Get Set for School 2026 (Handwriting Without Tears)

This Get Set for School® Readiness & Writing Program by Handwriting Without Tears® prepares and guides your students from prewriting skills to capital and lowercase letters in one year. Your student is ready to use this program if they are consistently using a dominant hand and correctly holding a crayon; can understand shape concepts like big/little line and big/little curve; and can draw vertical and horizontal lines, a plus sign, and a circle. This level takes the students sequentially through 2 consumable student books: My First School Book and then My First Lowercase Book. Additional copies of My First School Book are available, but My First Lowercase Book is only available in a 2-book consumable student set. A Hands-On Learning Pack provides essential manipulatives for one student: the 2 consumable student books, a slate chalkboard with two little sponge cubes, 4 little chalk bits, 1 mat for wood pieces (13 total), and 2 pencils for little hands. In the My First School Book, students begin with crayons (the double-sided FLIP Crayons are suggested) to help them learn to hold, place, and move the writing tool.

The indispensable Teacher’s Guide will help you guide your child step-by-step from prewriting skills (such as following patterns, making strokes, or drawing inside shapes) to beginning handwriting instruction. Beginning with foundational skills, including shapes and colors, it then progresses to writing capital letters. The year ends with six weeks of lowercase using the My First Lowercase Book (not available separately). All concepts are taught and reinforced using multisensory activities, manipulatives, drawing skills, and more. For each lesson, the Teacher’s Guide shows a reduced student’s page and provides a teacher oral script, a learning activity, vocabulary words, a list of skills your student is learning, and more. Once you understand this program’s unique methodology, the daily lessons are low-prep, but do require high teacher/student interaction—made straightforward with the Teacher’s Guide. Add the Hands-On Learning Pack with My First Book Set for one student. For each additional student, you’ll need the My First Book consumable set. ~ Ruth