kirchara

Six-year-old's Handwriting		Eleven-year-old's Handwriting
What works for Brooks:	What doesn't work for Brooks:	What works for River:	What doesn't work for River:
- Tracing characters on paper with finger	- Tracing characters on paper with pencil	- Tracing characters on paper with finger AND pencil	-
- Writing small AND big characters	- Writing complicated characters in a small space	- Writing small characters	-
- Free-writing with a pencil/pen/marker	- Free-writing with an inkbrush not preferred	- Free-writing with an inkbrush	- Free-writing with pencil doesn't work as well as with inkbrush
- Providing a beautiful model to copy	-	Somewhat works: - Providing a beautiful model to copy	-
- Pointing out the ratio of the character components	-	- Pointing out the ratio of the character components	-
- Pointing out radicals and character components	-	- Pointing out radicals and character components	-

Six-year-old's Composition/Writing Skills		Eleven-year-old's Composition/Writing Skills
What works for Brooks:	What doesn't work for Brooks:	What works for River:	What doesn't work for River:
- Telling me what he wants to say, and I write it down for him	-	- Telling me what he wants to say, and I write it down for him	-
- Substituting pinyin for characters that he doesn't know	-	-	-
- Changing the words in sentences from books and songs to fit his life story	-	- Reading Chinese books and singing songs	-
-	-	- Coming up with fantastical/outlandish sentences and questions	-
- Circling	- He seems to need more input before coming up with his own questions.	- Asking him to come up with his own questions at the end of a TPRS Circling session	-