Handwritten JournalThe child's own sentence is the guide text. The feedback happens while they write it.
A child dictates what happened today; the transcript is laid out on a ruled page as guide text in a large print face. They write over it with an Apple Pencil or a finger. Each letter is scored for accuracy as the ink lands, stroke order and direction are judged against ball-and-stick print formations, and a letter formed out of order triggers a demonstrate-then-trace lesson before the page continues. Finished lines lose their guide and stay as the child's handwriting; the page is archived with its transcript.
Download the one-page PDF Get it on the App Store — it is free
Per-letter accuracy
Ink inside the letterform is green, outside is red, live. An untraced letter scores zero, so half a word scores like half a word.
Order judged leniently
A letter whose parts were drawn out of the taught order, or against the taught direction, keeps 80% of its score. Pen lifts and go-overs are ignored; ink that barely lies along the formation is not judged at all.
One lesson per word
When a word is finished with a wrong-order letter, that letter is demonstrated stroke by stroke and traced correctly before writing resumes — and only that letter.
Adjustable, per child
- Five print typefaces — Jua, Andika, Varela Round, Sniglet, Comic Neue — and five sizes, each previewed at real size. Stroke-order judgement is active in Jua, the face the formations are fitted to.
- Finger tracing on or off; a left-handed layout that mirrors the controls and the row handles.
- A colour-blind ink pair (blue and orange) in place of green and red; haptics on or off; guide lines on or off.
- Progress kept per typeface-and-size setting, so moving a child to a smaller size never reads as regression.
- A practice sheet — every letter Aa to Zz and 0 to 9 — where each character animates its formation and is traced with the same engine.
What it is, and is not
It is a journal with a handwriting engine underneath, for children of roughly five to eight who can speak in sentences. It is not a clinical instrument: there are no norms, no timing measures, no letter-size analysis and no cursive. Formations follow ball-and-stick print in the order most US classrooms teach; it is not a licensed programme. Nothing leaves the iPad — the privacy policy is short because there is nothing to disclose.
If it would help your caseload to have something it does not do, say so. The requests list is the roadmap.