Review: Big Handwriting Practice Workbook for Kids by Crystal Radke

As a kindergarten through second grade teacher, I’m always looking for strong, engaging resources to support early writing skills—and this workbook is exactly that! Big Handwriting Practice Workbook for Kids offers the perfect balance of structure and creativity, giving young learners the foundation they need to develop confidence and control in their writing.

From tracing letters and numbers to building fine motor strength, every page is thoughtfully designed. I love how the activities are progressive, making it easy to scaffold learning for different levels in my classroom. It doesn’t just focus on handwriting—it weaves in early literacy skills like sight words and creative expression, which is such a bonus.

This is the kind of resource I’d use as a supplemental tool during centers, small groups, or even for early finishers. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy once it’s published—my students are going to love it, and I know it’ll be a fantastic support as they build essential skills for reading and writing success.

The creative sections of this workbook is what makes it stand out from other handwriting practice books.
Highly recommend.

Anything that gets a kid off of electronics and doing something with their hands is usually a win in my book. I looked into this as something for my sister to use for her son, and loved that there is a cute cat on the cover. This one focuses not just on handwriting, but also fine motor skills. A great workbook!

This is a fun and playful workbook for children learning to write. The book contains clear markings for children to follow and also has creative illustrations!

The instructions page color and font color were difficult to read due to the lack of contrast.
The workbook is self explanatory and has a section for pen control and letters. Uppercase and lower case are separate with some words at the end.

Overall, a cute kid friendly workbook.

This was adorable and well laid out for different pen control techniques. I do want to point out that if I was scrolling on Amazon I would’ve thought the entire book would be cat themed.

Thanks to NetGalley and crystal Radke for an advanced reading copy of this book. It will be released on September 9th, 2025.

I’m an elementary school librarian. I taught kindergarten and 2nd for most of my teaching career and this handwriting practice is perfect for young learners practicing writing and learning new words. Bright illustrations and clear to practice lines make this a win for parents and teachers!

This a great handwriting and pen control workbook that covers a variety of important skills and learning activities presented in a way that is fun for kids. I liked that it also included sight words and parent guides of additional activities parents can do with kids to reinforce the skills they are learning in each section.

As a homeschool mom educator I am always looking for great books to help my children practice writing skills and neatness. Here are 3 things I thought were great about this book:

1. The colors and illustrations are wonderful. The color pallet is easy to look at and not to bright. The characters are friendly and the way the illustrations accent certain parts of the page almost encourage you to keep working through the book.

2. There is a pen control section before you get to the letter practice. I think this is great to help your very young child grow in confidence.

3. Sight words are also featured at the end of the book when the child has finished all the letters. I think this is very helpful as your child progresses.

One thing I wish was different and why I didn't give a 5 star review is that I would have liked to see a page with the lowercase and the uppercase letters featured together. The book has them each on their own page and I would have liked another page to practice the letters together. Otherwise this book is really quite lovely and recommend it!

Thanks to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

Having previously worked in early childhood, I have used many different tools for handwriting practice (for those children who are just learning, have them draw in sand. It's fun and helps with their motor control).

This is a great handwriting practice book. I would recommend this one more towards kindergarten or first grade, rather than 4-K, as it has handwriting activities with sight words.

There's no problem at all with the younger kids using it for handwriting practice, though.

Definitely would recommend, and if I was still working in early education, I would tell the director about the book

I thought that the cover of this book was cute with its smiling cat inviting kids in. Throughout there are brightly colored illustrations that should help to keep kids engaged.

The book opens with an introduction for adults. This offers an explanation of what is in the title and tips for how to help young writers. Some activities to try are suggested.

Activities in the book itself include tracing letters, words and numbers, along with matching games, coloring, filling in the missing letter, and more. In addition to working on writing skills, there are some reading practice activities as well.

A completion certificate is included for kids who would like this.

To me, this looks like a very good workbook. I think that it would be important to work at the child's pace or in shorter sessions so that they stay enthused.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Cider Mill Press for this title. All opinions are my own.