Last week was a double whammy kind of week. It all started when I helped organize my grandson’s 1^st grade school papers. Then Brownie Bear came home and put me over the edge.

Brownie Bear is a “friend” from the classroom that takes turns going home with the kids in the class. And he comes with his own journal. When the student finishes playing with him, he writes about his adventures in the journal and returns him to school the next day. Overall, a pretty fun way to get kids excited about writing and journaling.

While Brayden played with Brownie Bear, I looked through the journal at what other kids had written. There was some pretty impressive handwriting, but most of the writing was sloppy and disjointed, like you’d expect from First Graders. Then there was Brayden’s entry from early October. OMG!! His first journal entry looked like it had been written with a fork or a dull stick, and a green one at that. It was barely legible – the green ink didn’t help. Like most visual kids, Brayden’s handwriting needed some extra “at-home” attention.

So what are we going to do? I’m creating the first EVER….Handwriting Challenge!

I will design some fun activities for Brayden, who is a visual learner, to do at home to strengthen his handwriting. We’ll write letters, numbers and sight words. We’ll write on story paper and dream paper. We’ll write on lined writing paper and in notebooks. And we’ll be doing LOTS of drawing…. because drawing helps visual children write better. He’s going to write and draw and write – because practice makes perfect.

Come back in January and I’ll show you what his handwriting looks like when we start and the progress we make along the way. I’ll show you what we do and how it turns out because I’m sure we are going to see great things – and we’re going to have a lot of fun along the way!!