Your first session together

Sit with your child the first time. Not for the whole thing, and not forever, but for the first letter. What you do in those ten minutes decides whether they think this is something they can do.

Before you start

• A tablet with a stylus is best. A laptop trackpad works. A mouse works badly, and a child using one will score lower than they deserve. If a mouse is all you have, say so out loud to your child, because otherwise they will think the low score is about them.
• Sit beside them, not across from them. You want to see what they see.
• Ten minutes is a session. Handwriting is a physical skill and a tired hand makes worse letters, which makes worse scores, which makes a discouraged child. Short and often beats long and once.

The first letter, step by step

Open your family page, press your child's name, then Start practicing. They will land on Level 1 and the first letter of the first family.

1. Watch it first. Press ▶ Watch Demo. A pen draws the letter along its true path. Do not skip this and do not let them skip it. This is the entire difference between the program and a worksheet: it shows where to begin, which way to go, and where the pen lifts.

Watch it twice. Say the movement out loud while it draws. *Start on the line, swing up, over the top, round to the left, close it up.* Your words matter more than you think, because the child will repeat them to themselves later.

2. Trace it. Press We Do. They trace over the letter. The line only fills in where they actually went, so scribbling across it does nothing.

If they go wrong, Clear Row and start the row again. There is no penalty and nothing is being recorded against them yet.

3. Write it. Press You Do. The guide disappears. They write it themselves, then press Submit Attempt, and it is scored.

What to say about the first score

Whatever the number is, say this first: that is a real score of a real letter. It is not a sticker and it is not flattery.

Then look at what it is actually telling you, which is in what the scores mean. A 58 with a well-formed letter sitting above the line is a completely different situation from a 58 where the letter was made backwards, and the thing you say next should be different too.

What not to say is "try harder." Nearly every low score here is a technique problem, not an effort problem, and a child who is told to try harder at something they are doing wrong just does it wrong more forcefully.

The five tries

Under the writing area is the 5-Try Mastery Tracker. Your child gets five attempts, and the average of the five has to reach 70 to pass the letter.

Tell them that plainly, because it is the fairest thing about the program:

• One lucky letter does not pass them.
• One shaky letter does not fail them.
• Below 70, they go back to tracing and try the set again, as many times as they need. Nothing is lost and nothing is marked failed.
• A letter they have passed can never be taken away.

When to leave them to it

Once they have passed two or three letters on their own, step back. Check the progress page once or twice a week rather than watching every attempt. Children write worse when they are being watched, the same as adults.

Come back to sitting beside them when the numbers say to, which is the whole point of what the scores mean.