This post is sponsored by BestEver Handwriting but the content and opinions expressed are my own (and my kids).
With our school year coming to an end (and I use this word loosely as we homeschool year round) I have been on the hunt for a new curricula for teaching handwriting to my 4 and 6 year old. The ideal curricula needed to have: little to no prep on my part, and could be used almost independently by my kids.
What is BestEver Handwriting? I’ve Never Heard of it!
Well I’ll be honest, I had never heard of Bonnie’s BestEver Handwriting curricula until recently. And when I started looking at the site (well its more like stalking), I was intrigued by the claim:
A page a day for 20 minutes of your child’s time will lead into and develop writing skills that will last a lifetime.
Handwriting is one of those skills that needs to be taught correctly from the beginning and reinforced continually.
Kids need to know pencil grasp, as well as how to form letters and then eventually write them small enough to fit in between the lines on a paper. And if all it takes is 20 mins (probably a bit less with my kids) a day then I am happy with that.
Although the program has 3 levels, I am using level 2 for my 4 year old (originally for 6 and up) as well as level 3 for my 6 year old (originally or ages 8 and up).
How We Teach Handwriting with BestEver Handwriting Level 2 for my Kindergartner
Figuring out BestEver Handwriting, thankfully is not hard. Teaching handwriting was simple and Caleb (my 4 year old) took to it immediately. Once again, the only reason my 4 year old son is using this level is because that is where he is developmentally and I am not forcing him to write. He just wants to copy his big sister.
Since handwriting is a regular scheduled subject that he does daily, it is completed while I teach my daughter her language arts curricula. My approach with Caleb and Jael are a bit different and I will explain soon.
How We Teach Handwriting with BestEver Handwriting Level 3 for my 6 year old
Okay on to Jael, my 6 year old. Yes, I deliberately did not put my child’s grade level simply because she is between levels and that’s not important.
Jael does her cursive during quiet time in her room after lunch. I simply assign a page or 2 and she completes them. This system has worked perfectly with other subjects such as math drills- we love it.
Why We Love BestEver Handwriting
- According to my kids is that Mr Writewell is there- he is the handwriting robot mascot for this program.
- Only 1 book needed and not several parts.
- Its cheap!! Dude it costs less than $20!!! I was super happy at this fact because handwriting curricula should NOT break the bank.
- It teaches how to write punctuation marks– how to recognize and how to write it!!!
- Both upper and lowercase letters are introduced step by step.
- My kids love it (definite bonus in my book because if they hated it, I would not be posting this).
Here’s a sneak peak of Caleb’s lesson today. He used a highlighter to trace the letters.