Handwriting Without Tears: Learn to Write the Alphabet With Me! Camp

In this fast paced 2 week camp learners will review the alphabet with the Handwriting Without Tears method.  We will review groups as followed:

Week 1, Day 1:  Frog Jump Capitals
Week 1, Day 2:  Starting Corner Capitals
Week 1, Day 3: Center Starting Capitals
Week 1, Day 4: Lowercase - Same as Capitals and t
Week 2, Day 1: Magic c Lowercase Letters & More Vowels Lowercase Letters
Week 2, Day 2: Transition Group Lowercase Letters
Week 2, Day 3: Lowercase - Diver Letters
Week 2, Day 4: Final Group Lowercase Letters 

 The letters are taught in this order because they are grouped by similarities.
*Frog Jump Capitals (F, E, D, P, B, R, N, M): These letters all start in the top left corner with a big line on the left, and a frog jump back up to the top left corner. When the first line is on the left, the next part is on the right side. This prevents reversals, while teaching good stroke habits.
*Starting Corner Capitals (H, K, L, U, V, W, X, Y, Z): These letters all start on the left and use the left-to-right formation habit. Printing follows the same order as reading (top-to-bottom and left-to-right).
*Center Starters (C, O, Q, G, S, A, I, T, J): These letters start at the center of the top and the letters C, O, Q, and G start with the Magic C stroke. Learners will form good habits with C, O, S, T, and J that will make learning c, o, s, t, and j much easier! There will be no problems with stroke direction or reversals.
*Same as Capitals (c, o, s, v, w, t): The first 5 letters are exactly like their capitals, just smaller. Lowercase t is made like T, it’s just crossed lower.
*Magic C Lowercase (a, d, g): These high frequency letters begin with the familiar Magic C stroke.
*More Vowels (u, i, e): Here are the rest of the vowels.  The focus will be on careful placement and size.
*Transition Group (l, k, y, j): These letters are familiar from capitals. The focus will also be on careful placement and size.
*Diver Letters (p, r, n, m, h, b): These letters start with the same pattern: dive down, come up, swim over!  We avoid b and d confusion by separating the letters and teaching them in different groups.
*Final Group (f, q, x, z): The letter f has a tricky start. Letter q is taught here to avoid confusion with the letter g.  Letters x and z are familiar, but infrequently used.

Why learn capital letters before lowercase letters? Children who learn capitals first, also learn 3 things: 1. Start the letters at the top.  2. Use the correct stroke sequence to form letters.  3. Orient letters and numbers correctly - no reversals!  Think about it, c, o, s, v, w, x, y, and z are the same as their capitals; j, k, t, and u are also similar to their capital partners.  After learning the proper strokes to write capitals, learners will be prepared to write nearly half of the lowercase alphabet.

Capital letters are easy:
*All start at the top.
*All are the same height (they touch the top line and the bottom line but don’t go above or below either line).
*All occupy the same vertical space.
*All are easy to recognize and identify (compare A, B, D, G, P, Q with their lowercase letters a, b, d, g, p, q).
*Capitals are big, bold, and familiar.

Lowercase letters are more difficult:
*Lowercase letters start in four different places, for example, a, b, e, and f.
*Lowercase letters are not the same size. Fourteen letters are half the size of capitals, twelve are the same size as capitals.
*Lowercase letters occupy three different vertical positions: small, tall, descending.
*Lowercase letters are more difficult to recognize because of subtle differences, for example, a, b, d, g, p, q are all similar and easy to confuse.