Teach Handwriting with MUSIC! {A Rhythm & Writing Review}

Reluctant Writer?

Do you have a reluctant writer?  Are you looking for a way to make handwriting fun? Does your little one like to move to music?

If you answered yes to any of these, then you will love Rhythm & Writing with the Get Write Crew.  Rhythm & Writing provides an innovative way to teach handwriting to young children by incorporating music into each of their lessons.  The songs, which channel fun beats, are performed by the Get Write Crew: Big Country, Jazzy Faith, Hip Hop, and Mo’ Rock.

The Music Videos

The letters are grouped together based on similarity.   Letters that share pencil movement would be taught at the same time.  Your child begins by watching the music video of the letters to be learned.  These videos are AWESOME!  The tunes are incredibly catchy–which is perfect when you are wanting to learn something.  They also incorporate into song the movements needed to correctly write the letters.  The screen changes from showing the letter being written (when they are describing the movements) to fun colors when they are just singing about how fun it is to learn them.

After watching the first music video, I would walk around the house and catch different members from our family singing it.  I even caught my husband humming it while he worked.  In fact, our whole family loved these videos.  During one lesson I sat Olivia down to watch her video and when I came back in the room found all of my children who were home watching the video with her.

They were so popular that my kids began requesting videos every time she would do a lesson.  They all had their favorite letters and adopted a “theme song” based on which video corresponded to the first letter of their name.  I would even catch them making up dances to the songs.  (They declined letting me video this.)  This was great because it encouraged Olivia to watch the video as many times as she needed to learn the right technique.  And because the videos were fun and engaging, you didn’t mind having to watch them repeatedly.

Handwriting Practice

The beginning of the book has a pre-assessment so you can gauge progress along the way.

We also received a transparency sheet to place over the workbook pages. This meant she could practice the letters over and over until she got it right before doing it in the workbook itself.  I appreciated this because it allowed for extra practice where needed.  We spent quite a bit of time on the first lessons as she adapted to writing the letters the correct size and writing them neatly.

As she practiced writing I would often catch her repeating the directions from the song for the specific letter she was working on.

The music videos also naturally lend to physical movement.  It wasn’t uncommon for her to use her hand to practice the movements they were showing on screen.  She felt like she was “conducting the letters.”

This natural incorporation of movement, along with the catchy melody and easy-to-learn songs, followed by the physical writing of the letters allows this curriculum to appeal to all learning styles.  Parent and child alike will look forward to lessons with the Get Write Crew from Rhythm & Writing.

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