Teaching cursive from the beginning?

[scheelimama]

Before I begin, let me say I'm not really convinced that a handwriting curriculum is necessary. We'll be using Sonlight for most of our subjects next year, but so far I've decided not to do any handwriting course. So, I guess my first question is...is it necessary for me to teach my 1st grader (next year) handwriting skills? She writes okay for a K age child, IMO.

But...dh heard about some research on NPR about how it's better to teach children cursive from the beginning. How it's easier for them to make a circle than straight lines or something like that? I don't remember the reasoning to be honest. But he was of the opinion that I should teach them cursive handwriting starting now.

What do you all think? And if you agree with that reasoning, what curriculum would you suggest to teach cursive. The only one I know of is Abeka for cursive with young children. I was considering using the pre-k HWT for dd2 next year, just to help her become familiar with her letters and have something that is just hers for school. It looks pretty easy, low-pressure. But dh kind of nixed that idea last night. It looks like a fun pre-k program, not necessary, but she wants to "do school" while big sister does, so I thought it might be a good compromise.

Any suggestions, comments, arguments against/for cursive?

[AutumnSunshine]

You know, I heard that theory once and I couldn't understand how it could be true, but my kids are bilingual and learn to read and write in both Arabic and English at the same time. Arabic is always written cursive, never as individual letters. My 7 yo dd has absolutely horrendous English handwriting but her Arabic handwriting is better than mine and dh's. Then she asked for an English cursive workbook which I gave her (I just downloaded from learningpage.com) and now she wants to write everything in English in cursive too. But try as I may, her numerals and regular old English letters are still backwards, awkward, and half capitals. So maybe there is something to this theory!

FWIW, my kids came across books and other situations where they needed to be able to read cursive, so I didn't really emphasize learning to write cursive as a necessary subject or anything, just as a fun diversion with the side effect of being able to read cursive when presented with it.

[milehighmonkeys]

Montessori teaches cursive first, even before reading.

[bramblevine]

Originally Posted by UmmZaynab

You know, I heard that theory once and I couldn't understand how it could be true, but my kids are bilingual and learn to read and write in both Arabic and English at the same time. Arabic is always written cursive, never as individual letters. My 7 yo dd has absolutely horrendous English handwriting but her Arabic handwriting is better than mine and dh's. Then she asked for an English cursive workbook which I gave her (I just downloaded from learningpage.com) and now she wants to write everything in English in cursive too. But try as I may, her numerals and regular old English letters are still backwards, awkward, and half capitals. So maybe there is something to this theory!

Wow. Very interesting! My boys have terrible manuscript writing, their cursive is better, but after listening to a recent NPR story, I've started them on italic writing, it's supposed to be much easier. My 3 year old has already started using a preschool book (manuscript, of course), which she adores, I'm wondering if I should nip it in the bud...

[Sheryl1678]

I taught myself cursive in the 1st grade from my older brothers books. It came very naturally and I was very proud of myself until I got my knuckles thwocked by a nasty teacher who believed 1st graders should only print.

[bramblevine]

Originally Posted by Sheryl1678

I taught myself cursive in the 1st grade from my older brothers books. It came very naturally and I was very proud of myself until I got my knuckles thwocked by a nasty teacher who believed 1st graders should only print.

[theretohere]

I believe that teaching cursive first is best and am doing it with my almost 5 year old. We're using a cheap and easy program called Cursive First and it has a lot of research that comes with it about how cursive is more traditional to teach early and that many other countries still routinely teach it first.

[Leta]

My story is similar to Sheryl's. I was writing- not fluently, but short sentances- before I got to kindergarten. I begged my mom to teach me to "write like her", and she taught me my name in cursive. My cursive handwriting, as a five year old, was far better than my printing. I was continuing on with cursive- I remember being able to write "I love you" in addition to my name- and on the second day of kindergarten I wrote my name on my paper in cursive. Big mistake. Ms. Kelley humiliated me for doing it. (I am 30, so while this was a generation ago, it's not like it was the dark ages.)

I think that, while every child is different, if your kid likes to write and is interested in penmanship, it makes much more sense to teach print and cursive at the same time. We teach kids to write 6 and 9 and g and a very differently from how they usually appear in print, and they most kids don't struggle over this.

Furthermore, most adults I know have handwriting that I would characterize as being somewhere between cursive and print. We write how it feels comfortable for us to write, because we have type for "formal" things. I don't see why it should be any different for kids.

[scheelimama]

Well, I found a program called New American Cursive: http://www.newamericancursive.com/startwrite/ I'm considering getting it along with the Startwrite cd so that I could print their copywork with that print, at least until they get it down well and it is second nature. After reading some research it makes sense. This is a more simplified cursive and like Leta said, is similar to how most adults write, somewhere between print and cursive, but more cursive.

[True Blue]

Hmmmm interesting. Of course, we've now about finished two years of HWT printing. I do wonder if something like this would be more popular, though. Hmmm.

[Smithie]

Printing has been a disaster so far, maybe I should see if cursive works better for ds. What the poor kid REALLY needs are individual sessions with an OT every week (has has some agraphia, apraxia and general poor fine motor skills). Maybe I'll try to find another OT place, since the therapist we tried when the doctor approved individual OT was all about working through his sensory issues, and drove him flat-out crazy in about two sessions (the same place does excellent group work, so it wasn't a total loss, but still...)

Or, I could just stop tormenting him with therapists and let him stay home and be slightly-weird-but-happy and learn to write whenever.

[cappuccinosmom]

Me and my sibs all learned cursive first (we attended a montessori-like private school).

I do think the ability to have fluid, readable handwriting is still an important one, even in this day and age. So our kids are learning cursive. They do learn manuscript first, but the cursive they are starting with is very similar to the manuscript, actually. Later on we'll move to Barchowsky's.

For older kids who are struggling with handwriting or even manuscript, I highly recommend getting them interested in Calligraphy/lettering. That absolutely saved my handwriting when I was 12-15 yo. I was a lefty and wrote with a hooked arm until then, always smudging my work. Calligraphy was fun and engaging but also forced me to use proper form and develop great hand-eye coordination. It's also soooo much more fun than copywork and dictation. I chose my own things to write, and also learned a little about graphic design on the spot. Some of my stuff still goes up as Christmas decorations in my parents home.

[Marsupialmom]

As you can see there is a lot of debate what to start with first............


I do think some type of writing style should be taught but it doesn't need to be draconian. You want to look for things like pencil hold, eye hand cordination, how they are crossing the mid-line. Functional verses non-functional.

My son has dysgraphia. Teaching him to write was hard because he had issues. If a (that means any) writing style was actually being taught his issues would have been caught earlier. It also would help not having ingraining in his head wrong (compensating habits) ealier.

The local school district had disportionate amount of kids in OT in 2-5 th grades becausenothing was taught counter productive styles developed. They were developing non-funcitional writing styles because they were not "guided" in any sort of fashion. Simple guiding helped kids learn better ways and show (role modeled) functional grips and letter formation.

I perfer print because much of what we have to write in this world needs to be print. Many people develop cursive styles that are illegiable.

[cloudswinger]

I bought some material from Vietnam while we were there, and they pretty much work with cursive exclusively. It's very vertical, and a little frilly, but I don't know when they ever use manuscript. I think if you practice one style, you'll get good at that, but by making the kids switch between two, they never really get good at either. Everyone there has very nice handwriting. The slogan on the workbooks is something like "Good penmanship is good character", so there's an emphasis on good penmanship.

Looks like this : http://www.dafont.com/cursive-standard.font. I also find it interesting that they start the program with practice squiggles at the same size(about 1/2 inch) that the adults would write at, not the one-inch or so lines that kindy kids start with here in the US.

[scheelimama]

Originally Posted by cloudswinger

I also find it interesting that they start the program with practice squiggles at the same size(about 1/2 inch) that the adults would write at, not the one-inch or so lines that kindy kids start with here in the US.

I read somewhere yesterday that advocated this, don't remember which one, Creative cursive or abeka. : Said it's easier than big letters, less room for error.

[jessicaSAR]

We are using "Cursive First" which was written to accompany "Spell to Write and Read," but is inexpensive and works great as a stand alone cursive program. I chose it because I liked how it integrated phonograms, and I liked the cursive style better than HWT.

[theretohere]

Originally Posted by jessicaSAR

We are using "Cursive First" which was written to accompany "Spell to Write and Read," but is inexpensive and works great as a stand alone cursive program. I chose it because I liked how it integrated phonograms, and I liked the cursive style better than HWT.

I've got more time now- this is what we're using, as well.

Some of the reasons they give about why cursive is best to start with are:
it's easier- all the lower case letters start in the same place on the lower line instead of remembering where they begin
not picking up the pencil between parts of letters/ letters gives fewer opportunities for error
smaller lines are easier
people's handwriting when cursive was taught was neater

[elizawill]

abeka teaches cursive first. i don't use abeka, but thought that was interesting.

[icxcnika]

Another reason I was given, by a fellow homeschool mom (who likes Spell to Write and Read), is that with cursive writing it's easier to distinguish one word from another. There's a clear demarcation of where one word ends and another word begins, which seems nice both for the child learning to write and read, and for the parent trying to teach (and to read).

[scheelimama]

Well, I'm convinced. Just trying to decide between New American Cursive and Cursive First. I haven't seen any reviews or anyone on here mention using New American Cursive, but it looks like a really good program from what I've seen online. I like that it has a cd with the font so you can print off copywork or anything else for other curricula. I won't be using SWR, but I do like the idea of CF using phonograms. Not sure which one to go with.