How does Handwriting Without Tears® add value to Willowdale Children’s Academy curriculum?

What's Handwriting Without Tears®?

Handwriting Without Tears® is a renowned curriculum that offers multi-sensory and engaging strategies and methods to teach pencil grip, letter formation, and overall literacy skills that are foundational to a child’s ability to overcome the difficulties of handwriting.

While other curriculums have a strict focus on repetition, which ultimately becomes frustrating for students, Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum brings in elements of cross-curricular connections and creative instruction techniques to make handwriting something for our young students to look forward to every day. 

Our goal through Handwriting Without Tears® is to give students the foundation they need in preschool, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten, which will give them an advantage in the next stage of their education.

Starting our curriculum in preschool and kindergarten will lead to more success in school as well as increased comprehension of other subjects. 

Being a part of the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum®, although fundamentally focused on writing and literacy, will result in increased understanding in other subjects as well.

The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum is the perfect blend of fun, engaging, and age-appropriate teaching tactics to allow our students to become proficient in handwriting.

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Techniques to Make the Most of Pre-K and Kindergarten Education

As a part of the goal to make Handwriting Without Tears® the premiere handwriting curriculum, it is backed by years of innovation and research. 

This research has led to the introduction of six key components that allow the program to impact all our young students while accounting for differences in learning styles and natural interests:
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• Multisensory Learning
• Cross-Curricular
• Unique Letter Order
• Workbook Design
• Line Success
• Free Student Assessments

Multi-sensory Learning

Our adaptation of multi-sensory activities and objects to manipulate aim to reach all students regardless of learning style and a hands-on approach to handwriting education in pre-k and kindergarten.

The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum allows children to develop their handwriting skills through our unique methods and techniques of instruction.

Our students are encouraged to take a whole new approach to learning handwriting; by moving, touching, and playing with different educational elements which will ultimately reinforce their knowledge and understanding. In a typical classroom environment, where learning handwriting can get stationary and dry, our goal is to reincorporate elements of fun into the curriculum.

Years of research have shown that this is the best way to engage students with diverse learning styles: visual, tactile, auditory, and kinesthetic. By using elements in each learning style, we are maximizing the possibility to encourage students in different preferences and domains.

In addition, students in kindergarten and preschool that use methods of instruction that address different senses teach correct formation, spacing, and sequencing of letters.

Each letter has an introduction through tactile means, and further education is adapted to all of the senses; the fun activities in the curriculum are then rotated to maximize appeal to students.

An important aspect of Handwriting Without Tears is to use music as an element of education. This promotes movement and memory skills, and by combining writing with music, we are able to ensure that students get the most out of their time in kindergarten and pre-k.

​Cross-Curricular

Another key element in the Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum is to blend handwriting with other subjects such as social studies, science, and math.

By making connections to other areas of study, we are able to see a broader sense of understanding in our students as they progress through their education.

Our fun letter lessons and handwriting activities provide the rich content needed to keep young students engaged. In addition to being fun and engaging, our cross-curricular activities are grade-appropriate and transferable. The unique curriculum allows kindergarten and pre-k students to make connections not only with other subjects but with other lessons as well. 

As an example, when children learn the lowercase ‘e’, they are taught to associate ‘e’ with ‘eagle’. The students can then color the page with the ‘e’ and ‘eagle’ while continuing to practice their handwriting skills. The lesson would then branch into the differences between eagles and other birds, and so on and so forth.
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​Unique Letter Order

Understanding the fundamentals of letter order and style are essential in handwriting education for kindergarten and pre-k students. By utilizing our unique method for letter order and style, our students are set up for success in the classroom.

Since research has proven that capital letters are fundamentally easier to learn, Handwriting Without Tears® teaches them first. 

Our worksheet and physical classroom materials promote understanding and growth in an age-appropriate fashion, laying a foundation for more advanced writing skills.

Learning capital letters teaches kindergarten and preschool students to understand the correct formation and orientation of letters. Once the foundation is set, the students then move on to lowercase letters.

Because nearly half of the lowercase letters are extremely similar to the uppercase letters in terms of formation, the students are prepared for the lowercase letters by the time they have completed the first stage of the curriculum.

Line Success

By using double lines and line generalization, our students learn how to properly write letters and then apply them to any style of paper.

Handwriting Without Tears® promotes a double-line handwriting system, which eliminates confusion when compared to ‘traditional’ three-line systems and leads to higher rates of comprehension.

When preschool and kindergarten students learn to write on double lines, they will quickly succeed when writing in all styles that they will encounter in the classroom.

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Handwriting Without Tears® Worksheet

Handwriting Without Tears® Worksheets include:
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• Child-friendly language
• Large step-by-step models
• Simple & clean design
• Line generalization
• Lefty-friendly pages

Our classroom worksheets are designed to be simple, intuitive, and promote engagement in our students. Handwriting Without Tears® worksheets promote personalization and creativity while keeping the end-goal of handwriting proficiency first-in-mind.

Our worksheets are lefty-friendly and include step-by-step models of instruction which are great for both the student and parent when taken home.

The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum has carefully selected the words utilized in the worksheets in an effort to minimize confusion in instructions. By using fewer, carefully selected words, we can improve student comprehension.

By utilizing large step-by-step models, the preschool and kindergarten students are shown how to make each part of every letter.

Our pages are black and white, which makes the workbook clean and clear. This also allows the opportunity to reward the students with coloring in the pages once they complete a lesson. 

All of the images are intentionally placed to promote a sense of left-to-right direction, which will lay the foundation for correct visual tracking and word direction as their handwriting skills grow.

Our worksheet allows students to have exposure to different kinds of lines and lined paper, which ultimately allows them to adapt to different situations and apply their writing anywhere.

All of the pages in the workbooks are lefty friendly. This means that models and writing examples are split between the left and right side of the page. 

This makes sure that left-handed and right-handed children can both see the examples that they are modeling, and ensures that lefties never have to maneuver their hands to awkward positions to participate in the activities.

Do You Have Any Questions About Handwriting Without Tears®?

Handwriting Without Tears® strives to make legible and fluent handwriting a natural and automatic skill for all children.

Our curriculum helps children develop skills for school success in a fun environment that makes learning less stressful.

Ultimately, we enable happy learners eager to cultivate curiosity in all disciplines.

​Your child's happiness and success is our main objective.

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