I was given a curriculum published by Memoria Press for teaching phonics and handwriting. It is a very thorough program with lots of handwriting practice and can also be used in a classroom setting. I liked it a lot and thought it was just the right thing for my first grader's handwriting needs.
He hated it. So much so that he began to refuse to cooperate for his lessons. A big red flag for me. I want my kids to learn to love learning. I forget sometimes how different my kids and I are. I like writing. I have always enjoyed the flow of pencil on paper...my son, not so much. He was even refusing to write in other areas too.
As a result, we took some time away from handwriting because I didn't want it to become a source of contention between us or a learned resistance.
Instead, we did several hands-on activities that strengthen the motor skills used in holding a pencil and controlling small movements. He loved those so much, and he asked when we could continue his language arts program from last year, Language Lessons for a Living Education by Masterbooks.
This past week we started using his program from last year, it has writing practice built in, but not enough for his needs, in my opinion. So, we are continuing to do those fine motor skill activities and have started a new handwriting program, Learning Without Tears, suggested by a friend of mine. It is more relaxed and geared towards his development level.
The new handwriting program has some manipulatives to help learn how to form letters (mainly review for him) and he had fun playing with those.
I also considered another program called A Reason for Writing, but when he looked at the two different workbook samples, he chose the Learning Without Tears program. I don't expect it to be his favorite part of school, but I think it will be simple enough that he can manage and won't develop such a resistance to it.
