wrote them on our driveway with sidewalk chalk.  Then he got to draw a picture next to the words.  I love to see his pictures labeled, especially his rocket ship at the beginning of this post.

Then we needed some signs for our garden.  I created a custom sheet using Startwrite that had plant names on it. I left room for him to draw pictures on the side. 

Then I painted some metal signs green, then I had him write the name of the vegetables on each sign with a pencil (to make sure the letters were spaced well) then he helped me paint yellow over the letters.  Look at our cute garden signs now.

Startwrite has a free trial you can use your first time. The full version can be purchased so you can continue making more customized handwriting sheets. This really would come in handy for teachers and moms who like to help their child with handwriting at home.  Making customized worksheets really helps your child enjoy writing.

*Disclosure: I was given a free trial version of the Startwrite handwriting program which I downloaded from their website.  I was not given monetary compensation for my opinion or review of this product.