One of the most important things that a child must learn is how to write.  There are different techniques in teaching a child how to write.  But one important thing to consider is the child's readiness towards writing.  He/She must have pre-writing skills, like holding the pencil properly, the weight of the strokes (if it's light or heavy), and of course, the attitude of the child towards writing.  Why did I include attitude?  I can see a lot of adults who are forcing the child to write.  The child is already crying and the adult at times tells that he/she must learn how to write NOW.  When I saw Kib's strokes are light and he seems bored when we were practicing writing during our first few months of homeschooling, I stopped and waited for the right time to teach him how to write the alphabet and numbers.  He just turned 4 then.

I started teaching him how to write in November 2011.

What I did is I taught him first how to write the capital letters, starting from the letters with vertical and horizontal lines (I, L, E, F, H, T), then letters with slanting lines (A, K, M, N, V, W, X, Y, Z), and lastly, letters with curved lines (B, C, D, G, J, O, P, Q, R, S, U).  I didn't teach him to write his name first as the letters of his name contains different strokes.  When I was able to teach writing all the letters of his name, then I started practicing him how to write his name (KIB).  When we were able to finish all the letters of the alphabet, then I encouraged him to write his full name (JADAN KIB D. JAVIER).  I let him master writing the capital letters first before I introduced the small letters as small letters contain a lot of curved lines.

When we finished writing the alphabet in big and small letters, then I started teaching him how to write numbers.  

I didn't force him to write following the lines of the paper at first because I find it stressful for the child.  I just encouraged Kib to write following the lines in July 2011 because he is going to take an entrance test in Ateneo.

All in all, Kib learned how to write letters and numbers in 3 months.

Here are some of the pictures of Kib's handwriting history:

Look how crooked the lines were before, and the sizes of the letters were inconsistent.  I'm already happy seeing he can write the letters regardless of the size and legibility.

This was Kib's handwriting before his test with his current homeschool provider, but I was encouraged to teach him the correct strokes and to follow the lines more.  He writes small letters b and d with one pencil stroke only.

This is Kib's handwriting now