Handwriting

Secure that the child begins by making perfect letters
and is never allowed to make faulty ones,
and the rest he will do for himself;
as for 'a good hand,' do not hurry him;
his 'handwriting' will come by-and-by out of the character that is in him;
but, as a child, he cannot be said, strictly speaking, to have character.
-Charlotte Mason

When my oldest first started learning his letters
I was not concerned with the form.
As long as the finished product looked somewhat like the letter,
I was happy and accepted it.
After reading some of Miss Charlotte Mason's writings,
I started looking closely at my son's handwriting,
his strokes, lines, and method.
I quickly learned that he liked to start his letters from
the bottom up.
I knew I needed to correct this and that since a bad habit
had been formed, it would take time.
How did I begin?

Well, exactly as Charlotte Mason suggests
with perfect one letter formation.
We started slowly, with only one letter at a time.
Then slowly added letters as
"perfect" letters were written with ease.
The pictures are showing my oldest with
his "final" exam with letter writing.

He first had to trace,
just a friendly reminder of correct formation.
Then he had to write each letter perfectly.
He passed. (smiles)
But with year one starting next week,
we will go through the letters one more time.
Just to be sure.
Starting with A and do one letter a time.
Probably will do a letter a day til we are through
the alphabet.
After this, some simple copy work
from our readings.