HWT vs Getty Dubay

I would question were you learn some of your writing habits.

When you learned calligraphy did you have to learn a new pencil/pen hold?

When you were learning to write did you learn little stuff like top to bottom, drawing circles counter clockwise?

When you originally learned HOW to write did you have fine motor skills?

Did you have an ogre teach/parent that made sloppiness issues so you developed bad habits/sloppiness out of rebellion, giving up, and/or emotional issues?

Are you dyslexic? My dad has atrocious handwriting because of this. When he went to school he was being dumb and lazy and sloppy handwriting covered up his dyslexia. Sloppy handwriting covered up mistakes.

Getty Dubay is very flowery. It can be hard to master for children with motor skill issues or dyslexic. It can be hard for some to read. It is pretty but flowery type handwitting can be a pain in the butt filling out forms.

HWOT's is very plain and neat. No frills. Clean and Crisp. Working as a secretary I really wish more people could write this style clean and crisp. Fits in forms nicely.

I honestly think both could be useful. Have you thought of starting with HWOT since it is most simple then move to Getty Dubay?

We started with Getty-Dubay because I thought it looked prettier. It looks more like my conglomeration of cursive and drafting lettering. I thought HWT was ugly, so I avoided it. Also, it bugged me that everybody raved about it to be brutally honest.

We did okay, but dd kept having issues with reversals in her numerals. So I got some of the HWT stuff to help with that, since the little chalkboard and all IS a pretty slick system (we also did some other stuff for reversals that's beside the point of this post).

Then last year dd announced that it was time to learn cursive. We started in on Getty-Dubay cursive, and I realized that if dd was hoping to be able to read her friends' cursive notes G-D was NOT going to help -- the letter formations were different. Additionally, I never could remember what the darn things were -- how, exactly, the letters were supposed to be formed. So, we got HWT cursive. DD LOVED the book -- she loved how uncluttered the pages were. I think she appreciated learning the more mainstream cursive. I told her after we completed the book she could develop her own style -- most people do anyway. She's an artsy type, so adding little curlicues and doodads, and generally messing around will give her years of pleasure. She has mentioned going back and finishing the G-D cursive book, but hasn't made a move on it.

Then I had my "duh" moment -- dd is going to develop her own writing style whether I start with HWT or G-D, so why didn't I start with HWT to begin with. It's much more user friendly.

So, that's our story of G-D vs. HWT for a child about 6-8yo.

Actually I think there are other excellent programs out there that no one chats up much.