Trace Lowercase Letter h

A tall line and an arch, made without a lift. The model h has one start dot, on the top line, and an arrow that points down the line. The pencil comes straight down to the baseline and goes back up the same line, to a little over halfway to the middle line. There it bends out to the right into an arch that touches the middle line, comes down to the baseline and curls out in a small flick.

The trip back up the line is the hard part. A pencil that lifts on the baseline has to find the line again, and the arch usually lands a little apart from it. Going back up keeps the letter in one piece, and n, m and p are built on the same movement. The flick at the end is the one thing plain print leaves off, where h stops flat on the baseline.

Have your child reach a hand up high before each h, to remember where it starts, then say "down, up, over, flick" while tracing. Hat, hen and house start with h, and so does the hand that just went up.