One Hundred Words: A first handwriting book by Anna Kovecses
| One Hundred Words: A first handwriting book by Anna Kovecses | |
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| Category: Children's Non-Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: Learning how to write from the basics of how to hold a pencil correctly. A well-designed, quality book. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? No |
| Pages: 56 | Date: April 2016 |
| Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-978-1847808011 | |
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Little Mouse is learning to write. Actually, you don't just learn to write, you have to learn to hold and use a pencil and to control it so that the point goes where you want it to. Pencils - and particularly crayons - have a mind of their own, you know! So, we start of with the tripod grip and some tips about what to do if you find that difficult. Then we're straight into the action, starting with drawing a straight line from side to side and to see what's required we have a footballer kicking a ball in the direction we're going to go. There are fifteen examples where you trace the line, just so you get the hang of it and then you get to have a go on your own.
Using the same format, we move through vertical lines, diagonals, loops, curves, zigzags, waves, circles and squares, before moving on to straight-sided shapes and then curvy ones. We've had lots of practice before we even start on letters! Little Mouse has an example of each letter and then dotted examples immediately underneath to trace over. On the examples, there are some tiny numbers which tell you the order in which the strokes should be made. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't an area for freehand practice - but then I turned the page and there's loads of space and you can even see Little Mouse doing her practice.
Once the individual letters have been mastered we try a sentence containing all the letters in the alphabet. I think 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' is perhaps a little ambitious at this stage and the sharp-eyed will see that Little Mouse is walking off with her pencil... It felt more appropriate when we moved on to what could be a fun game. We have a picture of an object, but the first letter of the word is missing and needs to be filled in - then it's letters in the middle or end of the words which have to be supplied. After that, we move on to numbers.
There's loads of writing practice in One Hundred Words. I learned to write - and have taught children to write - by going solo straight off as tracing and copying can seem a little constricting and there's still the jump to be made to going solo. But - I have known children who have fared better using the 'Little Mouse' method. You know your child and this is a well-produced book with simple, but clear illustrations. I particularly liked that the paper is of a quality which stands quite a bit of enthusiastic use of a pencil before it affects the reverse of the page.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.
Once you've mastered letters, you might like to start on numbers. If you like this book you might also appreciate 3, 2, 1... Draw! by Serge Bloch.
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You can read more book reviews or buy One Hundred Words: A first handwriting book by Anna Kovecses at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy One Hundred Words: A first handwriting book by Anna Kovecses at Amazon.com.
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