The Books We Use to Teach Handwriting To Kids - Schoolhouse Saturday by A Panama Mama

Choosing any curriculum for your children is always a difficult task. You want them to like the lessons and not feel like they are being drug through worksheet after worksheet. The lessons should be short but full of content and easy to understand. That is why we chose Handwriting Without Tears as our writing curriculum for the kids. Last week, I shared our favorite book to teach reading, if you missed it.

There are six different books for handwriting in this program. You can start out with the basic, Kindergarten version, which teaches children the different letters. Then you can work your way up to cursive in the older level books. I have kids in three different levels at the moment - one is just starting out, one is in the middle and one is just starting cursive.

There are a variety of additional parts that you can add to help your student learn. Chalk and a chalkboard is easy to acquire and helps them see how to write each letter. Using Playdough is also a good way to practice rolling out the letters. Another thing HWT has is wooden pieces to construct the letters. This has been really fun for my younger kids to play with to practice. You could even make your own pieces out of cardboard if you did not buy the wooden ones. All extras, workbooks, teacher's guides and everything else can be purchased from their website.

A sample lesson for my daughter who is just starting out would be to look at the top of the paper and make the G out of wood. Then she would write the letter on her own paper. She would then practice writing it multiple times, doing the best that she can. It is okay to not have it look perfect as long as you are doing your best.

The cursive book is very similar. My son learns how to make one particular letter and the practices writing the letter. He then puts the letters together into words with other letters he has learned to write.


Since we are a family of five kids, these books will be used by each child. We either have them write on their own paper or cover with a plastic sheet protector and use a wet erase marker. This cuts down on copies and buying five workbooks!

There are a lot of ideas on Pinterest and their website of how to use HWT. They also have other programs, such as Typing Without Tears and Get Set for School. I have not tried either of these programs, but I love Handwriting Without Tears, so they are probably great too.

One good thing about HWT is that it really does make learning handwriting tearless! I recommend this if your child is interested in learning at an early age, if you homeschool, or if your child is behind. It is a great program for kids!

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