Grade 1 Handwriting

Grade 1 is the year the child stops drawing letters and starts writing them. Do not rush toward speed. A slow, well-placed letter today becomes a fast, readable one next year.

Teach the three-line rule out loud every day: small letters fill the bottom room only, tall letters reach the top line, and tail letters drop their tail below the baseline. If a child can say which of the three a letter is before writing it, the letter usually comes out right.

Most first-grade messiness is size, not shape. If the writing looks poor, check first whether the small letters are creeping up too tall, and fix that before correcting anything else.

Spacing between words is new work this year. Have the child lay one finger down after a word before starting the next. When the finger is not needed anymore, praise the growth and let it go.

Keep the pencil grip loose and the paper tilted slightly toward the writing hand. A tight, white-knuckled grip tires a small hand in minutes and the handwriting falls apart at the bottom of the page.

Ten to fifteen focused minutes is a full day's lesson at this age. Stop while the work is still good rather than pushing until it is sloppy.

Every word on these pages is worth knowing, not just worth writing. Say the word, use it in a sentence together, and where it is a Bible word tell the child in one sentence where it comes from. Handwriting time can quietly become Bible time.

Praise one specific thing on every page — a well-rounded a, an even row of tall letters, a tidy finger-space. Specific praise teaches; general praise only cheers.

The word 'God' is written with a capital G. Tell the child plainly why: His name is honored even in the way we write it.