Glitter writes

I wasn't planning on teaching Glitter any handwriting until after she could read, but she had different ideas. She started trying to form letters on her own, mostly capital letters with strange stroke orders. So, I decided to step in and teach handwriting before she developed too many bad habits. I thought I'd go slowly with one or two letters a week, as I did with her sister, but I'm finding that Glitter wants to know how to write "all the letters in the factory" right away. Even more surprising is that she has the stamina and patience to work at it.

I originally planned to start Glitter with the salt tray, like Sparkle, but I decided that was too messy. Instead, I got a little magnadoodle that was just the right size for one letter at a time. (Glitter even figured out on her own to turn the magnadoodle landscape to write "m" and "w." She is so much more visual/spacial than Sparkle!) I liked the magnadoodle because it is so quick to erase and less messy, compared to the salt tray.

Once Glitter had the general concept of stroke order for most of her letters, I decided to move her to lined paper to work on letter placement and size. I tried real paper and pencil once, but she just wasn't ready for it. So, I dug out this old dry-erase white board that I got for Sparkle but never used. It was just right for Glitter. The lines are nice and large. It erases quickly and cleanly. Oh, and Glitter is right-handed, so we don't have inky pinky problems.

Here is Glitter after her first day with the white-board. Most of the letters are recognizable because I immediately erased gross mistakes with a quick swipe of the tissue. The letters are in random order because I use flashcards to decide which letter to do next. There are two "u"s because there is a second "u" after the letter "q."

Line 1: i k r v n m a qu
Line 2: s f u y z b t o l g h
Line 3: d p j c x e w

After school, Glitter dug up a little blank booklet and started writing a poem that she's memorized. I think she was trying to write " 'Tis a lesson you .... try try again."