Did you see the CBS Sunday Morning piece about handwriting?

[pampered_mom]

I love CBS Sunday Morning...which I'll admit is a bit outside of my demographic, but my Dad always watched it and I learned to love watching it by his side.  They had a piece yesterday about handwriting and its decline.  I had this "aha" moment when watching it as the rep from Zaner Bloser talked about how they had to change their curriculum form 45 minutes a day to 15 minutes a day in order to make up for all of the other pressures placed in the public schools.  The format of handwriting curriculums made more sense to me in light of this.

I know that for some homeschooling families handwriting and its related topic of penmanship probably isn't a big deal.  That's certainly ok and I understand that.  On the other hand, as was mentioned in the piece one will still be judged simply on the basis of their handwriting (job applications for one).  So, for those who feel that handwriting and penmanship is important, how do you approach it.  Have you been successful with a pre-packaged curriculum from one of the big publishers or have you found something different?  Is there a secular option out there?  At what age did/do you start focusing on penmanship? If you continued past 4th grade (when most handwriting curriculums drop off it seems) what did you use?

Between my dh and I, neither of us are all that thrilled with our handwriting.  I don't think mine's terrible.  It's definitely legible.  My dh's is all capital letters in super small script.  I think handwriting is important and I'd like for our children to be able to be proud of their writing.  I can't quite put my finger on why, but I think it should be something more than just this utilitarian thing you need in order to write grocery lists and sign credit card slips.

(Oh, and if you have suggestions for multi-generational practice resources that'd be even better.)

[Lisa1970]

I make handwriting a priority. It is done every day. I think it is very important.

[Mere]

I too make handwriting a priority, but doing so only takes 5 minutes a day.  We have used HWT, but honestly I think you could use anything as long as you were consistent with it and teach your children how to properly form letters from the beginning. 

[kittywitty]

We try to do handwriting or copywork every day. It's sort of difficult, though. Too expensive for the HWT font, and my other two girls use a different type-D'Nealian. We were doing Getty-Dubai but my oldest didn't like the look when she got to book E. My handwriting is fairly terrible. I've struggled all of my life trying to make it better and can't!

[PGTlatte]

I think it is important to be able to write legibly when we need to.  Our 7 yo has great difficulty with handwriting and written language in general.  I am using  a program called First Strokes.  It is secular.    If I wanted to improve my own handwriting, I would probably use Barchowski Fluent, or the Getty Dubay Italic program, because I like both of those.

[umsami]

Handwriting is important to me--and to DH.  Part of it, is being the daughter of a doctor with the horrible sterotypical doctor penmanship. :)  Part of it is DH's culture in which handwriting (Arabic calligraphy) is a revered art.

We started off with Handwriting without Tears when DS1 was 5.  Honestly, he wasn't ready of handwriting at the time.  He didn't have the finger strength.  Now, he's 7, and writes quite well and neat--although he writes a few of his letters bottom to top.  He really wants to learn cursive and is basically creating his own version until I teach him.

I picked up a book on Amazon called Daily Handwriting Practice.  Basically it's little daily exercises that take maybe 5 minutes.  We use that--but the bulk comes from normal school work.  I am going back and doing some reteaching on the letters he likes to write bottom to top.  We also do some copy work for character education.  

We're also working on learning to write Arabic, although there are no packaged curricula available (that I know of).  So far, I'm doing form drawing but having the kids go right to left.  DH is working with them on some basic letter strokes.  There is no concept of printing vs. cursive in Arabic.  It's all cursive for lack of a better word.  The letters look different depending on whether they start a word, are in the middle, or at the end. 

[octobermom]

 Its imprtant to me. DD virtual academy uses HWT but I don't she was taught the -D'Nealian sysle so trying to teach her a diffrent method is jsut more work than I'm willing to do... Still we practice and it plays a roll in her written assignments.

Deanna

[kittywitty]

Umsami- I would love to find a packaged Arabic font! My ds is interested in learning. It's so pretty.

[pampered_mom]

Originally Posted by kittywitty 

Umsami- I would love to find a packaged Arabic font! My ds is interested in learning. It's so pretty.

Oh, I would love this as well.  I would love to have something like that when we get to our second grade history.

I really do appreciate all of the replies and welcome more!  :0)  We've used HWT this year.  Ds was eager to learn so we went through both the Pre-K (b/c of his lack of interest in much drawing before that point I wasn't sure that he'd be ready for the K book) and K.  I've noticed that he has difficulties with the size of the letters in both of the books.  We've been using some simple copy-work and "Draw Write Now" for practice at this point. In both cases the space between the lines are smaller which seems to have made a difference.  I had thought that I was going to continue on with HWT, but I'm thinking about switching to Getty-Dubay for next year and then perhaps switching further down the road to more traditional cursive script.

My mom and I were actually talking a bit about penmanship differences.  There seems to be a marked difference between the emphasis that was put on penmanship when she went through school versus when I did.  I'm envious of her penmanship, but we're both envious of my Grandmother's.  She still has impeccable penmanship in spite of her advancing Alzheimer's.

[lach]

I love the Barchowski style handwriting.  I want to learn how to write like that.  I bought the preschool set for DD, but haven't had the space to set it up yet.

[babycarrier]

What style would you use to replicate the handwriting of our grandmother's? And how was it taught?

We don't do a packaged handwriting but I write out the letters and my son copies them. He has beautiful handwriting now at age 8. 

[lach]

Originally Posted by farmlife 

What style would you use to replicate the handwriting of our grandmother's? And how was it taught?

We don't do a packaged handwriting but I write out the letters and my son copies them. He has beautiful handwriting now at age 8. 

The grandmother style is Palmer.  It's absolutely beautiful.  I really wanted to teach it to my kids, but no one publishes manuals for it anymore.  Apparently some Catholic schools were using it through the 80s, so I've seen some workbooks from then, but it's all but disappeared.  This is the original book, though, and you can use it to self-teach.  It's not really very child-friendly, though.  

http://www.amazon.com/Palmer-Method-Business-Writing/dp/1432596713/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IV8ZOGEKQI6CC&colid=3UZLQOD06TFK3

(I bet you can find it for free online somewhere.  It's in the public domain)

[broodymama]

I learned the Palmer method when I learned cursive, I went to a private school.  DH has great handwriting, my penmanship is horrible because I'm right handed and have a severe essential tremor on my right side. My writing is barely legible now and will only get worse as I get older. 

We're using HWT and it doesn't take long each day.  It's not the most beautiful handwriting but it's functional and I'll let the kids pick a different one (cursive, calligraphy) when they're older if they are interested.  DS1's (6) handwriting is legible and functional and 4 year old DD1's handwriting is a bit better than his.

[~Boudicca~]

My 7.5 y/o uses HWT and she loves it.  I never really taught her how to write at all; she just kind of picked it up on her own by writing in all caps.  I think learning penmanship is important and I thought it was a good time for her to start to refine her writing and it has been a good fit for us.  She does it about 15 minutes every day, but the only time she uses it is when it is actually cursive time.  Outside of that she will just write in her journal but I noticed since we started the cursive she will write in print lowercase instead of all caps all the time.

[dbsam]

I learned the Palmer method (Catholic school in the late 60's and 70's) but my handwriting has gotten sloppy over the years.  My mother's handwriting looks just like the cards and books we used in school.  It is beautiful and consistent no matter what she is writing.  It is effortless for her.  My mother is bothered that none of her children write properly and she will still comment on my poor penmanship.

[pampered_mom]

Originally Posted by lach 
Quote:

Originally Posted by farmlife 

What style would you use to replicate the handwriting of our grandmother's? And how was it taught?

We don't do a packaged handwriting but I write out the letters and my son copies them. He has beautiful handwriting now at age 8. 

The grandmother style is Palmer.  It's absolutely beautiful.  I really wanted to teach it to my kids, but no one publishes manuals for it anymore.  Apparently some Catholic schools were using it through the 80s, so I've seen some workbooks from then, but it's all but disappeared.  This is the original book, though, and you can use it to self-teach.  It's not really very child-friendly, though.  

http://www.amazon.com/Palmer-Method-Business-Writing/dp/1432596713/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IV8ZOGEKQI6CC&colid=3UZLQOD06TFK3

(I bet you can find it for free online somewhere.  It's in the public domain)

From what I can remember from the history they included in the CBS piece Spencerian came first.  When typewriters came along Palmer developed his method by simplifying the Spencerian script to make handwriting quicker.  When I compare the two fonts I actually think my grandmother's handwriting looks a bit closer to the Spencerian, but the Palmer would fit the timeline better.

Christian Liberty Press says their "Writing with Power" is in the Palmer style, but I wonder if it's more accurately Zaner Bloser.  I won't buy books from CLP, but it might be an option for others less opposed than I.  Educational Fontware has a Palmer script pictured here.  Abe books has some used Palmer method books here, though it appears the condition of some of them might be less than desired for the price.  There's also a copy of the book available to read online here.

[lach]

Honestly, your grandmother would have to be really, really old to write Spencerian.  Unless she was self-taught.  If she went to school between the 1920s and the 1950s, she was taught Palmer.  Spencer looks lovely, but is totally impractical and very hard, so it went out of style pretty quickly.  Someone's reissued the workbooks, though, and you can buy them on Amazon, too.  It's really not very practical and I wouldn't teach it to a child except as a fun extra.  I would definitely teach Palmer, though.  But, yeah, I wouldn't shop Christian Liberty Press, either.
 

Originally Posted by pampered_mom 

Originally Posted by lach 
Quote:

Originally Posted by farmlife 

What style would you use to replicate the handwriting of our grandmother's? And how was it taught?

We don't do a packaged handwriting but I write out the letters and my son copies them. He has beautiful handwriting now at age 8. 

The grandmother style is Palmer.  It's absolutely beautiful.  I really wanted to teach it to my kids, but no one publishes manuals for it anymore.  Apparently some Catholic schools were using it through the 80s, so I've seen some workbooks from then, but it's all but disappeared.  This is the original book, though, and you can use it to self-teach.  It's not really very child-friendly, though.  

http://www.amazon.com/Palmer-Method-Business-Writing/dp/1432596713/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IV8ZOGEKQI6CC&colid=3UZLQOD06TFK3

(I bet you can find it for free online somewhere.  It's in the public domain)

From what I can remember from the history they included in the CBS piece Spencerian came first.  When typewriters came along Palmer developed his method by simplifying the Spencerian script to make handwriting quicker.  When I compare the two fonts I actually think my grandmother's handwriting looks a bit closer to the Spencerian, but the Palmer would fit the timeline better.

Christian Liberty Press says their "Writing with Power" is in the Palmer style, but I wonder if it's more accurately Zaner Bloser.  I won't buy books from CLP, but it might be an option for others less opposed than I.  Educational Fontware has a Palmer script pictured here.  Abe books has some used Palmer method books here, though it appears the condition of some of them might be less than desired for the price.  There's also a copy of the book available to read online here.

[SundayCrepes]

You can get software to make your own worksheets. http://www.educationalfontware.com/ or http://www.startwrite.com/fonts.php. I liked educationalfontware because you can use it with your own word processing program, but the fonts in larger print (for getty dubay) were to thick. I ended up using startwrite. Educationalfontware has a greater selection of fonts to choose from.

[Dar]

Originally Posted by pampered_mom 
On the other hand, as was mentioned in the piece one will still be judged simply on the basis of their handwriting (job applications for one). 

I haven't seen many hand-written job applications anymore. A lot of places want you to apply online and/or submit a resume (which shouldn't be handwritten, of course).
 

Originally Posted by kittywitty 

Umsami- I would love to find a packaged Arabic font! My ds is interested in learning. It's so pretty.

Are you looking for stuff on how to do Arabic calligraphy or just on how to write in Arabic?  I learned to write in Arabic with Alif Baa, which is Kristen Brustad et al's intro book and the way most college students learn it... but I think it could be adapted for younger kids, and it does cover how each letter looks in each position (beginning, middle, and end of a word, as well as alone). There are also videos of a calligrapher writing each letter to imitate.... plus it's like $3 used on amazon.

It's kind of hard to learn Arabic writing without learning the Arabic language, though, I would think.... unless you just want to do something like learn to write your name, and google translate will do that for you.

[AAK]

A lot of people worry about which "font" to teach and I seriously think that is over rated.  That said, I do think highly of handwriting practice.  We currently use HWT; my kids actually LOVE this.  Sometimes a letter is different than the way they were previously taught.  I tell them to make it nice, do your best work, I don't care if they are replicating that format--it is just a guide.  My 2nd grader really wanted to learn cursive.  We officially started this a few weeks ago.  She is remarkably good at cursive, where she is not good at print.  I am so glad I didn't make her master print first!  I do want them to know that a capital Q sometimes looks like a 2, but I don't expect them to use that form themselves; I sure don't.  The only thing that "bugs" me about HWT is that the cursive doesn't slant.  I have shown my girls various examples, and give them the option of slanting or not.  They don't.  Oh, we spend about 5-10 minutes 3x week.

Amy

ETA:  I have heard both my dad and my dh complain about peoples' handwriting in the workplace.  They have two completely different jobs and yes, computers are used there as well.  But, handwriting is still important!