When Handwriting Isn’t Clicking (And What Really Matters)

Pam: Are you ready for homeschooling to feel joyful again?

Do you long for support as you learn alongside your kids?

Welcome to Homeschool Better Together,

a podcast about building a homeschool experience that works for your family.

I’m Pam Barnhill, and it’s time to step out of the overwhelm and in to the wonder.

Let’s do this.

Sarah Collins is an occupational therapist homeschooling parent dedicated to helping parents align homeschooling with their children’s unique needs.

Through Homeschool ot, she provides personalized consultations,

teaches courses for parents and teachers, fosters community through group and individual coaching, and she speaks at national conferences and inspires through her new picture book, A Chameleon Tale.

Her work empowers parents to build learning environments that support their children’s development and passions.

You can find Sarah on her website@homeschoolot.com her podcast, the Homeschool OT, is in or on Instagram @homeschool OT.

Sarah, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing?

Sarah: Oh, I’m doing great. Thank you so much for having me. I love doing this.

Pam: I have been wanting to have you on the podcast for probably almost two years now.

I stumbled across, I don’t know, it was your Facebook group or your.

Your newsletter or something like that. And I was like, oh, my goodness. Like, she, like, what she does is so needed in the homeschool community.

And you’ve kind of been on my list, and sometimes it just takes me a while.

Sarah: I feel you. I do the same thing.

Pam: So I’m so glad you’re here. I’m so glad you’re here. But first, before we dig into, like, the OT questions and all the burning questions that I know moms have about this kind of stuff,

can you tell me a little bit about your homeschool? Because I know you’re a homeschooling mom. So tell me a little bit about that.

Sarah: Absolutely. So we started homeschooling in 2017 after a move. So my kids went to public school, my older two from, I don’t know when, you know, kindergarten, and my daughter went up through third grade.

And then we were.

I was working full time as an occupational therapist, and this person, I was in their home,

I was doing home health care at that point. And she said, sarah, I’ve just got to tell you about this. And I was like, well, that’s great, but I, you know, work full time, and so I’m not going to be able to do it.

But I did just love. And I saw a difference in her atmosphere versus the one that we have, where I would be literally, like, I’d pick up my daughter from school, and I would drive her to field hockey or whatever, and I’d be like, okay, you’re six years old.

Tell me six things about your day. And then she would get out the door, and that was it. And I was like, ah.

And my husband then within a month, got his job up here in Philadelphia, and we were moving, and we were able to try it.

So that was at the end of 2017.

And we just said, you know, we’ll just give it a shot for this, you know, month or so before school is out, and then they could go next year or whatever.

And,

well, we’re still homeschooling. So my daughter is a senior this year,

so she will be done and graduating. We are thoroughly enjoying our last year of homeschooling.

And then my middle son is 14, and my youngest is 9.

So I still have quite a few years to go, but it has been the joy of a lifetime, for sure.

Pam: Oh, I love it. Okay, so you’re telling this story, and I’m thinking, like, homeschoolers as multilevel marketers. Right.

Sarah: She’s like, I just got to tell you about this. And I was like,

okay.

But it. I mean, it really did. It changed the trajectory of our life. So isn’t that great, though? Isn’t that great? So I’m so grateful that she did.

Yeah.

Pam: She was so willing to, like, step out of the box and.

Sarah: Yeah.

Pam: And tell somebody about, you know, about that. So. Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s 100% awesome. Maybe she knew that that was just what you needed to hear.

Sarah: She must have.

Pam: I love it. Okay, so you, as an occupational therapist, you were just working with everyone. You weren’t necessarily working with homeschool families at that point.

Sarah: No, absolutely not. In fact, in college, I wrote a paper on how awful homeschooling was. Like, no joke.

Pam: Right.

Sarah: It was a persuasive essay. And I was like, no one should homeschool. This is terrible what people are doing for their children. And here I am. Right.

Pam: Needless to say, you’ve changed your mind.

Sarah: Right. And I wish. I don’t have it. I remember doing that, but I don’t have it now because I would love to see what my sources were and, like, why, what actually my arguments were.

I’m sure it was the socialization. I’m sure that was one of them.

And now,

for sure, I have changed my mind, clearly.

And the, you know, the proof’s kind of in the pudding. You know, we could. Where we can watch our kids grow, we can watch them change, we can watch them and individualize their educations.

And also now I’m coming alongside of occupational therapists so that they don’t make the same mistakes that I did. They are not asking those socialization questions and they’re not making parents feel uncomfortable with their educational decisions.

Instead they’re supporting. Because that’s our role as OTs is to help families do what they need and want to do and help students do what they need and want to do.

That’s the occupation how you occupy your time.

So if we are coming alongside of them, it is so much better than if I’m like, you know, as an ot, fighting them. But yet we still hear that. I still see it on a day to day basis of people.

You know, I’m afraid to go back to my OT or my OT told me that I have to be in the public school system to get services. You know, things like that that are just not true.

Pam: Right, right. And you know, it’s funny, I’m like hearing you talk about that paper you wrote. We’re all such great parents before we have kids.

Sarah: Oh, so great. Yes.

Oh yeah.

I also is never gonna have a house full of stuffed animals. Cause all I do is collect dust. And yet my youngest like plays zoo on the regular. In fact, he wants to be a zoologist now.

You know, he’s nine. Who knows what he’s actually gonna do? But that’s what he wants to do. And he sets up a zoo upstairs all the time with all of his stuffed animals.

So yeah.

Best laid plants.

Pam: You had these kids. You got over your prejudice.

Sarah: Yeah.

Pam: And what drew you to kind of marry your former profession with home help helping other homeschoolers?

Sarah: Homeschoolers.

So it was really interesting was actually I went to a course on handwriting without tears because I needed to keep up my OT credentials. Right. We have to do CEUs every couple years.

I’m still taking, obviously taking a lot of classes. Lifelong education for the win. Right, Right. And when I was in there, she, whoever was leading it said to me, she was like, Sarah, you don’t know how many homeschoolers come with questions that they just need to be able to ask an ot.

And I was like, yeah, you’re right. But that’s not me because I do not have time. And then later on that same week, I had a really good friend who has a daughter with cerebral palsy.

And she was like, sarah, I Just have some questions for you. And I was like, awesome, let’s do this. You know, my, you’re my good friend. We go to co op together.

I love,

love talking, obviously I’m here, I am talking, love talking about how we can support our kids to do what they need and want to do during the day. And so I, you know, spent a lot of time with her and at the end she was like, you should really start a business.

And I was like,

yep, nope, not happening.

Pam: And I love how other people come up with things for you to do.

Sarah: Right, I know,

I have so much fun. Let’s do this. And then later on that same week, I opened up my Bible app and it was, you know how it’ll give you things for like,

studies you should do or something? And it said,

study for entrepreneurs. And at that point I was like,

okay, like,

here we go. This is three times within one week. And so that was in 2019.

And it has been a slow progression since then to, you know, fit in everything with our family and our homeschool, but also really try to dive in on what the homeschool community actually needs and how to reach all of the homeschoolers around the world, especially as it’s growing and growing and growing.

And so that’s how, you know, it’s kind of progressed since then to now where I do, you know, the podcast, written a book, I do the consultations with families present at the conferences.

And so it’s just really, it’s grown so that I can reach families where they are to help their children.

Pam: Right. I love it. I love it so much. And there is such a need for that. And I think that’s one of the things I want to kick off the question.

I actually had a coaching call with a lady earlier this week and she was talking to me about her five year old, five year old boy. And she said, Pam, she said he just doesn’t.

He said he struggles with handwriting, but I don’t know, he. He hates it. He hates handwriting, but I don’t know if it’s because it’s just difficult for him or if, if there really is a problem.

And I think this is the thing that I get so much is moms just don’t know. And so I know what advice I gave her. I gave her just as like, you know, somebody who’s been around the block a few times.

Sarah: Well, right.

Pam: Well, it was kind of optional for my five year old, you know, it was, it was by invitation only until they were six,

you know, and then we started working on other things.

But what would you say is an OT to a mom who’s like, I don’t know.

Sarah: Yeah. So first of all,

there’s a lot of things when someone’s coming to me and they’re like, I don’t actually know if this is a problem or not. And where I go with that is function, is that we wanna look because it’s very individual, right?

We wanna look at what that person,

again, how they occupy their time and what they need and want to do.

So even within handwriting, if your child has zero desire for handwriting,

then let’s back up a tad bit, right? I’m not saying take it off the table, I’m saying back up a tad bit and see if we can figure out that underlying why.

Sometimes it’s that they don’t understand the purpose whatsoever. They’re like, why? Why am I writing something? Like what? Like they don’t understand that the words that are coming out of their mouth correspond to these letters on the page.

And if you don’t have that underlying like purpose,

why are you gonna do that? Especially not a five year old boy. They’re like, no,

this is taking up all of the time when I should be outside, you know, with my dump trucks or crawling or climbing or whatever.

So I look at, do they understand the purpose? I also wanna look at some of these other underlying skills.

So to be able to write something,

we, in OT terms, we say proximal stability, which is here in your core, leads to distal mobility. So that’s allowing your hands to really work.

So before we are really working on any type of handwriting, we have to really make sure that that core is stable.

You do that through, you know, the setup, like where you’re sitting,

if you have good posture. Like when my kids were little, I used to always put them on the bottom step and then put like something on their laps to write.

Because at least in my house I did not have a desk that a kid could sit at where they would have, you know, 90 degrees at their ankles, their knees and their hips, which is what you need to have to have that stability.

So the steps did it, because you could sit literally on the bottom one, have that back support there and then something on, you know, their lack to help.

So then I say, okay, so let’s think about that and how about if we’re working on that core strength by climbing up a slide, climbing up a tree,

crawling. Oh, crawling is so good and so important.

Pam: I was so frustrated because they took it off the pediatrician, the Right thing.

Sarah: The milestones. Yeah. OTs are in an uproar about this still. And it’s been like what, two, three years?

Pam: Yeah, yeah.

Sarah: Because of the development of the hand muscles and, and eye, hand coordination, cross body movement, crawling is extremely important.

So yeah, I still in an uproar.

We could spend all day talking about that if you want.

So, yeah, posture. I also then look at visual motor control. So can your kiddo throw a ball? Can they catch a ball? You know, if we’re missing any of these types of things,

then that handwriting is going to be really difficult.

And yes, they might come along developmentally,

but if this is something again that you need your child to do or he really wants to do and he’s not doing it yet, then that’s where you can build your team and say, hey,

Sarah, can you assess this? Or hey, the school system or hey, pediatrician who can send me to, you know, outpatient.

Can you tell me if we have, you know, something that would be underlying, that’s a delay or should I wait it out? You know, there are two kind of thoughts,

thought processes along there.

I tend to go with. If you are noticing across activities,

so if it’s just handwriting, then okay. But if you’re also noticing with catching a ball or you don’t want to climb or you don’t, you’re nervous going up and down steps, or when you’re sitting down, you’re very wiggly and falling over,

or you know, if you can’t find, you know, the silverware and the silverware drawer.

If we’re seeing it across activities or across occupations, that’s when we need to build our teams.

Pam: Okay, so let me repeat some stuff back to you because I don’t want parents freaking out, but I also want to give them some tools before they start raising alarm flags too.

Sarah: Absolutely.

Pam: What I hear you saying you got a five year old boy. Five year old boy or girl. But you know, let’s be real boys who don’t, they just don’t like the handwriting.

Like, I don’t want to do this stuff.

The first thing is to assess, like, do they understand the value of the handwriting? Like this?

Sarah: Right.

Pam: You know, these are the words coming out of your mouth. We’re putting them onto the paper and we’re using them to communicate with other people.

This is a skill we learn and we develop as we get older. Here, watch mommy and writes.

Sarah: Yes, watch mommy. I love that. Or, okay, you don’t want to do this today. Why don’t you tell me,

you know about whatever you just saw outside or what we just read or what you did in gym class or whatever.

You know, I don’t. Sunday school. Yes. Anything. And you write it down. And then.

Pam: And let’s make a book.

Sarah: Yes.

Pam: Yes. Okay.

Sarah: Really see the purpose.

Pam: Step one, establish the purpose. And we can do this through scribing and creating little books with them for them and valuing the story.

Sarah: Yes.

Pam: What you’re creating here is like the books we read and love out loud, Right?

Sarah: Absolutely. You got it.

Pam: Okay, so that’s done.

And then if. If we’ve established the purpose and there’s still some kind of resistance there,

a lot of resistance there, then we move on to. Let’s look at some of these other things. Are they throwing the ball? Are they climbing with ease, confidently,

you know, are they moving up and down the stairs? Those kinds of things. If, if all of that is happening,

then you’re not alarmed. You’re saying, let’s just wait it out.

Sarah: Yeah. Then. Then we’re going to draw, we’re going to color, we’re going to work on some handwriting without actually writing. And there’s a lot of resources for that on my website.

I actually think it’s called handwriting without Writing, you know,

so that you can. You’re practicing these skills. You’re building that core strength. You’re practicing, you know, eye, hand coordination, the motor planning. Like, you’re doing these things without the task that’s going to provide the pushback.

Because we don’t want pushback when you’re. When you’re five years old on handwriting. Because we got a long way to go. Right.

So we’re just going to address those skills and kind of wait, but show the drawing, show the purpose. Like, keep going with it,

just without the big line down, little curve, you know,

without that part.

Pam: Okay. But then if we see problems there.

So if there are any small things that we see, would you recommend a parent trying to. And I’m going to use the term remediate with my little air quotes.

Remediate some of that themselves with like, just in. Maybe it’s like, oh, we’ve been spending way too much time on screens. Less.

And now Sarah’s telling me this core strength stuff and this climbing is really important.

Can we give it six months of just being purposeful about getting out and doing those things before then we seek help?

Sarah: So, yes and no,

because I. There’s a big part of homeschoolers that are kind of afraid to seek out assistance, and so sometimes we wait too long.

And so and we know research shows us that the earlier that we kind of intervene if there is a struggle. So again, if we’re seeing this across other activities and occupations,

then building your team is a really good thing.

However, I do want to empower you. You are the leader of your team. Like you are in charge of it. I say often homeschooling is not a loan schooling, but what you’re doing is seeking out someone to work alongside of you.

So if you can, you know, there’s multiple ways and every state is different. So I can’t just say this is what you should do.

But. And there is also on my website, there’s a. Like how. What type of OT to search out. Because there’s several different systems to work within.

You know, there is the school system. Some states will do evaluations for you that you can go in. We did that with my own son. And guys, I am an ot, right?

And I still took my son in.

He was really struggling with reading was his. But we also. I was seeing it within he. A Frisbee flew right into his face, hit him and hit him in the nose.

Cause he did not even see it coming.

I was noticing some things with working memory. Like I was really seeing again across these other occupations.

And so we went in and got an evaluation. Now what they told us was reading disability unspecified. And I was like, cool, thanks for the help.

Pam: Thanks for nothing. Yeah, thanks for no help at all.

Sarah: Right?

But it did give me. They offered us, you know, the Wilson reading program. And I was like, oh, that’s Orton Gillingham. I got that. You know, we. We also had.

Because of the standardized testing, I could see convergence disorder. I could see some other things that I could then hone in on.

So that assessment can give you a lot of information that then, okay, I can work on this at home, right? I can.

You know, for him again, it was convergence and visual scanning.

So I reset up our whole closet of games left to right instead of up and down, so that I would encourage that looking. We did a lot of practice of,

you know, arms open and then close and open and close with the ball that was coming back. So he was doing convergence, you know, practicing that skill. We.

He is a hockey player. And so we did a whole lot of like tracking the puck back and forth and back and forth. And so because I had the information that my team gave me, right then I could make the adjustments within my homeschool.

So do I think that you should just like run to your nearest assessment?

Maybe, maybe not. I mean, again, that’s if it’s across environments,

if you are seeing this across different activities, then yes, I do. I do think, you know, you can go to the school, you can also ask for with your pediatrician.

And that typically though would require you’re going through medical insurance. And so oftentimes they’re going to be like, okay, well give me,

you know, I need more of a reason.

Key safety. If there is ever something that you can say safety wise would be causing a struggle, you know, my kid might run into the street. We’re struggling with impulse control.

Got it. You know, cannot do, you know, that wouldn’t be strong enough to open a window to get out for a fire. Got it. Like there’s lots of things that, that you can say I’m worried about safety.

And then they’re going to help to get into OT the other and these are popping up everywhere are cash based nature based services.

And if that’s near you, run like it’s so great. Run to it. Not away from it. Run to it.

Pam: Okay, so tell me so great, tell me what, Give me a little more in on that.

Sarah: Yeah, yeah. So nature based services, they’re ots who are working outside with our kids. And so think about how much easier it is to integrate into your own home or to incorporate these things.

When they’re playing outside,

you know, they’re setting up this environment so that your kids are, you know, whether they’re climbing outside or whether they’re working on, you know, that motor planning what comes first, second or third in an action or they’re working on that strength or whatever, they’re doing it outside.

So then you can say, oh, awesome, I could carry this over at home. Sure. You know, it’s a lot easier than when you’re in the sensory gym.

You know, you’ve got a rock climbing wall and swings and all of a sudden you’re like, how am I going to do this? Yeah, how am I gonna do this at home?

But nature based, you sure can. And it. Or they’re doing, you know, playing with rocks for fine motor skills or it’s just, it is so cool. And if I was going back into, you know, direct practice now, that would be where I would go.

I love.

Pam: Okay, but you’re looking for like a licensed OT doing that stuff. Not just a farm school or a forest school or something like that.

Sarah: Because that’s where you’re gonna get that real nitty gritty of okay, why the underlying. That’s what OTs do. We take that occupation or how you Occupy your time. We look at all the skills you need to do.

We consider within the person,

how can we help to build that? So you know how we. I was talking some about strength or motor control. It could also be, you know, something cognitive. We. There’s lots of things that we can do within the person.

We also then look at how we can set up the environment to encourage that and we work with parents on that and then the occupation. So what exactly within that activity?

So do we need a slant board for writing? Do we need to change a pencil? Do we need, you know, the actual act?

So that’s kind of our method.

Person, environment and occupation.

Pam: Person, environment and occupation. Okay. Love it. Okay. So it’s fun to hear you talk about things like slant boards. And I actually got my kids.

There was another homeschooler in the area whose kids had grown up and she had an old school desk. And so we bought the school desk and brought it home.

But I wanted that so my kids could sit properly to write. Because I know when they’re like sitting at the table and hanging their feet. So I love your stair tip to, you know, sit your kids on the stairs and that’s a great place for them to sit.

But are there some, like, maybe habits and things that parents could accidentally dentally encouraged that might make handwriting harder in the long run?

Sarah: Ooh, that might make it harder posture for sure.

The other thing is not teaching it. You know, there are specific ways that you’re supposed to write your letters.

And some are like, but why, Sarah? Well, think about it. If you are working for endurance, right? So you’re going to write a longer amount of time. Think about note taking and stuff like that.

And you’re starting your B and then your C is like, you know, you’re starting from the bottom instead of the top and you’re just making it harder.

Then you’re not going to be able to have that endurance to take all of those notes. Right?

So actually explicitly teach. And that’s what our research is showing too. As much as I’m talking about, you know, build these underlying skills. That is important for sure.

But building the underlying skills isn’t then just going to make your kid all of a sudden, right? You know,

so we need to build those skills and understand the purpose and eventually like as. As they’re coming together.

Then teach that letter format formation.

And that also helps with other skills like that sequencing that we’re talking about like in the motor planning. So if we can get that continuous and easy,

then you don’t have to think about, wait,

I’m having to spell this word and I’m having to remember how to write it. And I’m trying to remember everything that I have to say in this sentence because that’s just pulling together too many things in the brain, and it’s really, really hard.

So if we can, you know, itemize, separate out these tasks so explicitly work on handwriting for a while,

you know,

then how we’re going to write the words, then how we’re going to spell, you know, how we can then start to put it all together. So break it apart and then put it back together.

Pam: Okay. Yeah, I like that. And we talk about that with math. We talk about the fact, like, long division actually has multiple different kinds of computation in there. You know, you’re having to divide, you’re having to multiply, you’re having to add.

But we don’t always break writing down. And I. I think we do a fairly good job at homeschool better together talking about the difference between the physical, mechanical act of writing and the composition part.

But you’re like, breaking it down even more minutely than that.

And so if a parent has a child who say four or five, and they’ve started making all their letters, it’s still. Don’t just let them go with how they’re doing it, still explicitly teach them.

Sarah: There’s all kinds of, you know, you could do it in sand and you’ve got like an index card or something that you write in front of them that shows the method of doing it.

And then they can copy it that way or,

you know, whatever. You could do it. We. So my son is in fifth grade and we. Well, fifth grade, he’s nine years old. Whatever, you know. But whenever we were working on spelling, but we just started this recently, this past week or so, and he was like, mom, could we do the shaving cream thing again?

I was like,

sure,

why not?

So we pulled out, you know, my husband’s shaving cream squirted out, and he was just writing his. Let his spelling words in there.

But I mean, that’s fun, you know.

Pam: It’S way more fun than doing it on paper, right?

Sarah: Absolutely. So give them, you know, that way. The other thing I would say is when they’re little,

for sure put things up on a vertical surface because that encourages that grasp, changes and encourages you to really hold that core tight.

So we for a long time did math in the bathroom with my older kids. I called it bath math because we. I would put, you know, my youngest in the Bathtub.

And he was safe and contained and. Because at that point it was one.

And then, you know, Annabelle and Caleb would be standing against the mirrors and writing their math that way. And then they would erase it, you know, off the mirror and we would go.

So everybody was safe and contained and vertical surface to go.

Pam: Dry erase markers on the mirrors. Those come off very easily.

Sarah: Yep.

Pam: Okay, well, let’s. You mentioned shaving cream and. And things like that. So are there tools and adaptations like grips, like special pencil grips or grips, or different lined paper that are actually worth trying, or are there some that are more gimmicky that maybe should be avoided?

Sarah: Yeah, it really depends on the child. Right. Because some kiddos really need that extra sensory input.

So that’s where, you know, a pencil gripper can be very helpful because they’re getting that soft,

you know, something to go in or there. Sometimes they’re the triangle shape, and you can, you know, move your thumb on it, that type of thing. It can really help to just give that sensory input.

Especially if your kiddo is pushing really hard on the paper.

That’s a sure sign that, like, they’re trying to get that input in. So if we can give it in a different way, put it on the vertical surface and provide it through, you know, a gripper, great lined paper can be.

If they’re really struggling with the seeing, you know, where the lines are, if they’re having any visual difficulties, it just gives that extra sensory input of. Okay, here’s the bottom line.

Here’s the top line. It helps that way. In fact,

I was mentioning my middle son earlier. I put wiki sticks on his lines for a long time just to try to give him that feedback of, okay, that’s where I need to stop.

Because he wasn’t seeing it clearly.

So great, then do it.

But for a kiddo who’s just typically developing and it’s just needs practice and stuff, I would.

You don’t typically need those things. That’s. It’s for the extra input if your kiddo is struggling.

Pam: Okay, you just triggered me. My fourth grade teacher used to make me lay a ruler under my line.

Sarah: Yeah.

Pam: And fold the margin back because I would write past the marble, and I remember writing on those.

Sarah: Good for her. Good for her.

Pam: It seemed really mean at the time. When you’re like, come on, lady.

Sarah: What do we have to be so perfect?

I can see it. I can see it. But she was like, wait a minute. There’s. There’s a reason that you’re struggling there. And who knows like, whether it’s funny now after I’ve gone through all this with my son, I’m like, oh, well, my visual scanning isn’t very good.

And,

you know,

I also can’t really catch a ball. And like, there’s things where I look back, like.

But she was noticing, for whatever reason,

you know, that you were struggling with that. She’s like, here’s a solution. We’re going to change that occupation. Right? She, she used that model without even really knowing. Now, if she was addressing the underlying skills, more of like, why.

Why were you not staying on the lines? That might have been even more helpful. But we’ll give her some grace.

Pam: This was a long time ago.

Sarah: I know. We’re not gonna throw her under the bus.

Pam: No, no. God bless her. She’s probably not even with us.

Sarah: Yeah, no.

Pam: She did a great job. I remember her for sure. I remember her.

So sometimes I think parents feel,

and I don’t know, maybe you can share your, your wisdom on this, but also your experience with this. Do you think sometimes parents don’t seek out help for their kids because they feel like it’s a failure on their part?

Sarah: I do, I do.

And I think, oh, there’s a lot of reasons. There’s fear, you know, because you don’t know what somebody outside of our home is going to say now. Are they going to tell you that you’re doing the wrong thing?

Are they going to tell you that you need to go into again to the public school because you need more resources and that can be like a real blow also?

I don’t think that that’s true. There are lots of resources around and most of our,

you know, quote unquote professionals don’t necessarily know the other options. Right.

Or aren’t as familiar with occupational therap or occupational therapists, aren’t as familiar with homeschooling.

Again, while I’ve got that course, you know how for ot. So if you’re getting that pushback, be like, hey, you need to go to homeschool ot. There’s a course there for you.

She’ll tell you that you’re wrong,

but maybe don’t say it that way.

But simultaneously, it is really important to go in recognizing that you are in charge. Right? You are in charge of your kiddo. But you may need some support. And that is not a bad thing.

Getting help, getting support, whether you’re reaching out to me,

whether you know they’re coming to you, Pam, whatever,

you know, to try to get the support that they need to best serve Their kiddos like it. It. There is. I don’t want to say there’s a window of opportunity because we do know that the brain is plastic or it’s malleable.

Right. So we are making connections throughout our lifetime.

So it’s not like, well, you missed your chance. You’re done here.

But we also know that if we, you know, kind of intervene and try to help and support your kiddos earlier, it gets rid of some of that frustration and fear, which then could make your kids not want to write, not want to,

you know, participate in, you know, the sports that they could or not participate in, you know, whatever, Boy Scouts, because they’re afraid they might have to right there, or they don’t know what someone’s going to say around them.

You know, if we can get in there before that they are feeling that real frustration and support,

well, then we can make a bigger difference.

Pam: And I will say, too, as somebody who got help a little bit later with my kid who had dysgravia,

he would have been more willing to make changes at a younger age.

Sarah: Yep. Absolutely.

Pam: That was a struggle as well, just because he was. He was. He had already reached those obstinate years.

Sarah: Yeah.

Pam: About everything. And this was just one more thing to be obstinate about.

Sarah: Right. Or even like, I’ve tried this over and over. Why am I going to come to you now and try to do something different? Like, I. I get that, you know, as kids are older or.

Or especially now with typing and talk to text and whatever, and they’re like, why do I even need to know this?

So here’s the answer for that, guys.

One is,

I will say it does depend on the child.

If we don’t teach our kiddos how to write,

and then they’re getting into these upper years of school and they need to be taking notes. Right. They need to be able to later on come back and study something.

And it’s not everyone’s going to hand you your. Your notes.

What we’re doing is removing a way that they can learn.

We also, especially our kids who are really active and they might need something that they are, you know, motor doing while someone’s talking so that it influences their attention.

And we’ve removed that because we haven’t taught them because they said they didn’t like it.

Well, then we are doing them a disservice. We’re not allowing them to be able to engage with the material using all of their senses.

So it is still important to teach our kids to write.

And our kids who are struggling with that. If we can give them that reason.

No, I don’t need you to do a hundred page paper handwritten. I don’t even need you to do a specific outline written.

You can draw it, you can make a lot, you can sketch, note, whatever it is. But I want to make sure that you are able to use all of your senses so that you can take in all this information and get them both out of this class.

Pam: Yeah, because your college professor is not going to let you sit there and play magnetiles or Lego while you’re listening to the lecture.

Sarah: Oh, gosh, no. Although I’m kind of picturing it. It would be awesome. But no, they’re not.

Pam: So what encouragement would you give the mom who’s worried that her child is never going to have neat handwriting?

Sarah: Well, I don’t worry, you know, neat neatness is bl. Like cool.

We’re looking at function here. So for this mom who’s worried about is my child ever going to be able to write,

I say be a student of your student. And you are an expert already in your child. So let’s dig in a little bit more. Be really intentional about your observations.

And I know you can do that. And then don’t be afraid to seek out assistance if you need it, you know, and when you need it.

So I just want to empower, you know, parents. You are not alone in this. There are supports out there for sure. I mean, I’m here. That’s part of what homeschool OT is for.

So make sure that you, you know, build your team,

be an observer, and support your kid with what they specifically need and want to do.

Pam: So we’re really going for more function over form.

Sarah: Yeah, right.

Pam: We want them to be able to do it more than like it look like just beautiful.

Okay.

Before we wrap up, I want to give you a chance. What is one myth about handwriting? Motor skills OT things that you wish you could bust for. Homeschool parents everywhere.

Sarah: Oh, the people who are all of a sudden, as soon as you say my child has messy handwriting, they’re like, oh, get out the play. D’oh. And build those fine motor skills to know.

Start with the core, you know, start with our,

our strength here, our posture and our stability.

Then, you know, we have to go down the arm. So build there,

crawl around, climb the trees,

do all of that stuff before you’re like picking noodles out of whatever, pennies out of putty. Like, don’t start there.

Start with a cord.

Pam: We need like, like a T shirt or something that’s like, Charlotte Mason was right about everything. You know, she was talking about having the kids outside.

Sarah: Yes.

Pam: You know, I know.

Sarah: Yep.

I still though I remember back the very first time that I was reading some of her work and she was talking about, like, you know, sitting outside while your kids were playing and being involved in your own thing.

And. And I was, like, trying to picture myself, like, sitting on a blanket and knitting while my kids, like, nicely played around me. And that lasted about.05 seconds. And I was like,

yeah,

I don’t know.

But Charlotte,

if I.

This is really actually my answer when people ever ask that question now, like, who would you go back in time to talk to? Like, I’d go back and talk to Charlotte Mason.

We have so many questions to ask her.

Pam: Yeah. And. But those kids were running. They were running and playing and. Yeah, yeah, that’s where you need to start. That’s where you need to be so important.

So important. Okay, Sarah, this is your chance.

Moms need help,

and I know they can find it with you. What do you have to offer and where can they get it?

Sarah: First of all, just thank you because I’m super excited to talk about what I do. It is, like, an honor and a pleasure to be able to work, come alongside a family.

So,

on the Homeschool OT website today, we talked all about handwriting, but that is just one occupation. You know, there are so many things that we need and want to do all day long, from sleep to, you know, our daily activities, brushing teeth, eating, you know, all of that stuff.

Being able to go outside and play, like, initiate play, just so many things.

So on the website, I primarily talk about three. I talk about play, I talk about executive functioning. That really leads in, especially as we get older, talk about sensory processing a lot, because this underlying, you know, being aware of our own bodies and being able to stay regulated,

control our emotions and our reactions, like this is. It all requires sensory regulation.

And then. Oh, I said. I said three before. And then handwriting.

So there’s information all over on my website and the ot, as in Podcast weekly.

I also have a book called A Chameleon Tale, which is so fun. My friend Jackie, I was working with her and her son, and she was like, it’s all about sensory processing.

And she said, sarah, where’s the book to explain this to my child? And I was like,

there isn’t one. And she’s an illustrator. So we wrote it and it’s Singer. So it’s three chameleons that are,

you know, going on their way to a restaurant.

And the they change color based on their regulation.

So a kiddo who needed more movement here, the chameleon, she changes color. She turns coral. There’s a kiddo who’s really feeling overwhelmed by everything that’s going around. His body is changing to teal.

They are gold when they’re really regulated, which. Wouldn’t it be awesome if our outside could match what our insides was?

Pam: People would just know.

Sarah: Yes, exactly. Exactly.

But it doesn’t.

So. But this can help to give kids a language of I’m gold or I’m coral or I’m teal or. And it’s all full of strategies throughout to help to figure out how to regulate the body.

And my favorite part is that mama changes colors too. So we can recognize, like, this isn’t just kids.

And sometimes me, the mom who’s here, I need to advocate for myself. I need to do some things for my own self to regulate so that I can give to everyone around me.

So it just provides a lot of great conversation for kids and parents.

You can find that there. Homeschoolot.com and also a guide to go with it.

I have courses for parents on executive functioning, sensory processing, handwriting.

I have a course for teens on executive functioning. I do consultations. There’s just. There’s a lot there. So I am trying to serve our homeschool community because we know that there’s not two homeschools that are alike.

So people need very different things.

So it’s. There’s lots of different options there.

Pam: I love it. Go check out the wealth of resources@homeschoolot.com if you feel like you need deeper help, you can sign up for a consultation.

Also, check out the podcast, the weekly email newsletter. So many great resources.

Sarah, thank you so much for providing services for homeschoolers and just sharing your great wealth of knowledge. I really appreciate you coming on.

Sarah: Thank you so much for having me.

Pam: That’s our show for today.

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