Monday, May 17, 2010

Happy Scribe = Happy Mom

Handwriting is a part of life and a part of homeschooling. Everyone needs to be able to write legibly to communitcate their thoughts to others. Yes, I know we write with our hands less and less as we use computers more and more. But I still say good handwriting is important and you won't convince me otherwise. Trust me on this. I've heard all the arguments against it from some boys I know quite well. They all had to practice their handwriting each day when younger and, when older, if I can't read it, it's done over.

I'm the Mom and that's how we roll.

All this having been said, it hasn't always been easy for me to get the whole handwriting thing together. To be sure, there are millions of great things a child can copy as they practice their handwriting - scripture, poetry, lines from great books. It's getting those great words into a form easily read and copied that is tough. Most youngsters can't see words written in a book and copy them onto another piece of paper very easily. For starters, some of the letters are made differently in say Times Roman font, than in the script in which your child is writing. Just look at the letter "a."

On top of finding the words to be written in the correct form, you've got to locate paper that has the correct sized lines on it. First graders can't do good writing on college lined notebook paper. It just won't work.

On top of all this, you've got to find a pencil that is actually somewhat sharp and still has some semblance of an eraser. Finding such a pencil in our house is a miracle somedays. Who am I kidding? Most days it is a miracle.

See what I mean about getting the whole handwriting thing together?

Enter Happy Scribe Copybooks! I love this company and their products!

The Happy Scribe has taken all the busy work out of handwriting and copywork for me. Each copybook has 20 different sayings or sentences in it, about a month's worth of work. The copybooks can be printed out in 3 different handwriting styles - Block Printing, D'Nealian Italics, or Cursive. Each page has the saying boldy printed across the top. The saying is also repeated in lighter text twice more down the page with blank lines in between. This is to encourage the child to trace over the words for additional practice as well as writing it on their own.

The subjects of the copybooks range from scripture to horses to wild flowers to Ancient Egypt to video games to military forces! You can have your child practice handwriting keyed to a subject they are currently studying or to a subject they just love. My third son really liked the military forces book and we found the Ancient Egypt book went perfectly with our history studies!

The books are available at the Happy Scribe website for download or you can purchase a CD. You can print off the whole book at once or just a few pages at a time. When you buy a book, you get all three handwriting styles! And since you've got them on your computer, they can be used over and over by multiple kids or over and over by just one little girl who LOVES to write.

You can buy the books separately or in a combo collection. Currently, they are selling all 35 books as a download for just $8.00! How crazy is that? Their site allows you to print off samples.

Head on over and save yourself a headache or two. Since using Happy Scribe copybooks, I've only had to worry about finding a pencil...

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