Stubby Pencils have their Place

In Blake's preschool book , they have been having him draw circles, lines, squares, triangles, and so forth around different objects. I noticed that he was clenching his pencil in his little fist while doing these things, which gives very little dexterity and makes handwriting very difficult. Knowing that, I wanted to fix this habit as soon as possible, but how?

I vaguely remembered reading in The Well Trained Mind that there is a relatively easy way of correcting this, so I decided to try it out.

I bought a couple of those chubby preschool pencils and cut them into six 2 to 2 1/2 inch pieces with a serrated kitchen knife. Then I sharpened one end of each piece, giving Blake six little stubby pencils to write with. And you know what, it worked!

Blake could no longer hold them in his little fist and still write with them, so he had to use his little fingertips instead. He is still trying to use all of his fingers to grip the pencil, but that will fade in time as he gains more control. At least he is no longer using his fist.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that he loves having these tiny pencils.

It's a win win situation!