If you liked the original Handwriting Without Tears series, you’ll love the extra instruction and practice that the 2^nd edition offers. The methods employed work well with any student. It is particularly helpful for slow learners, students with poor motor skills or cognitive difficulties, or left-handed children. The methodology is designed to prevent or correct the reversal of letters. This program is unique in several ways: practice pages use a two-horizontal-line format rather than the three-horizontal-line format which is typically found in writing programs, cursive has no slant and letters are formed using a very simple single-stroke, it uses a multi-sensory approach to teach. Students will learn letter formation through visual, tactile, auditory, and kinesthetic activities presented in each lesson. Teaching and practice sessions are short, without a lot of meaningless busy work.

Each level of the program consists of a workbook and teacher guide. This is different from the original version of the program, which had a teacher guide for every two levels combined.

Each teacher guide now includes more background and teaching information with greater detail. A “Getting Started” section includes information on the handwriting process, stages of learning, how to instruct handwriting; an explanation of the lessons, step-by-step instructions for activities; posture, paper and pencil skills, and a summary of the student workbook features. In the back of each teacher guide is a section on how to identify difficulties; strategies for writing skills; how to work with left-handed students; and a chart of teaching guidelines. This chart can serve as a suggested schedule, or you can use it as printed for a completely structured approach. At the kindergarten level there is additional instruction for the use of the Capital Letter Wood Pieces and the Slate Chalkboard. Each lesson tells you what to teach, how to get started, multisensory activities to incorporate, which pages from the workbook you will use, what to say while teaching, and tips to help you teach more successfully. Small format student pages are included in the lessons for reference and convenience.

Student workbooks still have the horizontal pages in Kindergarten through 3. Grade 4 has been changed to vertical pages. More pages have been added to each workbook, thus more practice. You will still have the same great practice pages which were in the original version, but page layout has been changed slightly to allow for more practice per page. Activity pages have been added to reinforce other language arts activities while promoting meaningful practice. Students learn to write sentences, poems, dates, letters, week days, paragraphs, and more at the different grade levels. Workbooks still include large step-by-step illustrated directions, and students copy just one model at a time with left to right directionality. Continuous review is still incorporated throughout the black and white pages with plenty of room for the student to write on. Students are even given opportunity to practice on other styles of lines. You might notice a change in some of the words and sentences used on the practice pages, and some sketches have been redone to look more realistic.

Can-Do Print and Can-Do Cursive are additional workbooks that could be useful for older students, 5^th grade and up. These books facilitate transition to regular notebook paper, promote writing skills with grammar, Greek-Latin, and composition. Books give a quick review through letter formation with extra attention given to harder letters. Can-Do Print is for the student who prefers to print, but needs additional practice. Content is the same in both books, but focus is on print and cursive respectively. These are stand alone workbooks which require no teacher guide. Instruction is included in the workbook, so students can work independently.

The Draw and Write Notebook, Writing Notebook, and handwriting paper were created in response to parents who wanted blank pages with the unique “double lines” used in this writing program. The first has wide double lines, and the latter has regular double lines. The Big Sheet Draw and Write Paper is a pad of 100 sheets of paper, measuring 11”x 17”, which has the wide double lines on the bottom half of the sheets, and blank space on the top. My Journal is for grades 4+ and provides a 48 page journal with the unique narrow double lines from top to bottom on each page. These little extras provide students with paper for stories, journaling, or writing practice.

Customer Review

 
Anna T. from New Hampshire wrote the following on 03/31/2008:
Handwriting Without Tears has provided the most effective, painless method of achieving excellent handwriting! I wish I had had this curriculum with our older children. This is a developmentally sound program, and just a little bit each day gets great results. I have gone through all the books with our 8 year old son, and look forward to using them w/the next child in line after him. HWT is a great value. You can't go wrong with this inexpensive and yet exceptional program.