Pre-Writing Strokes

The eight movements that letters are made from

Each row prints one stroke in dotted form, repeated across the page, for tracing over. Vertical, horizontal, diagonal down, diagonal up, curve up, curve down, circle, spiral.

Choose which strokes to include and how many rows each gets. This sheet sits before any letter practice at all.

Why strokes before letters

Because a letter is a combination of these, and a child who cannot draw a controlled vertical line cannot draw an l, however many times they are shown one.

Handing letters to a child who is not ready produces a term of frustration and a habit of pressing hard, which is difficult to undo. Fifteen minutes a week on strokes gets there faster than three hours a week on letters.

They are learnable in a fairly fixed order

Vertical first, then horizontal, then the circle, then the cross, then the square, then the diagonals.

The diagonals arrive last and they arrive late — typically well after the circle. That is why capital A and the letter v are harder than O, despite looking simpler, and it is why a child who cannot manage the diagonal rows on this sheet is not behind. They are on schedule.

Print the strokes they are close to. A page including a spiral for a child still working on verticals is seven rows of failure and one of success.

The circle has a direction

Anticlockwise, starting at the top. It matters because a, c, d, g, o, q and s all begin with that movement, and a child who learns to draw circles clockwise will have to unlearn it at every one of those letters.

Watch the pencil rather than the page. A circle that ends up looking correct may have been drawn in two halves or in the wrong direction, and the finished sheet cannot tell you which.

How to run it

Big movements first, and not necessarily on paper. The same strokes drawn in the air, in sand, in shaving foam on a table, or with a finger on a steamy window are doing the same work and are more interesting.

Use a thick pencil or a crayon. Fine motor control develops outward from the shoulder, so at this stage the grip matters far more than the point does.

Short sessions. Five minutes of attention beats twenty of grinding, and a child who is pressing hard or gripping tightly has already stopped learning.

What the generator asks for

Which strokes, rows per stroke (1 to 4), and the labels on or off. A4 or US Letter, printed at 100%.

Labels are worth keeping for the adult's benefit. The child cannot read them.

When the strokes are secure, the shape tracing sheets are the next step, and letters after that.