Exercise in writing

I don't know if I posted before that D has been going crazy writing for a while now (read: sensitive period!). It started off with just doodling when she was younger, then trying to form numbers and alphabets to writing and labeling using single words and now writing stories, recipes and lists!

We never had an issue with the proper formation of letters and numbers, thanks to the Montessori sandpaper letters and numbers! We don't own the fancy wooden ones (read: expensive!). I made ours using card stock and very fine sandpaper. Since this was one of the first materials I made I did not make them in the traditional montessori colors, I just used what I had on hand. I don't think D had a problem, it served its purpose and has held up good for our home use.

We've also been doing "dictation" as part of our All About Spelling program twice or thrice a week. We do 5-7 words in one sitting and are done with level 1. Here is a sample from our most recent dictation page.

As you can see we need to improve on staying within the lines and spacing between the words.

We've tried different tracing worksheets, but D still didn't seem to get it. Here is an exercise from Gettman that I put together quickly for D to understand where to begin and end each letter within the lines.

(Sorry for the horrible lighting)

I simply drew these lines on a piece of card stock taking rough measurements from our moveable alphabets. I have one letter of each alphabet in a bowl and D basically places all little letters (a, c, etc.) between the dotted lines and the blue line, the tall letters (h,t, etc.) between the red line and the blue line and the ones with tails (g, j, etc.) between the dotted lines and the solid blue line with their tails hanging down.

For control of error I have a card that I cut out from one of the tracing books we had.

(Ok, I just realized as I was posting this that in the handwriting sheet that I made I have the blue and the red lines upside down.  Good that I noticed, now I am going to add a dot or punch a hole to indicate which edge goes on top!)

Hopefully this should help with one of our problems. For spacing issues we are working leaving one finger space between the words. Do you have any suggestions for this?

I am linking this post up to Montessori Monday and TGIF Linky Party.

Creative Writing

D had always loved stories, both listening, re-telling and making up her own. Her sensitive period for writing has started as well. The other day while shopping I picked up this dry-erase board that has the handwriting lines, as well as traceable small/capital letters and numbers. D has been hooked onto that and has been practicing a lot. It also has this board that has a blank space for pictures and lines below for creative writing. Here is what D came up with when I told her where her picture goes and where her writing goes.

Castle, the long haired princess and the word "Rupoonzl" (Rapunzel)

By the time she was done drawing her picture she was tired and just wanted to name her princess and not write out a long story.  I hope she keeps this up and starts writing more!