Customer Reviews

Hooked on Handwriting - Learn to Print (Hooked on Phonics)

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

 

 

I bought Hooked on Handwriting for my daughter - age 4 - and she is loving it. The lessons are great for kids with very little previous printing instruction because they start with learning the most basic lines and curves (using a big marker that is easy for little fingers to control) and progress to using a regular pencil to write upper and lowercase letters while staying between "the lines". She loves the printable activities on the CD-ROM. Yesterday she did the "Thank You Note" activity and today she made some bookmarks.

My son who just turned five has been using the Hooked on Phonics series for the past year. He has learned very quickly and just finished level 3. I am really pleased with the Hooked on Phonics system of reading and highly recommend it to anyone teaching their kids to read.

However I am somewhat dissapointed in the new Hooked on Handwriting. My son and I sat down last night and completed the first workbook. He's a bit advanced for that portion, but I wanted him to go through it anyway just to make sure he wasn't missing any skills needed later.

The thing that struck me while watching him was that all things he had to draw were too big. In order to complete each task, for example drawing a curve, he had to repeatedly stop, move his hand, and continue. In addition, he also was holding the marked fairly far from the tip (2 to 3 inches) so that he could make a larger strokes before he would have to adjust his hand.

After looking forward at the other two workbooks, they continue to use very large letters. I'm not an educator, nor do I have any prior experience in teching kids to write. This is my first. However I don't think my son is learning the proper skills to effectively print. The motions he is practicing in this program are different than the motions needed to print a sentence on a piece of even large lined paper.

I read all of the other reviews before beginning this review. They were interesting. I made a big mistake with my eldest daughter. I had a baby and a 3 year old and so I handed her a letter handwriting book and she taught herself. She writes about half of the letters wrong. They look like the letters, but they aren't right. That probably sounds at first like I'm being picky, but this is an important thing. The way that a child learns to print the letters sets them up for learning cursive. It will be much easier for her to learn cursive if she prints correctly. So, now we are going back and relearning how to right the letters using this set.

My youngest daughter is using the yellow book. She goes through most of it every day. She loves to feel like she is writing. I don't expect her to write for another year. I love that the set comes with an eraseable pen for the book. I erase it every day.

My older daughter is now learning using the red book and relearning the capitals that she needs to. I have her trace the letter first with her index finger and describe it out loud like the book says. For F: Down, Out, Out For E: Down, Out, Out, Out I like that the letters are bigger because it allows her to see the star (start) and the stop sign (stop). On the other books I have the numbers and arrows (on the small!!) letters have confused her about which direction to go. These books are really clear and I love that! Afterwards, I have her write a row of that letter on elementary large sized lined paper.

After looking at a lot of other letter books, I am very thankful for the big letters and that the books will be reusable for my daughters and my son! I love not having to buy something again and saving money.

My almost 3 and 4 year old love this set. They especially love the rewards. I do agree with another reviewer about how big they write the letters. But that's perfect for my boys. This gets them excited about learning there letters and making them on their own. Plus, it doesn't take your child long to complete the activities. Both kids completed the workbooks in 3 months.

I would recommend this set for the earlier ones. Over 5 maybe to old, due to writing the letters big. Even though our kids completed the sets. They still like to get out the workbooks and practice.

I've been a big fan of hooked on phonics and have used it for my first 2 children. I was excited when they came out with this handwriting version and bought it for my third child, who is three. What a waste!
Two of the books are "activity packs" with projects that include such things as tracing the "I" on "Come In" and then you are supposed to
cut it out and hang it on your door. First of all, as a handwriting activity, it is pretty lame. And if your child has the fine motor skills to be able to cut out a door hanger, including the circle insert where the knob goes, then they are probably past practicing capital I's.
The practice books have room for your child to trace the letter exactly three times. Nowhere to write it on their own. Again, very lame.
As far as the CD, I was expecting the "printouts" to be practice sheets for the letters, but again, very dissapointing. The printouts leave room to trace one letter on a preprinted word and thats it. And there's not even a printout for every letter.
This is a very useless product, especially for the price. Purchase Kumon workbooks for handwriting or "handwriting without tears", both use the same concept as this intends to but much cheaper and better thought out.