by: Michelle Yoder
Fundanoodle teaches the letters in a developmental sequence to increase ease and accuracy and foster success!
Have you ever noticed that when children learn to write, the letters that contain diagonal lines are the hardest and often most illegible? Letters like A, K, M, N, V and W are really hard! Normally children develop the ability to write diagonals around the age of 5. Even then, you’ll see that they are usually better at making them one way, compared to the other (either down from left to right or down from right to left.)
Before you get started on handwriting instruction, work on the formation of these pre-writing strokes, in this order:
vertical horizontal circle right to left diagonal square left to right diagonal
Your child will need to use each of these strokes and begin to connect lines together in order to form all of the capital letters of the alphabet.
We know that our eyes develop and are stronger with vertical movements first. Therefore, Fundanoodle teaches letters based on the type of stroke in the letter. For instance, L, F, E, T, I, and H are taught first because developmentally children are going to be able to writing these letters first. Next, Fundanoodle introduces that contain curved strokes: O, C, G, Q and S. Third, Fundanoodle teaches letters with vertical, horizontal and curved strokes: D, P, B, R, J, and U. Finally the last letters taught are the tough ones with diagonals: X, V, W, N, M, Y, A, K and Z.
Next week, I’ll discuss top to bottom formation and how using the Fundanoodle action words to create strokes ensures neatness and legibility!
