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Zaner-Bloser Continuous Stroke not so continuous


LolaT
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I recently made the decision to home school my daughter who will be ready for K (or probably 1st grade) in the fall.

 

After reading the WTM, I ordered the Zaner-Bloser K Handwriting Student Workbook because it states that it uses the

"... continuous-stroke alphabet. In traditional ball-and-stick writing, she draws a circle, picks up her pencil, and then connects a line to the circle. In the continuous-stroke alphabet, the letter is written in one motion."

 

I'm not seeing the continuous stroke method anywhere in the workbook. The back of the book has a page with numbers and arrows indicating where to begin each stroke and the next stroke. I called Zaner-Bloser to make sure there wasn't another series of workbooks to rule out the possibility that I got the wrong one. I didn't. They only have one method. The representative told me she didn't even know why they used the terminology "continuous-stroke" because it really isn't the way it works.

 

I'm confused as to why this resource for teaching writing was described and recommended on this basis in the WTM. I'm starting to wonder on the value of some of the other recommended resourses. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thank you.

 

:confused:

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I actually think D'Nealian might be closest to continuous stroke. At the very least it is touted to be the easiest for transition to cursive. None of them worked for my ds except HWOT, and despite how it looks, I decided I rather have him writing something, even if it wasn't in my desired choice of font.

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I am just finishing up Zanier Bloser Manuscript- K with my daughter (five). When we started the book a little over a year ago and I quickly noticed the same thing as you. I thought the stroke would be a little more "continuous" just because it was described in The Well Trained Mind as, well... continuous. ;) But, I think it is alot more continuous because of reasons that other ladies described above. When I learned to print, I wrote a little b by making a line, picking up my pencil, and making a loop. My daughter makes a line, bounces back up and makes the loop. It's one stroke, not two strokes. I think that's about as continuous as printing gets. :001_smile:

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Thank you for all the responses. I guess I just didn't understand very well what was meant by continuous-stroke. I don't see how you can possibly print all the letters with one stroke anyway. But what I really didn't understand was the ball and stick method as being any different from Zaner-Bloser. I don't think I was taught the ball and stick method so I just didn't see the difference

 

(I don't recall how it was I learned to print. My father taught me cursif at home as I was to ill to go to Kindergarten. Later in school I remember being told I couldn't write this way because cursif hadn't been taught yet. So I probably learned to print by force in some kind of self taught manner).

 

Anyway, I think we're on the right path then, thanks to all your great explanations. And I plan to look into those other suggested resources as well just to consider all the choices out there. Since I'm just starting out at this, I supposed there's a bit of trial and error even after spending time researching and evaluating curriculums/materials. I have found the WTM helpful in choosing the math curriculum, RightStart which I'm quite happy with so far and still not sure with The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading as a good fit for my daughter. So I may be asking for more advise as we go on. Thank you.

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Anyway, I think we're on the right path then, thanks to all your great explanations. And I plan to look into those other suggested resources as well just to consider all the choices out there. .

 

ZB also has a website you can print out extra practice pages that YOU make. I used to have him copy the names of Egyptian pharoahs, e.g, and his name and address. Now I have him to spelling words he misses regularly.

I appreciated I could print out smaller lines with 1st grader words spelling words. For some reason, kiddo printed small better than large.

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  • 1 month later...

We ended up going with the D'Naelian manuscript. I chose it mainly because I thought it would make the transition to cursive more natural in a couple of years and because it really does use more continuous strokes, as in -without lifting the pencil, to form the letters compared to Zaner-Bloser. I feel this is a more natural way of writing. It flows easier and faster.

 

Although I was concerned my daughter would have trouble with the pencil and I had considered Writing Without Tears, we've been using the D'Naelian Kindergarten workbook for about six weeks now and she's doing pretty well. She can remember how to form the letters fairly well. She forgets the slant when she's working out of the workbook but it's not too important at this stage and we'll work more on size, shape and slant in the 1st Gradel Level workbook.

 

 

I did think the Zaner-Bloser online templates where a nice convenience for copy work, but since we can't use that, we are using the D'Nealian Kindergarten Workbook (Pearson $11.97 + ship). I also use the plain colored lined paper in the appropriate line height from DonnaYoung.org. (BTW, I think the post above refers to cursive rather than print). There are also many free online resources that use a similar font called modern script. My favorite is Starfall.com which has phonics based online instruction with books and worksheet. You can even print the entire Level 1 workbook that corresponds with the program books in ZB or D'Naelian print.

 

le-illustration1.gifDNealian-GradeK-SE_155.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

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