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Writing practice for kids aged 5–10

Questions parents ask

Everything below is answered the way we would answer it on the phone, including the places where the honest answer is "no" or "we cannot tell you that".

Deciding whether to try it

The questions a parent asks before spending anything.

My child already writes, just badly. Is this for us?
Yes, and that is the case we built for. Most handwriting apps teach letters to children who cannot write yet, which leaves out the child who can write and hates how it looks. Here the letter families rebuild the movement underneath the letter, so your child is not starting again from nothing. They are fixing the thing that was making it hard.
Tracing apps have not worked for us before. Why would this?
Because tracing is where we start, not where we finish. A child who only ever traces gets very good at staying inside a shape, which is not the same skill as writing on an empty line. Support comes off across three steps on purpose, and the last one is lined paper with no model and no outline, just a dot showing where the pencil goes first. That is the step that tells you whether the movement actually transferred.
More screen time? I am trying to reduce it.
A fair objection, and the honest answer is that this is a different kind of screen time. Most of the screen time worth worrying about asks a child to consume something. This asks them to produce something with their hand, and the movements they make are the movements a pencil needs. A session is two letters and five to ten minutes, and the app ends it. There is no next episode, no streak begging them to stay, and nothing to scroll.
My child abandons every app within a week. Why pay for another?
Do not, at first. The free tier exists so you can find out before you spend anything: a whole family of capitals, plus C and O and the opening letters of the Gardeners, with no card and no account. If your child is not asking for it by day five, you have your answer and it cost you nothing.
Is it educational, or is it a game with writing in it?
The other way round. Every level is your child writing letters, with the support taken away step by step. Stars, family gates and streaks mark progress, but they are not what the session is spent doing. If you took the rewards out, the thing that remains is still a handwriting lesson, which is not true of most apps that look like this one.
What is free, and what does it cost?
Free: a whole block family, plus capital C and O and the opening letters of the Gardeners, along with the parent progress view and every printable worksheet. No card, no account. The membership is $49.99 a year with a 14-day free trial, or $7.99 a month. Compare that to tutoring rather than to apps: a year of daily practice costs less than a single hour of private tutoring.

How the teaching works

Why the letters are ordered the way they are.

Why are letters not taught in alphabetical order?
Because the alphabet is an order for naming letters, not for writing them. Taught in ABC order the hand jumps between unrelated movements every day: a, then b, then c, three different starts in three days. Grouped by movement, learning one letter carries into the next. Learn c, and you are most of the way to a, d, o, g and q.
Why are b and d in different families?
Because they only look alike. They are the pair children mix up most, precisely because they are near mirror images on the page, but in the hand they share nothing: b starts as a tall loop, d starts as a curve. Teaching them together teaches the confusion. Teaching them apart gives a child two clear movements instead of one ambiguous picture.
Does it match the style my child is taught at school?
It teaches one classic joined cursive with smooth, rounded joins, consistently. That is close to what most UK and US schools use, though schools do vary. Dutch and German school scripts are planned after the English launch, and we would rather say that plainly than imply we already cover them.

Practical questions

Devices, ages, hands and what the app will and will not tell you.

Do we need to buy anything to start?
No. It runs on the iPhone that is already in the house, and your child can start tonight using a finger. What we would say after the first week is different: get a stylus. Handwriting is a motor skill and holding the tool is part of the skill, so a finger will teach the path a letter takes but not the grip. Any generic stylus does that job, and the cheap ones are fine. Lay the phone flat on the table, the way a sheet of paper sits, and the hand rests beside it exactly as it would when writing.
Is a finger good enough, or does my child need a stylus?
A finger is good enough to start, and it is how most children do their first sessions. It is not what we would leave them on. Writing asks the hand to hold something, steer it, and control the pressure and angle while it moves, and a fingertip skips all of that: your child practices where the line goes without practicing how to drive the thing that draws it. A stylus of a few dollars puts the grip back in. This is also why the app is built around the hand rather than a keyboard.
Does it work on an iPad, or with an Apple Pencil?
Yes to both. The app runs on iPad as well as iPhone, and an Apple Pencil works exactly as you would expect. An iPad gives a bigger writing area, which some children prefer. Neither is required, and neither is worth buying for this on its own: a phone and a cheap stylus give your child the same movements. If you already own them, use them.
How old does my child need to be?
The app is built for 5 to 10. Capitals suit the younger end, because the strokes are simpler and the targets bigger. Cursive readiness usually arrives around six, and it is the core of the product. Your child chooses which to start with; nothing is locked behind anything else.
My child is left-handed. Does that change anything?
The letters and the movements are the same, and nothing in the app is mirrored or altered for handedness. What helps most is physical: turn the paper or the phone slightly clockwise, let the hand sit below the writing line rather than hooked above it, and check they can see what they have just written. A left-handed child covering their own work with their hand is the most common reason the writing drifts.
Will it tell me how bad my child’s handwriting is?
No, and we would rather be straight about that than sell you a score. An app cannot judge handwriting the way a person can, so it does not pretend to. What you get is a record of what has been practiced and which letters are mastered, in a parent view behind a parental gate. The judgment stays with you and your child’s teacher.
I am a grandparent. Can I give this?
Yes, and the free tier is the easy way in: it needs no card and no account, so a child can start on the phone that is already in the house and you can see whether it lands before anyone pays for anything. The printable worksheets and sticker pack are free to everyone and mail easily.
Should we be seeing someone about this instead?
That is a conversation for you, your child’s teacher and, if it comes to it, a professional. Daily practice sits alongside that conversation rather than in place of it. If you are on a waiting list, this is something to do in the meantime, and it is not a reason to come off the list.

What should my child write with?

Start with a finger, then get a stylus. Holding the tool is half of learning to write, and a fingertip skips that half. Any cheap one does the job.

Already own a stylus? Use that.

Still deciding?

Make a worksheet with your child's name on it and print it. It is free, there is nothing to sign up for, and it will tell you more in five minutes than this page will.

Open the worksheet maker Read the method