Hi, You ask an honest question. As best I've been able to put the scene together, from my own experience with calligraphy and being a Civil War reenactor who is learning Spencerian script and writes with an 1850s replica pen that I dip into an ink bottle, here it is. For many years in America, penmanship was taught with great care and attention. There are books from the 19C and 20C that demonstrate the correct and incorrect way to hold a pencil/pen. In the 1800s, the Spencerian method was practiced, which is somewhat specific to a nib pen dipped in ink. Any pen used for this method should be very lightweight, as that was the way pens were then, and the style and method fit the instrument. It's difficult for me to write proper Spencerian with a heavy pen. Spencerian was replaced in the 1900s with the Palmer method, which was simpler and quicker to write than Spencerian. Each of these methods emphasized posture as well as penmanship, teaching the act of writing as something one does with his whole body. There was certainly a correct way to sit when writing, with feet flat, holding one's shoulders and arms a certain way, the paper a certain way, and most importantly, the holding the pen correctly. Educators even looked at writing as a method of instilling discipline and virtue. Somewhere in the 1950s in America, educators began paring down the penmanship instruction, no longer teaching posture (feet flat, shoulders square to the page, page slanted at certain angle, etc) that should accompany proper hand form (e.g., "Hold the pen like this...", "Form your letters thus", "No, that's not right; here, do it again," etc.). By the 1970s, most schools had switched to teaching manuscript rather than cursive first, and additionally ceasing to emphasize the correct and preferred way one should hold a pen. Children began writing with very little guidance and were allowed to hold their pencils as they wished. In my personal experience, since about the 1980s, there has been little to no instruction in standard or proper pencil grip, and little emphasis in penmanship. Sadly, there are some children in their teens who can't even read, let alone write in cursive. Today, very few people under age 50 have been taught the correct way to write (beginning with posture), and many more hardly even know there ever existed a correct way, or best practice, for writing. There have been enough studies demonstrating the benefits of cursive first that many schools are returning to that practice. My experience, however, is that although teachers are expected to teach penmanship, very few of them realize all that's involved. Penmanship is not simply forming your letters, it involves posture and form that extends from the bottoms of the feet to the tips of the fingers. I hope this helps. :)

(QFT - emphasis in bold is mine) Just, wow. I am going to write this into my journal so I can re-read it often. Thank you. I've been so wrapped up in the little ones (our soon-to-be adoptive sons), in church, in homemaking, in the ideal homeschool, in my own lack-of-sleep saga, etc, that I've lost sight of what's most important: instilling in my daughter a love of learning. As a foster-adoptive mom who never gave birth, I've had to let go of a lot of ideas I had about the way things would be when I grew up: my kids will never look like me, or have my father's eyes; I'll forever have to make a place in our lives for birth-parents and family I never anticipated having (because it's the right thing to do)... the list goes on. My husband and I were even required to take training that included letting go of one's dreams and ideas of what you always anticipated your family would look like, so that we would hopefully become a successful adoptive family. Applying this concept (of letting go) to "my ideal scholarly child" and "my ideal classical homeschool" will be very helpful. After all, I'm the nerdy one who thinks she can teach anything to anyone, as long as I have enough prep time. My daughter would gladly sit and watch [insert inane cartoon here] and eat Cheetos all day if she could. So, indeed, I need to make school work for my daughter, not get angry and impatient when she doesn't want to practice math flash cards or do sentence dictation, and stomps off saying it's too hard. What am I thinking?! Where's the joy of learning in that?! I need to remember that if I'm given clay, I should mold it gently when it's soft, rather than think I have marble that requires a chisel. Funny, I came here looking for remedies to my daughter's poor attitude, and found that the attitude that needs the most attention is mine. -Laura

Hey there, Looking at the books you are reading and the activities you are engaged in, I'm wondering if there is a WTM Parents' Book Club where we can discuss ideas or points of interest in the things we're reading. I recently purchased "How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare". I'd love hear your thoughts or the more salient points that you put into your commonplace books. So... is there a Book Club area of this forum? Anyone interested? In preparation for SotW-3, I'm also reading HG Wells' Pocket History of the World, which I'm finding utterly fascinating and really worth the time. I also started Robinson Crusoe - another great book that somehow got overlooked in my youth.

1. I found a full set of Cuisenaire rods very helpful in explaining what, e.g., 6x8 physically looks like. 2. I had my child fill out a written grid multiplication chart at least once a week. Overwhelmed at first, she relaxed visibly once I took a highlighter marker and struck a line through the 1's (because they are given), then struck lines through anything she could skip count (2's, 10's, 5's, 3's). She was able to tell me 4's through 4x5. By then the number of completely empty spaces without markings was reduced to less than a dozen math facts. That was much more doable. As her first missed 4 was 4x6, I took a fine point Sharpie and wrote it on the inside of her arm, which she thought was pretty cool. I then asked her, how much is 4x6? When she said she didn't know, I told her to look at her arm. This was 6 months ago. To this day, when asked for 4x6, I can ask her to look at her arm and she suddenly remembers the answer (and yes, the Sharpie was washed off that evening). For the rest of the year, I let her strike through the 1's, then complete the grid to the best of her ability, leaving blank the ones she didn't know. This helped me to know where to focus. 3. When it seemed that she couldn't remember 6x7, 7x8, 6x8, and 8x8, I looked for a more kinetic approach than I'd been using. I took chalk to the pavers and created a random grid with the numbers: 5,6,7,8, 9, 35, 45, 48, 54, 56, 63, 64. We enlarged it later, but I found the smaller grid was preferable. Grid might be: 64 56 63 9 7 6 5 54 35 8 48 45 The Math Hopscotch Game: Write the numbers you'll be using with chalk in a random 4x3 grid. Have the equations written out or choose the flash cards you will be using. Player 1 takes a flash card and calls the two multipliers to Player 2. Player 2 jumps to first multiplier, then to next, then to the answer. A correct answer yields a point. Winner gets to... (name your prize) Player 2 then calls out the multipliers to Player 1. Game is played till all flash cards are done. I suppose this could also be done with a Twister board and number assignments! After going though all the combinations we had, her assignment was to go through the flash cards twice again on her own. She loved it. It was glorious, it turned the key for her to memorizing her math facts through the 9's, and she got to jump around during math session for 20 minutes. Hopefully these ideas help. :)

This is a really great idea. Have you checked out Hillsdale College's online courses? They are free and very very good. http://online.hillsdale.edu/dashboard/courses Among the titles: The Federalist Papers The Presidency and the Constitution Introduction to the Constitution: Lecture series by Hillsdale President Larry P. Arnn Constitution 101: The Meaning & History of the Constitution Constitution 201: The Progressive Rejection of the Founding & the Rise of Bureaucratic Despotism I can't recommend these courses, and the Hillsdale Hour podcasts with Hugh Hewitt strongly enough. https://online.hillsdale.edu/hillsdaledialogues

Wow! Murrayshire - that looks great! Please include your blog in the footer of the pages of your next cheat sheet so I know where to get more info. :) Your blog looks amazing too. Thanks for all the hard work. -Laura