4 Way to Encourage Your Children to Practice Handwriting

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bic.  The opinions and text are all mine.

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My children think handwriting is a chore. I can empathize with my oldest who had weak muscles in her hands and had to go through occupational therapy to learn to hold a pencil. It was not easy to teach a child with Autism how to write.

However, why do my two middle children revolt? After all, the youngest of my four kids looks at pencils and paper as if gazing upon a shiny new toy. She loves pretending to write. So, what happened between this young fascination and the current age of eye-rolling and moaning, “Do I have to write it?”

I did some super mommy sleuth work and I think I discovered the issue.

Listening to some of their friends talk revealed that many parents use writing sentences as punishment.

PUNISHMENT.

Well, hello? What child doesn’t resent punishment?!

Instead of making our children loathe handwriting, why not make it enjoyable? Dare I say… FUN? Our goal should be to empower our children through handwriting.

I think that is why I love BIC and share BIC products with you. Not only does BIC give us amazing pens, markers, and pencils, but they are passionate about growing creativity and confidence in our children.

4 fun ways to practice handwriting

Make silly sentence copywork

You can create your own copywork with a free handwriting worksheet generator. Just type in the sentence and let the program create the worksheet for you.

I know that a lot of my blogging friends have their children write Scripture and I think that is lovely… until the children grow to hate it. Why not create

Enlist a penpal

Whether your child knows someone out of town or can just find a local friend who needs handwriting practice too, give your child some fun stationary and encourage him to write to his friend.

To help you get started, join our Meet Penny Facebook Community and see if another parent is also seeking a child’s penpal.

Then, print these free notecards for kids. Each page includes two cards and you just need to cut in half (the short way across the paper) and fold. I recommend printing on cardstock to make the notecards thicker.

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Encourage journalling

My oldest loves writing and drawing in journals. The weird thing? I did too. I have a bookcase full of journals dating all the way back from my first diary in the fourth grade.

If you think your child might enjoy journalling, make a special date to visit the store and pick out a special notebook or journal just for tracking thoughts and events. Make sure you encourage her to use the journal often by saying, “When this one is full, we will have another date to pick out a new journal.”

Write together

Have you ever passed notes to your child? I love the idea of writing love letters to your children. Why? Because it shows them that YOU write too.

In a very digital age, we often get sucked into our devices and lose the personal touch of a handwritten letter. Emphasize the importance of writing by creating a mailbox in your home to write notes to one another.

Take the pledge

Take the BIC Fight for Your Write pledge and be entered in a sweepstakes to WIN a $1,200 BIC® Prize Pack to help your children write more at home.

Giveaway disclosure: No Purchase Necessary. Valid in the U.S. only. Must be 18 years of age or older to participate. Ends 09/14/15. For details and full rules visit BICFightForYourWrite.com.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bic. The opinions and text are all mine.