An open teal The Play Way box with the Handwriting in Practice Play Kit contents arranged above it: a black The Play Projects case, the Write handwriting workbook, the Handwriting in Practice guide, pens and pencils, a sharpener and eraser, an invisible spy pen with blank cards, sticker sheets, a mosaic sticker art set, Sky Grass Dirt paper, a notepad with teal envelopes, a shopping list pad, a recipe notepad, and a weekly planner board with a marker.

A boy writes with a red pencil on lined paper at a table while an adult sits alongside, watching.

Two children press small foil mosaic tiles onto printed scenes of a crocodile and a fish, with the instruction card and the mosaic art box on the table between them.

An adult and two boys lean over an open cardboard box on a coffee table, lifting out tissue paper and printed pages.

A child copies the words the park in red pencil onto pastel Sky Grass Dirt paper, following a model line written above.

An adult and two boys sit together on a sofa turning the pages of an open workbook, the opened kit box on the floor in front of them.

A girl smiles at the camera in a fruit and vegetable shop, holding up a handwritten shopping list of nine items.

Handwriting in Practice Play Kit

Name: Handwriting in Practice Play Kit
Brand: The Play Way
SKU: HANDWRITING-03
Price: 79.0 AUD
Availability: InStock

The Play Way

$79.00

$79.00 ~~$0.00~~

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Support writing that is quick enough and clear enough to keep up, with four weeks of short writing activities: a shopping list, a recipe, a secret message, a thank you letter.

This play kit was curated by our therapy team for the child who can write, but avoids it. Most handwriting practice asks a child to think of a sentence, work out the spelling, form the letters and get it on the page all at once, but we strip that back. Our workbook gives them the words, so they can focus on the writing. This is the last in our series of three handwriting play kits. Choose between them by what is actually challenging your child rather than by how old they are, and start here if they can write a sentence you can read, but it takes them so long that they are still on the first line when the class has finished.

The Handwriting in Practice Play Kit, previously named the Handwriting in Practice Program, is a children's handwriting kit put together by paediatric occupational therapists in Australia, for older children working on writing speed, endurance and legibility, letter size, spacing between words, and writing on the line.

It includes thirteen tools: a compendium case, the Write handwriting workbook with four weeks of activities, mechanical pencils and pens, an invisible spy pen with blank message cards, a sharpener and eraser, star and emoji stickers, a notepad with envelopes, a magnetic weekly planner with a marker, a magnetic shopping list, a recipe notepad, Sky Grass Dirt paper, a mosaic sticker art set, and a parent guide. The four weeks cover writing a shopping list, a recipe, a set of instructions, a list of jokes, song lyrics, a letter and a thank you note, with a reflection activity each week.

Every kit also comes with supporting video in The Play Way Hub, included, about an hour and a half in all, covering goal setting, how to set a child up to write, letter formation for the whole alphabet on Sky Grass Dirt paper, warming up the fingers, and a walkthrough of each week's activities. Most families using this kit have a child somewhere between 7 and 16, the stretch where handwriting is no longer being taught but is used all day. That is a guide rather than a rule. Children build these skills at their own pace, so choose by what is getting in the way now rather than by how old they are.

It is the last of three handwriting play kits, after the Getting Ready to Write Play Kit and the Creative Handwriting Play Kit. Which of the three to choose: Getting Ready to Write is for the child whose body is not ready to sit and use a pencil yet. Creative Handwriting is for the child who is learning what each letter looks like and how it is made. Handwriting in Practice is for the child who can already form the letters but writes slowly, tires quickly, or cannot read it back.

From The Play Way, built by an OT who has worked with children for nearly 20 years. Ships Australia wide. Contains small parts and items recommended for ages 3 and up, and adult supervision is needed.

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Size guide

Handwriting in Practice Play Kit

$79.00

$79.00 ~~$0.00~~

WHAT'S INSIDE

What's in this play kit

A full kit of play-tools, curated to work together.

The place for everything

A neoprene zip case with a compartment for each of the writing tools. We like these because everything has a place, and they feel like they get something special, just for them, to help with their writing.

Handwriting Workbook

Four weeks of writing activities, two a week, with a reflection at the end of each one. Your child writes down what they want to get better at in the opening pages, so they can track their progress and celebrate when they reach their goal.

Mechanical pencils and pens

A range to try so they can get a feel for what they like. Grip, weight and how much a pen drags on the paper all change how quickly a hand tires, and children often engage better with something once they have chosen it themselves.

Invisible spy pen and cards

A pen that writes in ink you cannot see, with blank cards and a light in the lid to read it back. This provides novelty and interest when writing is often considered ‘boring’.

Sharpener and eraser

We provide both so a blunt pencil, or a little mistake, don’t become a reason to stop writing.

Star and emoji stickers

For your child to reflect and celebrate their progress. They reflect at the end of each week themselves, rather than an adult ‘telling’ them how they went or measuring their progress for them.

Notepad and envelopes

For writing to a person. A thank you note or a birthday card gets opened by somebody, which is a much more meaningful way to practise writing than a worksheet that gets marked.

Magnetic weekly planner

A wipe-clean board for the fridge with a marker, so the two writing sessions a week are something your family makes space for.

Magnetic shopping list

A list pad for the fridge. Your child writes the week's shopping list, so the reason to write is practical, meaningful and regular.

Recipe notepad

For copying out a recipe that then gets cooked. They’re copying, so the words are already there, and your child can put their focus into how they write it themselves (not what they’re going to write), and the meal at the end of it is the reason they get it finished.

Sky Grass Dirt paper

Paper in three bands: blue sky at the top, green grass in the middle, brown dirt at the bottom. Most letters sit in the grass on the solid line, the tall ones reach into the sky and the ones with tails hang into the dirt, so your child can see how big a letter should be and where it goes. The video works through the whole alphabet on this paper, upper and lower case.

Mosaic sticker art

Small foil tiles pressed one at a time into a printed picture. It is the pinch and the aim a pen needs, but without a pen this time, so that on a day when writing is not going to happen, they can still get their practice in.

Parent Guide

A short guide for you (the adult), covering how to set the goal with your child, where and when in the day they are most likely to write well, and how to run each of the four weeks.

Why we built it this way

One job at a time

Thinking of it, spelling it and writing it are three jobs, and asking for all three at once is where writing tends to fall over. This play kit gives your child the words, so the only thing left to work on is the letters, the spacing and the line.

Writing that goes somewhere

A shopping list that goes on the fridge and then to the shops. A recipe that gets cooked. A message in invisible ink that somebody has to hold a light over. Your child is writing because there is a reason to, and that is what gets them to the end of a page.

Four weeks, and they set the goal

It runs over four weeks, two short activities a week and a reflection at the end of each. Your child writes down what they want to get better at in the first week, so when you point out their progress, you are showing them that they are working toward, and achieving their goal.

INCLUDED WITH YOUR PLAY KIT

The videos that come with it

The workbook is laid out week by week and everything you need is in the box, so your child can start on week one the day it arrives. When you want the learning behind it, there is about an hour and a half of video. It covers how to set the goal together, where to have your child sit and when in the day to do the activities. Each week's activities are demonstrated on video too, so your child can watch how a thing is done before they do it. We'll send your invitation to access it all when your kit ships.

WHO THIS PLAY KIT IS FOR

If homework looks like this

The teacher says the handwriting needs improving, and doing worksheets at home just isn’t working.
They can write, but they are still on the first line when everyone else has finished.
They avoid writing anything at all at school, so I need some ideas to engage them at home.

If any of that sounds like your child, this is who we built the play kit for.

Who made this

Kait is an OT. She has been working with children and families for nearly 20 years, and she has four kids of her own. She built this play kit for the child whose handwriting has stopped improving, but isn’t where it needs to be. Once kids can write the letters, school often stops explicitly teaching handwriting and just expects everyone to be simply ‘doing it’, so a child who is slower at writing can keep falling further behind on work that has nothing to do with ability to write the letters on their own. The four weeks were built by our therapy team around activities a child could find meaning in to engage in writing practice. Writing the shopping list, copying out a recipe and sending a thank you note, and none of it looks like a ‘boring’ worksheet.

5,000+
Australian children have used our play kits
20 years
of Kait working with children and families

Handwriting in Practice Play Kit