B just finished list z in the W.I.S.E. guide, that means that in a few weeks when we start the school year over, we will be reviewing the foundations of hand writing, and eventually setting up his notebook. This part is very detailed, and has few "work arounds" for mistakes. It makes him nervous. It makes me nervous.
We both make more mistakes when we are nervous.
I sometimes here folks say that children need to make things neatly to learn how to follow directions, and I wonder if they have any idea of how frustrating, humiliating and impossible it feels for a kid with something like dysgraphia. The formatting IS the big problem, the content is easy. How do you learn the thing you cannot do by doing it harder; if trying harder makes you make more mistakes?
We will try to work through the instructions as written, but when he or I goof, we will do what we did last year: print out on our computer the thing it is supposed to say, cut out the words, and glue stick the paper over the goof in the bound notebook. Both of us type better than we hand write.
I want him to learn to breath deeply, relax, and try to follow instructions, but I also want him to learn that we can think of other ways to get the job done, even when we are following such a detailed, structured form of study as SWR.
Come to think of it, maybe we will do his dictation on the computer, and save the files instead of writing them in an actual book. I’ll run this idea past the ladies on the SWR list, and B himself!