Your Opinion on Cursive (moms with kids 10 and up)

[kanpope]

Hi Ladies -
I have a question for y'all with older kids. In your opinion, how important is learning and mastering cursive writing at the 3rd/4th grade level? Dd is really struggling and it just seems like our time doing schoolwork can be so much better spent than fussing with her handwriting. I write in a cursive/print combo all the time, but dh is purely manuscript. Can cursive be taught later as an elective type thing when she feels a desire to learn it or do you think that it is important to build the foundation earlier? I would appreciate your thoughts...

[Oriole]

I think cursive should be taught when kids are learning to write for the first time (K-1). :

At the same time, I wouldn't force your kid to struggle now. It is always harder to relearn things! Obviously you child already had exposure to it, and knows what it is. I guess I would complete a writing project that was done in cursive (maybe keeping a journal for a week? or some sort of family scrapbook with a few paragraphs explaining what's going on in the pictures?), and then would allow your dd to relax, and move on to other things.

[kanpope]

Originally Posted by Oriole

I think cursive should be taught when kids are learning to write for the first time (K-1). :

Do you mean as their first style of writing? Instead of manuscript? I think ABeka uses that approach... That might be something to reconsider with my 6yo ds, but we are using 100 Easy Lessons...

Ddis struggling to even learn the cursive alphbet, so even a fun project has the potential to be painful.: But I will think about the scrapbook suggestion...that could be cool!

[SagMom]

Originally Posted by kanpope

Hi Ladies -
I have a question for y'all with older kids. In your opinion, how important is learning and mastering cursive writing at the 3rd/4th grade level?

I'm not convinced that it's important to ever learn it, actually.

Both of my older kids prefer printing to script and prefer typing to printing. I also either type or print.

We're able to communicate our thoughts as we need to, which, to me is the whole point of any kind of writing. It doesn't really matter to me what form this takes.

I don't see any reason why one couldn't learn to use script later on, if they wanted to, but I also don't see it as important enough to struggle over.

[leewd]

As a cursive/print combo writer myself, I think it is more important to learn to READ cursive than to WRITE it. People today (because of technology) are choosing to print or type over writing with cursive (like Joan said above).

For me, in the *real* world, the most important thing is knowing how to read. If the message is in cursive, we want to be able to read it. Our children should be taught to read it, but it shouldn't have to be painful.

Off the top of my head, maybe you could find a simplified cursive style or use the "script" font on your PC, and write a few short poems she already knows. Help her learn to decipher the words. Teach her to read cursive slowly. Once she can read it, perhaps she will decides she wants to write like that. This is how my sisters and I decided on our own to learn a little caligraphy.

[LilyGrace]

Originally Posted by Oriole

I think cursive should be taught when kids are learning to write for the first time (K-1). :

So do I. D'nealian is structurally very close to cursive - the letters are for the most part nearly identical except for the extra 'swoop'. We used 100 EZ lessons with my oldest, then used printables I could make online for it - http://www.handwritingworksheets.com...n-1/make-d.htm

School screwed him up and refused to let him continue with D'nealian, marking his papers as failures if he didn't use Zane-Blosser. We went back to it when I pulled him out of school, but it was a long road again. This year we're moving on to cursive fully and he's much more confident in his writing abilities.

[reeseccup]

I have to agree with the "it's more important to be able to read than to write it". IMO when they are ready and desire to learn is the only best time to learn how to write in currsive. Even then I believe in offering up different styles and letting the person decide for themselves which one they are most comfortable in learning or which is closest to how they wish to learn how to write.

As for reading it, dd was reading some cursive not far behind just learning to read reg. text. SO I think expoisure in practical sense (she wants to read a note you wrote, so she'll figure out how to decifer it) to cursive handwritting is more important.

I have the most horrid handwritting, in both print and cursive, but it's more painful to read my cursive so I rarely do that where others must read it. DH is the same way, but not as bad.

[alima]

My ds is 14, he has Tourette Syndrome, nearly all boys with TS are dysgraphic and struggle to learn to write. I agree with the pp that it's mostly just important to know how to read cursive than write it.

We struggled for years with handwriting, ds even had occupational therapy through the TS clinic on handwriting. They used handwriting without tears and he hated it, in school they used D'Nealian, he hated it. There was no system or program that made it easier for him.

The only thing I have focused on for many years now is to just make sure that he can read handwriting, and that he can write well enough to be understood, if he needs to. Anything else can be done on typewriter or computer. We did dictation for many years, just a few minutes every day, no more than 5. I'd read a sentence (we used The Hobbit) and he would write it down. Nothing worked as well to improve his comprehensibility, in both handwriting, and grammar/spelling, than dictation, and it was much less painful than the other things we'd tried.

Teenagers often become interested in learning things they had no interest in, or struggled with later. My ds is currently catching up on years of basic math, now that he's decided he wants to go to a really cool science camp when he's old enough. It's much easier for him to get the concepts now than it was at "grade level". If it's important to your dd, she will learn it. But really nice cursive handwriting is very quickly becoming redundant, I almost never get handwritten letters or notes anymore. Even my boss, who's desk is 5 feet away from mine, sends me emails during the day rather than notes, so we will both have a record of the note and don't have to bother filing things. If it's really important, she'll email me even when I'm there, so that we have the email to follow up on later.

[UnschoolnMa]

Not a huge deal, IMO. Reading it is a skill I can see as being useful, but I think that could come along nice and slowly without too much fuss.

My son cannot stand to write by hand, and he hates cursive even more. He can do it, but he rarely chooses to. Dd on the other hand enjoys it, and she asked to learn it around 9 or so.

[dharmamama]

My daughter came from Ethiopia at the age of 11. She was homeschooled for nine months and then entered 6th grade in February of this year. She will be in 7th in the fall. She does not know how to write cursive. It has not hindered her at all. I can't remember the last time I used cursive aside from having to use it to write reports in grade school. By the time I reached middle school, reports had to be typed, and I never had a need for cursive again.

That said, when there are things in books that are written in cursive, my daughter can't read them. She doesn't like not being able to read cursive, but she just asks me to read it for her and has rejected my offers to teach her.

Her teacher said there would be no benefit to her for the time spent learning it.

dm

[kanpope]

Originally Posted by LilyGrace

So do I. D'nealian is structurally very close to cursive - the letters are for the most part nearly identical except for the extra 'swoop'. We used 100 EZ lessons with my oldest, then used printables I could make online for it - http://www.handwritingworksheets.com...n-1/make-d.htm

This site is awesome! Thank you soooooo much!

[kanpope]

I found this too...
http://www.writingwizard.longcountdo...orksheets.html
http://www.handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/index.htm


I am going to make samples to make sure she can read it! Great points ladies...thank you!

[momto l&a]

Does anybody know if there anyplace that teaches the old style (late 1800's) of handwriting Its so beautiful IMO and I would like to learn it. Modern handwriting is mostly ugly IMO :

Lilygrace, thanks for that link

[LilyGrace]

Originally Posted by momto l&a

Does anybody know if there anyplace that teaches the old style (late 1800's) of handwriting Its so beautiful IMO and I would like to learn it. Modern handwriting is mostly ugly IMO :

Lilygrace, thanks for that link

You're welcome.
I think for what you want you'd have to look for "italic calligraphy". It's the rounded, swoopy lettering - not the straight edged stuff. I learned a little of it when I was growing up.
One thing I really want to get for my boys (er...me ) is this calligraphy set. It's absolutely gorgeous - though better for Chinese/Japanese writing.

[moondiapers]

Originally Posted by Joan

I'm not convinced that it's important to ever learn it, actually.

Both of my older kids prefer printing to script and prefer typing to printing. I also either type or print.

We're able to communicate our thoughts as we need to, which, to me is the whole point of any kind of writing. It doesn't really matter to me what form this takes.

I don't see any reason why one couldn't learn to use script later on, if they wanted to, but I also don't see it as important enough to struggle over.

If they never learn it how will they read handwritten notes from other people?

[SagMom]

Originally Posted by moondiapers

If they never learn it how will they read handwritten notes from other people?

My dd was reading script before she learned to write it. I imagine it was just from seeing it. When you think about it, most of the letters are similar enough that they're easily figured out if you know how to read print.

[reeseccup]

Originally Posted by Joan

My dd was reading script before she learned to write it. I imagine it was just from seeing it. When you think about it, most of the letters are similar enough that they're easily figured out if you know how to read print.

My dd was the same. She actually read script, before she even wrote in print. She taught herself how to read print, then script then how to write in print. She's now mildly interested in learning how to write in script, but only a certain style (can't think of the name). It's been a progress of years, with a couple of years gap between learning to read print and script (age 5-6) and writing print (6-7) and now (almost 9) she desires to learn script.

I understand those that wish to keep alive the "art of the pen", but for those that have no desire for that, it can truly be a painful process which makes one hate it even more. So I still state it ought not be a required thing [writing in script] to learn, as long as the person knows how to decipher others script enough to properly comprehend what is being written in script.

[UUMom]

My kids all have awful handwriting (13, 14, 18). It's readable, but awful. And I know awful is subjective. Mine isn't so great, either. When they get cards or letters in the mail from older relatives, they comment on how pretty the writing is. I told them that's due to years of practice and often getting your knuckles wrapped with rulers.

I also appreciate nice handwriting, but it takes more than we are willing to give it to get it.

Even my 7th grade schooler uses a laptop for all wiring assignments. Saves everyone's eyes, kiwm?

I guess I am torn-- it can be quite an art form, but it is a dying one.

[MMGerard]

Originally Posted by momto l&a

Does anybody know if there anyplace that teaches the old style (late 1800's) of handwriting Its so beautiful IMO and I would like to learn it. Modern handwriting is mostly ugly IMO :

Lilygrace, thanks for that link

http://www.spencerian.com/
http://www.mottmedia.com/pages/publi...sp?Pub=spencer

[Marsupialmom]

Originally Posted by momto l&a

Does anybody know if there anyplace that teaches the old style (late 1800's) of handwriting Its so beautiful IMO and I would like to learn it. Modern handwriting is mostly ugly IMO :

Lilygrace, thanks for that link

You want to look into the Palmer method.