Handwriting pens for children
Which handwriting pens for children are best for improving penmanship? | Suitable for 5-18 year old students
Handwriting pens for children – our recommendations for school and home learning
Transitioning from a pencil to an ink pen can be both a trepidatious and confidence-building moment. Finding the right handwriting pen can make such a positive difference to a child’s experience when learning to write with ink and join letters in a cursive script.
We’ve put together a list of pens below, which in our experience, offers solutions to the most common difficulties children face. These include comfortable ergonomic pens that are easy to grip, pens that don’t smudge, pens that don’t have caps to lose, pens that can be name-tagged and pens that are easy to refill. Our list includes pens for small hands, large hands, left-handers, right-handers, and pens for children who find fine motor control movements difficult.
What type of pen should I buy to help my child improve their handwriting? Our view:
The pens we’ve selected below include a variety of traditional ink, ballpoint, gel ink and rollerball options. We suggest trying out a range of pens to find out what suits each child, and – for teachers – considering stocking a number of different handwriting pens when drawing up your classroom consumables budget for each school year.
Handwriting pens for children and schools – our recommendations
Gel pens for children
Zebra Sarasa 0.7mm Gel Pen in Black
The ideal pen for both 7-11 and 11-18 aged students – this medium tip gel pen offers a smooth and super-fast drying ink action. The ink dries in half a second, so it’s a godsend for children – especially left-handers – who tend to smudge or smear their work. In fact when we tested this pen, we found it virtually impossible to smudge. The retractable tip means there’s no cap to lose and the rubber barrel is useful for pupils who will benefit from improving their handwriting grip. It’s our top choice – a revolutionary handwriting pen for improving penmanship. Every classroom should have a set of these.
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Zebra Doodlerz Gel Pen Set
This gel pen features a thicker nib which is ideal for children with larger handwriting and less motor control. It’s also perfect for more adept students to use for handwriting on posters, writing headings, and printing words on artwork. With a vast array of color options, many students will love to use these to create complex illustrations in journals, notebooks, and sketchbooks. Offering possibilities for both handwriting and drawing, and with excellent durability and lifespan, it’s worth considering a set of these as an alternative to Sharpies in classroom situations.
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STABILO EASYoriginal Handwriting Pen Right Handed
The eye-catching Easy pen has been ergonomically shaped for smaller hands and designed to reduce handwriting strain. The grooved and moulded rubber barrel encourages an orthodox grip. Another plus point is the cartridge refills, which are fully sealed and won’t leak onto your tables. These pens are particularly popular in the UK, and we highly recommend these for children learning to use pens for cursive handwriting, aged 5+.
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STABILO EASYoriginal Handwriting Pen Left Handed
Rare in the pen world, this is a specifically left-handed moulded version of the Easy pen – cleverly indicated with an ‘L’. Not only is this design more effective for left-handed students, but it also offers motivational value, since none of the right-handers will have one. A highly recommended resource for elementary/primary aged classrooms.
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PenAgain ErgoSof
Designed specifically for children with fine motor skill difficulty, hypermobility and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome this unique pen is particularly easy to grip and control. It’s also remarkably comfortable to write with over time, and perfect for a wide range of students who suffer from wrist aches or struggle to grip barrel pens after a prolonged period of writing. The perfect ‘secret weapon’ for handwriting teachers, we recommend every elementary, middle, high, primary and secondary classroom should have a couple of these ready to go.
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Ballpoint pens for children
Lamy Safari Ballpoint Pen
This mid-range price ballpoint looks great and sits well in the hand. The tough plastic exterior will withstand some abuse and the barrel coating offers excellent grip. The ink flow and writing action is smooth and it’s quite possible to achieve high quality and consistent cursive handwriting with this pen. It’s the perfect choice for students who just cannot get on with fountain pens or rollerballs.
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Fountain pens for children and teens
Parker Vector Fountain Pen
This classic model features great build quality and will last a lifetime if treated with respect. The medium nib will suit both right and left-handed handed students, and the ink cartridge refills are widely available in a variety of colors. This is a great pen for middle school, high school and secondary education students who have mastered cursive script and wield a pen with confidence. Highly recommended.
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Lamy ABC Beginner Nib Fountain Pen
These easy to hold and chunky first fountain pens are surprisingly difficult to squash, bend, or break due to the wooden barrel, and they’re also difficult to lose, since it’s possible to write the child’s name onto the cap. With an even flow of ink, easy to replace cartridges, red and blue options and an additional left-handed option, this pen is a good choice for classrooms that are beginning to use fountain pens.
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Faber-Castell Scribolino Fountain Pen
A good affordable option, this Faber-Castell pen features a medium nib that produces quite a fine script. It’s more suited to intermediate students with some prior experience of using fountain pens and cursive script. We found it was better suited to right-handers. Ink cartridges are available in a variety of colors.
Buy from Amazon USA/Worldwide | Buy from Amazon UK
Rollerball pens for children
Pilot Frixion Erasable Rollerball Pen
Featuring a clicker so there’s no cap to lose or ink to dry out, and an effective eraser on the end, this pen has been efficiently designed. The even ink flow works well with both right and left-handers, and it’s possible to write with almost any wrist angle with this pen. It’s dependable and long-lasting, rather than spectacular, and we think this is the ideal emergency pen to keep in reserve for students who arrive without a writing implement.
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Online handwriting and penmanship resources for children
- The National Handwriting Association in the UK offers a great website full of helpful resources, advice and guides relating to the teaching and improvement of children’s handwriting.
- Find out about the Shang dynasty and how they invented writing in 1400 BC.
- Read about how the BIC ballpoint pen revolutionized writing and pens in the 20th century.
- Learn how fountain pens are made with this fascinating short film from National Geographic.
- Explore the history of writing with the British Museum and this video for young explorers.
Online handwriting and penmanship courses for educators
- The NHA in the UK offers a range of short courses including exploring how to develop a handwriting policy for your school, how to teach handwriting effectively, how to plan and teach handwriting to 5-7-year-olds and 7-11-year-olds, and a great course for classroom educators – “The Development of Handwriting Skills: What Teachers Need to Know“.
- The English faculty at Cambridge University in England has a fascinating free online course on the history of handwriting, covering the period Early Modern period of 1500-1700.
- Udemy offers a range of interesting and immersive handwriting courses for beginners, children, print, cursive, improving speed; and more advanced courses in penmanship, calligraphy, and Spencerian handwriting.
The Henry Ford Archive features a remarkable history of handwriting in America including a transcript of the Declaration of Independence. - The Victoria State Government in Australia has produced a valuable research study and resource toolkit for teachers who want to learn more about children’s handwriting. This website is a good repository of evidence and practical ideas for teachers who are constructing school handwriting policies. The same website also offers an excellent free cursive handwriting font for use on Windows and Mac computers, and free to download handwriting line guides.
- January 23 is National Handwriting Day, held on John Hancock’s birthday. WIMA has procured a range of resources for teachers.
About Scribble Riddler
Scribble Riddler has 40 years of experience teaching handwriting to children and adults from beginners to calligraphers. He is an Emeritus Professor of penmanship at the University of Scribblehausen in deepest Black Forest Gateaux.
- You can follow and connect with Scribble Riddler on X.
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