Rhythm & Writing Review

     Rhythm & Writing takes a new and fun approach to letter formation through Rhythm & Writing with the Get Write Crew. With cute characters and catchy rhymes, children learn handwriting with ease. This program is designed for children ages 4-6 and is meant to be used within this crucial time period to aide children in developing proper letter formation. Nikki Wilson, the creator of Rhythm & Writing explained the importance of forming letters correctly in her intro to Rhythm & Writing,

​“I have seen first-hand, what happens when children don’t learn to form their letters correctly: they write slower, their hands get tired faster, and they have a harder time transitioning to cursive.” And, that about sums up my oldest child and his handwriting woes.

    The curriculum begins with a pre-assessment to see which letters need some extra attention. My two smallest students, 4 and 2 (yes, she just scribbles but wants to be included), skipped this because their letter knowledge has not been strongly developed. But, my 6 year old took a pre-assessment which revealed he had been forming the letter “t” incorrectly. We flipped to the page to learn about the letter “t” and read a fun rhyme: “long line down and across.” My son had been making a long line upwards, and then across. Though the “t” looked perfectly form, the way he was writing it was incorrect and would consequently slow down his writing in the future and add frustration.

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    Rhythm & Writing with the Get Write Crew groups letters together by similar shapes. Most programs that we’ve explored have presented letters phonetically, which is great for learning to read, but a bit more challenging when it comes to writing. For example, “M” is a common first letter in phonetic curricula, but “M” requires significantly more fine motor coordination than the letter “L”.  Rhythm & Writing with the Get Write Crew starts with “L” and then moves to “t” and “I” because they’re simpler to form and have similar features. Once my 4-year-old mastered writing her letter “L”, the following letters were a breeze!

     In addition to a workbook, Rhythm & Writing offers songs to help kids learn their letter formation. All of my kids loved dancing and jumping around to the songs as they learned. We used the Rhythm & Writing program "family style" 4 days a week. One thing that is really neat about the program is that there’s the option to purchase a plastic transparencies to use over a page so that the book can be used with a dry erase marker for extra practice or multiple children. Because my house is where dry erase markers go to die, we photo copied the pages for each student participating in the lesson.

​     Rhythm & Writing encourages students to practice their letters in a variety of ways, from pencils to markers, and even writing them with their fingers in shaving cream. This is left open for families to incorporate and adapt as it makes sense. In our house, we practiced writing letters in the air with our fingers, in a small purple sandbox, and with play-dough. 

     We’ve enjoyed this program in our home; it’s boosted my kid’s handwriting confidence and provided me with a bit more peace of mind by knowing we’re finally tackling handwriting the right way with the Get Write Crew! I hope that they expand to include numbers in the future and maybe even make the songs downloadable so you can listen on the go!
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Be sure to check out the rest of the crew’s thoughts below: