handwriting without tears...the post that took the longest

we've been slowly getting ourselves familiar with handwriting without tears. we began by studying the wood pieces and their shapes (there are four; big curve, small curve, big line and small line). we use the wood pieces to create capital letters as well as different shapes. not only do they help teach basic size, shape and position concepts but they also develop fine motor, social, vocabulary and letter formation skills.

we first "polished" the wood and then sorted the pieces out by size...

...then the kids explored making letters on their own.

since the letter S is tricky for the kids we've spent a lot of time discussing how S is made by making the letter C and then connecting it with a backwards C.

we also use the pieces to create our mat person. it was originally called "mat man" but fiona was quick to add some long hair to hers, and viola! now we have a mat girl! it's so fun to watch and listen as the kids create different versions of their mat person...