Customer Reviews

Handwriting Without Tears: Kindergarten Teacher's Guide - Contracted Edition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

An excellent first tool for little hands who have not a clue as to how to form letters. This systematic program guides kinesthetic memory for correct motor production of the letters of the alaphabet. A must for all Pre-school, kindergarten and first grade teachers. Especially designed to give aide to children with poor motor coordination. Good habits are formed in a fun writing format. I hightly recommend it!

My daughter is dyslexic and this is a great tool for her. Even my three year old likes to play with the wood pieces. The program is great for home schoolers. It is easily taught.

This is the method used in my son's school and in most ESE classes. If you have a child with fine motor difficulties...use this. If you have a child with writing difficulties...use this. If you have a child with ASD, as I do... this works!!!

The posters below me (Gladstone and Barchowsky) would probably prefer you use their methods -- one of which I own. However as mom who writes using Spencerian and even Barchowsky's Italic, I have a child who had writing difficulty. But my 6 yo Asperger's son grasped onto the HWOT program and ran with it. He understood its' simplicity and more than anything....ENJOYED IT. It "clicked" with him. Can he write in full sentences now at 6? Yes. Can he write legibly? Yes. Can he write quickly? Yes!!!
I have also used it with my non-ASD 3 yo who is now writing upper and lowercase with it now as well.

This is a great program, but I really did not need this guide. It is pretty self explanatory. Or you can use the website. It is helpful if you are a teacher.

My daughter struggles with getting a good grip on her writing insturments which results in sloppy letters. The suggestions in this book/text have helped to strengthen her hands. Her letters are becoming much clearer. I highly recommend this program.

Great ideas that I never would have thought of. It works for teaching your own child at home or in a group setting.

I am a special education teacher and have used this program for years. I've used the program with all different students from K-5th grade with moderate/severe disabilities. It is an excellent program and I've been very happy with it. I've found I do have to pick and choose which students would benefit from it (a 5th grader with a mild/moderate disability might find it childish or boring). But really you just have to use your common sense with this program. Obviously I'm not going to pull out a silly little puppet for a 5th grader -- he'll look at me like I'm crazy -- but younger kids just eat it all up. It really depends on the level of the student. I also love that you can easily modify the program for your different levels of students. Students can be working on the same program, but using different workbooks, depending on their level. (I should note here that I haven't ever done the cursive program, so I don't know what it is like).

Overall, I highly recommend this program -- just pick and choose the materials that are right for your student/students (the HWT website has a detailed list of all their products available). The chalkboards are AWESOME!

This is an excellent approach for teaching special ed. students.
For my moderate to severe students I had to adapt even more and repeat steps for awhile. It worked much better than "tracing dots" that was little more than busy work with little results.

Disregard my star rating.....I just ordered it so I don't know if it will work honestly. I'm very excited about it. I have a child in K that is struggling with handwriting and I think that this just may be the ticket. The reason why I'm posting this is b/c the price is way over-inflated here!!!! Go to the Handwriting without Tears website and buy it there! Its 7.50 plus shipping. Additionally, the official website tells you the bare essentials that you need to purchase in order to make the program work. In other words, they don't load you down with a bunch of non-essentials. Also, I noticed that everyone that gave a poor review of this product only had the handwriting worksheets or in other words only part of the program. You can't give a fair review if all you have are worksheets from a therapist and haven't EVEN tried to follow the program as it was designed. The program is a complete program and isn't just about the worksheets. If you want to try it out, go to the website and look around. They have plenty of supportive downloads to help you along the way also.

This book is great to introduce, teach, practice and refresh the basics of writing for kids starting school. Parents should get it to make it fun to "work" and play at home (while the kid is learning and practicing the letters, words and phrases he/she reads, but "forgets" how to spell or write.

You can monitor their improvement and make it a fun activity to do together.