I’ve homeschooled my kids all their lives, but when my ex-husband of 14 years took off and abandoned us, my lawyer in the divorce said that I needed to have them in school for a very specific reason and I had to concede.
That was TOUGH. Having homeschooled for so long, their whole lives, suddenly being ripped away from my kids and sending them to school.
It was a hard transition for my son mostly. He rebelled from the idea of school and didn’t want to do any work. He fought it for a very long time. Meanwhile, I thought everything was A-Okay. I wasn’t aware of the problem at all because he was hiding school work from me.
Until one day, he brought a photo home from school. Something I actually got to see.
I was confused. “Why are you holding up a poster with the word poster written on it?” I asked him.
“They asked us what we want to be when we grow up,” he replied.
“You want to be a poster?” I said, still pretty confused.
“NO!” he exclaimed, “I want to be a PASTOR!”
It was a moment in my life where I’ve never been more proud of my son, and also, disappointed. I showed him that I was proud of him. I did not dare tell him his writing was AWFUL! But it was at that moment, I realized, he needed some extra help.
Handwriting Binder {450+ pages}
I bought a handwriting practice for kids book at the store, but it didn’t work out so well.
Since it was a copywork book, his little hands had a hard time writing in it. The book wouldn’t lay flat so he couldn’t write easily in it and it became a frustration to him.
As you know, anytime a child is frustrated, they stop doing the activity.
Another issue we had was that, as he was practicing the sheets, we were discovering which letters he was having trouble with. But, after he filled in the pages, we couldn’t print more, and I didn’t just want to copy the entire book, because we didn’t NEED copies of the entire book, just the letters he was really struggling with.
The book also didn’t have large enough spaces for a beginning writer. So, my son would either write teeeeeeeennnnnny tiny, so you could barely see it, or really big. He couldn’t find that middle ground.
He was also losing motivation. It’s hard to WANT to practice letters, especially at first, when there’s such little progress.
After talking to the teacher, they didn’t want to work with him on this issue. And I can sort of understand that. Teachers only have so much time and around 30 kids to help each class. They just can’t help everyone; it’s not humanly possible.
But that left me with quite the conundrum.
Problems with traditional handwriting practice books:
- Books don’t lay flat
- Once the sheets are filled in, you can’t make more
- Lack of motivation
- No school support (get books or printables from school)
- Books don’t seem to like to have enough space (height-wise) for beginning writers
- Some books don’t have lowercase letters in which to practice
I wanted a solution to help my son, as any good parent would want to do, but I just wasn’t finding the solution for OUR particular needs on the market, and I was tired of buying kits, boxed bundles, and books only to find out the books weren’t meeting our needs or giving us enough pages when we DID find something that half-way worked.
It was at that time, I created my OWN handwriting practice worksheets. I figured I could customize them however I want. They didn’t need to be gorgeous ink-sucking sheets, just something basic (and cheap to print) so I could save money and help my son.
Voila! The Handwriting Binder was born (well, not in it’s entirety at that time, but enough of it to really make an impact.) 🙂
I created sheets of words that I WANTED him to practice. Things like KITTEN, DRAGON, PRESENT. He seemed to really do a lot better writing words he ENJOYED. And when he was done working on a couple of handwriting practice sheets a day, I let him color a coloring page (also included in the binder).
It is an incredibly simple, yet fun and effective motivational tool and all those printables all are included in the Handwriting Binder!
In fact, there are over 450+ pages in this Handwriting Binder. A few of those included are printable sheets to help with:
- Tracing sheets
- Capital letters
- Coloring numbers
- Coloring letters
- Coloring image with text
- Encouraging copy sentences
- …and more!
My Favorite Pages
It’s kind of hard to choose favorite pages in these handwriting worksheets because they are all very helpful, but I do have a few favs. 🙂
- Capital Letters Tracing Sheets
The Capital Letters Tracing Sheets printables can be printed out as many times you want! The spacing (height-wise) is perfect for the beginning writers.
- Capital Word Tracing Sheets
The Capital Word Tracing Sheet printables are another great way to practice your handwriting skills.
- Coloring Numbers
I love this! Bring the joy of coloring and learning your numbers in one printable! Enjoy the Coloring Numbers printables!
- Coloring Letters
I couldn’t just create a printable for coloring numbers, could I? Of course not! Here’s a fun Coloring Letters printable that will be sure a favorite in your home.
- Memory Game
This a great Memory Game printable. Trace the words, cut two sets of the squares out and it’s time to play and exercise the brain with these handwriting activities!
- Kids Bucks
The Kids Bucks printable sheets come in denominations of $1, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. Create your own fun Kids Buck rewards system.
How this binder is different than other books on the market:
- Includes full-size coloring sheets to use as motivation and fun pages
- Includes BOTH capital letters and words to practice writing
- Print as many as you want, no limit
- Solves the problem of books not laying flat, so your child can write without frustration
- Spacing (height-wise) is perfect for beginning writers
- Is not “kidsy,” so adults can feel comfortable using it too. Perfect for stroke-recovers, autism, or anyone retraining their writing hand.
- Perfect supplement to school or for homeschooling
- Has over 60+ pages, so you won’t run out of options to practice
- Gets results
After a few months of working on the worksheets, my son’s writing improved GREATLY. I continued working with him on it and now his writing looks great.
See what others are saying about the binder…
Grab the Handwriting Binder here.
