Home School Product Reviews

A Great Handwriting Program

We used A Reason for Handwriting last year. My son really liked decorating the pages and the people he gave them too really enjoyed them. People commented on his beautiful handwriting which greatly improved with this program. When it came to ordering a handwriting program this year he specifically asked to do A Reason For Handwriting again. It is an excellent program.

Great for learning handwriting

The Magnatab is fun to use. Yes, I’m an adult and yes, I can write letters. But, there is just something about those little balls popping up when you trace the letters.
Ok, I really purchased this along with the lowercase and numbers Magnatab for my son with Down syndrome. He also likes watching the little balls make the letter or number when he traces it.
These are great for special needs children or stress relief for mom.

I saw this (Kid-O A to Z Magnatab Magnetic Writing Tablet) and got it thinking it could be a total flop. My four year old hasn’t put it down. There’s something therapeutic about watching each ball pop up… the adults in our house are even found playing with it. My *only* two criticisms are that the pen is not attached with a string (like torture if you’re type A like me) and some of the pen stroke recommendations are ridiculous (e.g. letters G, M, N, W). They actually suggest drawing the vertical lines in the M first and then the middle (???). But that’s it. Otherwise it is a really well constructed, well designed product and I’m thrilled we purchased it. I hope they come out with a lower case version.

Smencils Gourmet Scented Pencils 10 Pack

I bought these because I hate teaching handwriting and I thought they would make the tedious subject a little more fun. The kids have loved smelling them. They often disappear and I find the kids gathered around the case with all the Smencils on the floor smelling them. The erasers work well. A claw pencil grip fits. The lead quality is good. They are strongly scented, so if you have scent allergies they might make you sneeze or give you a slight headache. They are also high maintenance pencils in that you have to keep them in the little cases. Do not put one in a peppermint Smencil case or it will absorb the pepperment smell. They’ve been a fun addition to our homeschool year. (Update:I have had some trouble with the metal part with the eraser slipping off, it does go back on though)

Excellent product with a couple of small downsides

I used A Reason for Writing during this past school year for my sons, ages 6 and 8. I loved the concept of the Bible verses. I loved that the lessons were brief. My boys have a short attention span. I was using book A for my 6yo and book B for my 8yo. I saw no difference in difficulty or verse length between the two books. In the end I think both of my boys have good handwriting and I won’t have either of them go through another printing workbook. They were helpful, but one was enough. My boys didn’t get the border sheets. I tried to inspire them, but they just wanted to do the writing and be done, not color the page and share it. This is a personality thing. My daughter, who is 4, will eat that concept up in a year or two. So keep your child’s personality in mind. Lastly, the pages are hard to tear out. When you tear our their special paper for them to do their Very Best Work on and it RIPS, it’s frustrating. Be very careful tearing out your border sheets.

Great Handwriting Tool

I love how this book has small lines to use for learning handwriting.  All the other books we’ve used have these huge, spaced-out lines so when my son goes to write without the lines, he writes his words so large.  With the small lines, he is finally learning the concept of how to write properly

A Reason for Writing - Kindergarten

My kindergartener, Daniel, and I really like this writing program. It breaks down each day into a very manageable amount of writing to practice. My favorite part is at the end of each week, the student writes the whole verse on a blank page of their choosing (included at the end of the book). They then color it too, and we get to display their work! I chose to get the 1st grade workbook for him, since he started kindergarten already knowing how to write all of his letters. This book is teaching him how to write them nicer, including things such as writing them the right size & using proper spacing between words. We’ve been using this book for 5 months now, and his writing looks so much nicer already. I plan to stick with this series!

We love this book (A Reason For Handwriting D – 4th)! There is just enough cursive practice for a day–a few letters and words–to not be frustrating, there are tips every week, and, best of all, once a week, there is a long (2- or 3- sentence) Bible passage to copy. My son wants to do his best when he writes the Scripture passage, and he no longer complains about doing ‘cursive.’ In the past, it was a chore, he was often frustrated, and he dreaded it; we used a variety of packages that had him scrutinize his letters against the books’ perfect machine writing, and of course he could never match up (who could?). In A Reason for Writing, the book has guide letters but never has him compare his to its perfection. And he really loves to write out a Bible passage on a special page which he then colors, to be hung on the wall. He isn’t one to love coloring, but for this, he does it with pride. We highly recommend it.

Karenlee

Boulder, CO

Mommy of 1; Homeschooling since preschool; Writer.

For the complete A Reason For series and other ways to improve your homeschool handwriting visit Timberdoodle.com.