So DD is starting to write on her own, and despite my always having modelled d'Nealian or Penny Gardner's Italics or just plain old cursive, and always lower case, her JumpStart video games trumped it all and she writes mostly in manuscript capital letters. 
She's totally CAPABLE of doing italics or cursive though, we tried some just yesterday and she wrote her name in cursive (tracing) just beautifully. I've always known I wanted to do "cursive first" with her, but since much of her initial writing was manuscript I was starting to self-doubt... but she was very keen when we tried the cursive yesterday, I'm still convinced it's the better approach.
A few months ago I was looking at some different programs, but she wasn't quite ready... she could trace letters but not write anything on her own yet. But now she's figuring out how to write many letters just on her own, and she can write out lots of different letters, her whole name, all the numbers, and was just this morning trying to write out a whole note to herself... she wrote "HA CAiLEiGH TODAY WE AER" -- that's as far as she got, translation: "Hi, Caileigh. Today we are..."
I thought that was an amazing dedication to writing for a not-quite 4yo. So I'm thinking -- eeps! Probably time to get cracking on the cursive!
So, here are the options I'm considering. I wonder if folks have any experience with any of these for kindergartners?
Cursive First (SWR)
A Beka Writing Tablet K5 -OR- A Beka Writing With Phonics K5
These two are italics, leading to cursive italics, rather than traditional cursive:
Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting Beginners
Italics: Beautiful Handwriting for Children
We do already own the last one, Penny Gardner's book, which I've used to improve my older DS's handwriting. But I'm not certain it's what I want to use with DD. I'm sort of leaning towards the more traditional cursive style for her. But I'm so not sure ... now that I have to decide soon, I'm more confused than ever!
She's totally CAPABLE of doing italics or cursive though, we tried some just yesterday and she wrote her name in cursive (tracing) just beautifully. I've always known I wanted to do "cursive first" with her, but since much of her initial writing was manuscript I was starting to self-doubt... but she was very keen when we tried the cursive yesterday, I'm still convinced it's the better approach.
A few months ago I was looking at some different programs, but she wasn't quite ready... she could trace letters but not write anything on her own yet. But now she's figuring out how to write many letters just on her own, and she can write out lots of different letters, her whole name, all the numbers, and was just this morning trying to write out a whole note to herself... she wrote "HA CAiLEiGH TODAY WE AER" -- that's as far as she got, translation: "Hi, Caileigh. Today we are..."
I thought that was an amazing dedication to writing for a not-quite 4yo. So I'm thinking -- eeps! Probably time to get cracking on the cursive!
So, here are the options I'm considering. I wonder if folks have any experience with any of these for kindergartners?
Cursive First (SWR)
A Beka Writing Tablet K5 -OR- A Beka Writing With Phonics K5
These two are italics, leading to cursive italics, rather than traditional cursive:
Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting Beginners
Italics: Beautiful Handwriting for Children
We do already own the last one, Penny Gardner's book, which I've used to improve my older DS's handwriting. But I'm not certain it's what I want to use with DD. I'm sort of leaning towards the more traditional cursive style for her. But I'm so not sure ... now that I have to decide soon, I'm more confused than ever!
