I received this product in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to give a positive review. All opinions are my own.
A few weeks ago I received a new handwriting curriculum to review. Since the Middles are already using a curriculum and doing well, I thought this would be the perfect time to try a different one with our youngest. Even though she is just four years old, she has shown more and more interest in “doing school” with her siblings, so I thought the timing was perfect.
First of all, let me just say how much I love this handwriting curriculum. Although Punkin kept begging me to “do school,” I must admit I was skeptical about how well it would go. You see…she is my polar opposite. She is a free spirit in every sense of the word. I am an organized, get ‘er done kinda girl. So sitting her down for a structured school time was enough to raise my blood pressure. She wants to play and use her imagination and does so most of the day. So, we started with Level 1 from Best Ever Handwriting.
What I love about this curriculum:
- The layout – I love that this book is horizontal. I know it may not seem like much, but I think this format works well with younger learners. The taller books seem too big for her and hard to maneuver. This one seemed easier for her to manage and she didn’t complain about it either. I think it seemed more “manageable” to her because it appeared smaller in her mind.
- The format – This book has such a fun and inviting approach. Mr. Writewell is fun and although not prompted, my daughter loved coloring him on each page. It made the book appear more like a coloring/learning book, rather than just a textbook. She looks for him on every page and always asks me what he is saying in his bubble.
- The approach – I love the way she starts with the prewriting, then moves to shapes and then on to letters. So often handwriting books are separated by numbers, shapes and then letters. This one combines two of those and thus I don’t have to buy a gaggle of books just to teach handwriting. My daughter also loved the fact that crayons were encouraged as her writing utensil. This girl loves to color and so that made the transition to “schoolwork” that much easier. I also like that she didn’t use lines when learning to trace the shapes or letters. She believes that lines can actually be “distracting to beginning learners. Additional lines on a page can be confusing and make learning more difficult, because letters are merely made up of lines.” Don’t worry…they will transition to lines in a later book.
- The flexibility – While this book could be used as a daily assignment, I love the flexibility it offers. We have taken our time to work on the shapes, since she is just learning to really control her fine motor skills. So we take a shape a week to work on the tracing of the lines. We have been working on proper placement of the crayon when she starts and following the correct movements and directions as outlined. It has worked really well to ease her in to a school routine.
- The supplies – Or lack thereof, might be more accurate. All you need is a set of primary color crayons and a pencil without an eraser.
She loves using her crayon to “do school,” but apparently it is serious business and takes great concentration!
Will we continue to use this curriculum?
Overall, this curriculum has been a good fit for our youngest. She is not one that likes to sit still for very long, so lengthy lessons are out of the question. These lessons are short and can be tailored to fit her active lifestyle. I do believe we will continue to use this curriculum. Once we reach the letters, we will do one a week and add in some other fun activities, books and such to make sure we really grasp each letter and give her more practice as she continues to work on writing them.
Other books in this series
Even though we are not at the point of using the other levels, I have looked through them and think this will continue to be a good fit for our youngest. Level 2 covers writing manuscript letters on lines. This books continues working on letters, but now students will learn to write them on lines.
Level 3 covers cursive writing. It teaches them to not only write cursive letters, but how to easily connect them to each other and write words.
Each book seems to naturally flow in to the other and builds on what has been learned. I like the consistency this series offers as you move to the next level.
Supplemental Materials
The Best Ever Phonics Packet for Teaching Letter Sounds
About the Author
I want to thank Bonnie Emerson for these amazing products and her generosity. Here is a little more about her.
Bonnie Emerson is a well-known elementary teacher and vice-principal who served in Modesto City Schools, Modesto, California, for more than 35 years. While she was primarily an early childhood educator, her broad, diversified interests led her into developing expertise and serving on many local and national committees related to Attention Deficit Disorders (ADHD)-an extremely important area related to teaching and learning. She also served as a National Geographic education consultant. In retirement, Bonnie continues to remain active in the education community presenting at teacher and parent workshops.
The BestEver Handwriting Series teaches children the correct formation of Manuscript letters through Cursive writing. Handwriting mastery at all levels is achieved through well-designed practice workbook pages. Belief in the importance of handwriting as a foundational skill was the driving force in the creation of a set of workbooks that would guarantee student success in mastering this personal skill that will last a lifetime.
I am pleased as punch to offer one workbook (of winner’s choice) to FIVE LUCKY READERS!! Each winner will get to choose the level that best suits them. {Value $20} All you have to do is enter below!!
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I am child of the King, wife to 1 and mother of 6 earthly children. My passion is creating printables and products homeschoolers and teachers can use quickly and easily. I love sharing about my One True Love, Jesus Christ and encouraging parents in this crazy journey of raising kids. Read more about me and the ministry here at In All You Do 
My 5 year old is autistic and ADHD. He also suffers from muscle weakness in his hands. Getting him to sit and pay attention is hard enough. Then getting him to hold a pencil and form letters is extra hard. Add to all that, he’s left-handed. I avoid writing a lot just because it’s such a struggle most days.
I understand the struggle, Theresa. It sounds like he’s not quite ready with his fine motor skills. I’m no expert, but I have found that playing with playdough helps build those muscles and might help his hand strength. Plus…its just fun. This book can be done in 10 minutes a day, so it might be a good fit when he is ready. Thanks for stopping by!
My daughter has Down Syndrome and her comprehension is sometimes hard to work with. I homeschool her and her printing is awesome but sometimes she has a lot of trouble when I try to get her to “change” the look of a letter for cursive writing. This would be an awesome tool!
Sounds like this might be a great place to start!
Biggest fear is that I am not consistent enough
I think we all struggle with being consistent. I know I do.
I think my daughter would love this – she’s 4, too. My biggest struggle is providing her with things that will hold her interest. She says “I already know how to write, mama!” because she does, but she still needs to practice, practice, practice. That’s what she doesn’t like because it’s boring to write the same letter over and over. 🙂 Thanks for hosting a great giveaway!
I understand that struggle. My oldest was the same way when we started homeschooling. He knew his letters and the reading program we used reinforced them, which bored him to tears. I think this program of just 10 minutes a day is perfect!
This looks great for my youngest scholars! They are a busy crew. 🙂
My 7 year old daughter gets excited to learn anything when it is applicable to her daily life and not just busy work. The cursive writing books I have seen, give good instruction on making letters, but do not have the child writing useful words or phrases to make the learning “stick”. I like how the Best Ever Writing Cursive book has examples for writing thank you notes, days of the week, and numbers. I have used the “dot” method for helping my daughter learn where to start printed letters on a line. BestEver does this as well which will save me time as well as allow my daughter to work independently sooner!
I love that aspect of the cursive book as well!
This curriculum looks amazing! My biggest challenge with my 4 year old who wants to ‘do school’ like her brother is that her easily distracted creative mind tends to lead us down so many paths — that aren’t part of the ‘plan’. This curriculum looks like it may give us a really solid chance at succeeding in this area!
She sounds just like my 4 year old. This has been easier to use and implement in to her “busy” life and love for learning and moving.
I have some older boys that have issues with their hand writing. If I can read it. They were rushed through the pre-writing in school and forced to write without the basic shapes and lines down. I would like to start over with them to get the basics down hopefully this will help with the letter formations.
Sounds like it might be a great fit!
Wow! This looks like something my youngers would love…
My youngest has really taken to it!
My husband and I – biggest fear is not be able to teach it properly.
I think that is a common fear among parents.
I know it’s way ahead of the game for her, but my 2.5 year old loves trying to write. She knows most of her letters and recognizes some familiar words. Even just scribbling, she finds the letter shapes she’s made and is so excited about them. We like to follow her lead on learning, but it’s hard to find developmentally appropriate handwriting resources for really little kids! This looks like it could be right up her alley, taken really slowly of course!
Yes, I agree taken really slow might work for her! My 4 year old loves her “school book” time.
My biggest struggle is motivating my son. He has weakness in his hands due to Sensory Processing Disorder. Writing and reading are his least favorite subjects. So I am hoping it gets better.
I worry sometimes that I won’t be able to teach my son to write neatly. My own handwriting leaves something to be desired (it used to be neat when I was younger, but it’s gotten pretty messy in recent years, unless I really focus on writing neatly at a given time), and I worry that I’ll have a hard time laying the foundation for good writing in the future. This workbook sounds great though! My son (he just turned 4) is really excited about learning to read and write, and it sounds like this book will help guide us both through the learning process.
This books is wonderful at guiding both parent/teacher and student.
I love how it covers so much and it is was to understand and teach. They also help with OT and Pt
This looks like a great curriculum to try with my girls. I am really interested in how it would work for my two with dyslexia and visual processing disorder.
I think this would be a great tool for those with dyslexia. It is simple, short lessons and beginning with no lines, which I think is confusing to them.
nicce giveaway
InAllYouDo is by far my favorite resource for materials and helpful information. Thank you so much for everything you do. I was nervous about homeschooling from scratch and you have made it so much easier for me and my son (who is preschooling) and it is fun for us! 🙂
Oh thank you Valeria! Stories like yours make it all worth it!
I don’t have very neat handwriting and I worry about my ability to teach my 4 kids the proper way especially cursive!
I am left-handed and my kids are right handed so my biggest struggle is trying to show them how to write while doing everything backwards!
I never thought about that! I am right handed and one of my kids is left handed. Will this work for him?
Yes, I believe this handwriting curriculum will work for either left or right handers.
My son has autism and has a very hard time with handwriting. He writing really big most of the time and gets mad at handwriting books with small print. I think these books will be perfect for him to learn – I love her design 🙂
Thank you ?
They sound like they just might be a great fit!! Good luck!
Salt box “writing” is always fun too! All the little people that come through my house love the salt box. –My 4 likes to be “creative” and make a few letters larger towards the end of a sentence. He laughs while he’s doing it and thinks he’s funny. My fear is he will keep that up. He’s really really really wants to learn cursive and we will be doing that this year. An awesome cursive handwriting lesson would be fantastic!
My son has an extremely short attention span which makes it difficult for him to focus on making anything neat enough to know what it is! I am afraid that when it comes to handwriting he won’t want to focus long enough to stay between lines, have size awareness or proper spacing.
That’s one thing I absolutely LOVE about this curriculum. Just 10 minute a day!!
The struggle I am having is that my kinder alternates capital and lowercase letters. He also doesn’t use the lines to distinguish the letter. For example he would write the letter.g above the bottom line.
I have one of those as well. I just keep instructing her and showing her where to correctly write the letter(s). Keep with it. It will click!
I am very worried about how to teach my left handed daughter how to write, when I am a right handed mom.
Oh yes. Thankfully I don’t have any left-handers. I would look up some help online. I know there are several blog posts out there on this!
I absolutely love the fact that this instruction is designed for 10 minutes a day. My students need a lot of patience! Thank you for creating this!
Well, I didn’t create the curriculum, but I agree that the 10 minutes a day is WONDERFUL for those short attention spans!
My own handwriting is terrible and I worry about setting an example.
I understand. My husband is not allowed to teach handwriting in our house for the same reason. Just focus on the letters and how they are formed in the book. Not your handwriting.
My biggest struggle is that my daughter expects perfection as soon as pencil touches paper. I try gentle encouragement in telling her that it takes time & practice but it’s quite the battle.
I have one just like that. It’s not an easy battle.
My biggest struggle was with my son. Both being a boy & struggling with dyslexia still makes writing hard for him. I am excited to see that research is showing that cursive can help children with their letter reversals
Yes! Cursive really helped my oldest brother with his dyslexia. Don’t give up!
This looks very interesting and I think it would fit my 5 yr old and 3.5 yr old well. Thanks for hosting the giveaway and for highlighting this product. I hadn’t heard of it before. I especially like the “no extra lines” all over the page. Those extra lines do indeed distract and intimidate my daughter.
The no extra lines is great. It has helped my youngest for sure.
My biggest challenge is delayed motor skills.
I can understand that. There are several blogs and books out there that can help you. Email me if you’d like some options!
I think the biggest concern is making it important to the children. I have grandchildren ages 4,6 ,8, and two 12 year olds all being homeschooled. Lots of variety as well as opportunity. This looks like a great program for the youngest ones. Thank you for the chance to try it out by winning it!
Good luck!
My biggest fear is that my 13 yo daughter will have terrible handwriting all her life. I want her to learn cursive because I think it will help her write more smoothly and allow her handwriting to be readable.
I think cursive helped my oldest’s handwriting!
This looks like an awesome handwriting program for both of my littles. I’d love to try it out.
My second child has dysgraphia. Feeling helpless to help him, I feel great anxiety trying to teach younger sibling.