Handwriting in the Montessori Method

More and more schools are giving up handwriting instruction because of the pressures of standardized testing and curricula. The result is a generation of children who are not gaining a sense of how important it is to be able to write beautifully, and they are simply not learning to write or read in cursive at all. 

Here’s the good news: Montessori schools have always emphasized handwriting. We’d like to share how this 100+ year-old educational approach guides children in the art of writing beautifully and why it matters.

Indirect Preparation

Have you ever felt an ache in your hand after writing? The muscles of the hand are not something people think about often, but their development is a crucial part of early childhood development.

In Montessori toddler and primary classrooms, you will see very young children working with materials that develop fine motor skills. While fine motor proficiency can serve children in a wide variety of ways, Montessori guides provide children with materials intentionally designed to strengthen the hand as indirect preparation for handwriting. 

Each time a three-year-old lifts a knobbed cylinder, they are developing proper pincer grip. This same action is repeated in many other materials. The child may be working to joyfully refine a sensorial skill, but at the very same time their tiny fingers are slowly working their way toward being able to hold a pencil correctly.

Many Montessori materials are designed to be used working from left to right in order to prepare the child to move in that direction while writing. Even the materials themselves are organized in a left to right fashion on the shelves.

Manipulating a Pencil

Long before they are ready to write a story (or even a word!), Montessori children begin learning how to carefully manipulate a pencil. The geometry cabinet, the botany cabinet, and the metal insets are all beautiful materials that prepare the hand for writing. While the shapes in the materials appear to be geometry and botany lessons, there is more happening! What’s meant to be the focus is the teaching of a variety of handwriting skills, including pencil grip, applying appropriate pressure, moving the pencil left to right, and further strengthening the muscles of the hand to build stamina.

Early Letter Formation

Montessori primary classrooms are equipped with a special material that helps children learn how to form letters. The sandpaper letters are wooden tiles with letters made out of a sand-textured surface. The children use their fingers to trace the shape of each letter, and later use the tiles as a reference while learning to write for the first time. 

Another option for children to practice letter formation is to use their finger and ‘draw’ the letters in a small tray of sand. Both sand writing and using the sandpaper letters appeals to the sensorial nature of the primary child, making these activities fun. 

Writing!

By the time a Montessori student is 4 or 5 years old, they are well prepared to begin writing. The handwriting exercises begin on chalkboards because chalkboards are a low pressure way to experience both error and success. With practice comes confidence and the child progresses to writing on paper. Writing opens the door to personal expression, written communication with others, recording research, and doing written calculations!

The path from knobbed puzzles in the Toddler Community to captions on drawings and pages of written math calculations is taken in small, intentional steps. The end results are skills and earned confidence!

A Continuation

When children enter a Montessori elementary program, their guide will emphasize the mastery of writing and take the time to review any letters or skill gaps they may have. From here on, children practice constantly. They have notebooks they are expected to record their daily work in, and that work is expected to be written beautifully and neatly. The children take great pride in the beauty of their own writing.