Brilliant, Borrowed Idea

I am on a homeschooling email group and a woman there suggested buying numeral stamps for children who cannot write their numbers well yet.

Cha-Ching!  Brilliant idea!

Both of our boys have handwriting glitches.  Isaac regularly writes his numbers backwards.  Joseph isn't writing numbers, or letters, at all.
The solution for Isaac's math has been that I sit and write down his answers for him. That is hard in that I have 6 other children to care for.

So I bought the numeral stamps plus some WASHABLE ink.

Isaac was, honestly, not thrilled.  He is putting the effort into writing his own numbers to avoid using the ink stamps.

But Joseph LOVES the ink stamps. 

  He is starting MathUSee Alpha and he can fill in his own workbook pages.  And he is justifiably proud of it.

And I'm happy that I don't have to hover over him and write down all his numbers for him.

As an aside, I believe it is common for children to proceed at different paces with reading, writing, and arithmetic.  A child who has a handwriting glitch can run into real problems in a traditional school setting, as he may be ready for advanced reading and math work, but can't get this thoughts and calculations down on paper.  I am thankful that I can work around our boys' handwriting issues and allow them to proceed as rapidly as they want in other areas.