sweetsouthern Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 before i pull all my hair out! :D dd had great penmanship with print, so we switched to cursive way back yonder. her cursive is pretty good actually... were finishing up penwrite 4 now. in a co op we just did, they required her to use print instead of cursive... no biggie. and all of a sudden her printing looks like crap! when i went to our homeschool convention i asked a few moms for ideas and they said they actually dont even teach cursive because it is no longer used... SAY WHAT? and that they dont do handwriting with the kids beyond 3rd grade really.... so what on earth do i do? should i drop cursive? is it really "needed"? and just continue with printing for this year and be done? i guess if im looking for a printing book..im looking for something that is consumable and is basically just copying paragraphs so she can print nice and neat. (kinda like draw write now... but a little more meaty and less childish for her).. HELP! :001_huh: thanks so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 If she's going to have to take written notes in college or even high school, she should probably keep up cursive, since it's generally faster; you don't have to pick up your pen as many times. I'd have her work on printing, just to keep it legible, but I wouldn't neglect cursive either. They both have their strong points. I think explicit handwriting practice is necessary as long as their handwriting needs work. For some kids, that's 3rd grade, for some it's 7th. It really depends on your child. Have you looked at copywork books, like from Memoria Press, Happy Scribe or Queen's homeschool? If you want something more secular, I'm sure Currclick has something. We're using Beatrix Potter for Beginners, but Ariel is only 5. I assume she knows how to make the letters, so she just needs practice in making it more legible/pretty, in which case copywork might be a good choice, plus it will help with punctuation and spelling. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I used George Washington's Rules of Civility on DonnaYoung.org for my oldest when he needed a kick in the penmanship tushie. http://donnayoung.org/penmanship/gw_roc.htm They're not insulting to older kids who need the practice, but they're not whole paragraphs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkermamaof4 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I had my dd's practice with Getty Dubay italic last year so their print would be "pretty". It did the trick and I really like the look of their print. This year we switched to BJU handwriting bc/ we were doing the DVD's, but I really like the GD look better and it is a very "quick" print to write, which I think helps them in later years to take quick notes. BJU teaches calligraphy in 6th grade I think. I'd like my dd's to try that soon also. It seems to me that I'll need to keep them practicing for a few more years! You can see samples if you scroll down on amazon's page http://www.amazon.com/Italic-Handwriting-Book-Barbara-Getty/dp/0876780966/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242699116&sr=8-5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetsouthern Posted May 19, 2009 Author Share Posted May 19, 2009 ok... i just talked it over with dd and we've decided to try the getty dubay! the quick note taking makes sense, and she did faulter with that in co op. and both dh and i write half print half cursive and it looks similar to getty dubay! loL! ok.. can anyone recommend which book to start her in? i dont want it to be too easy or yet to hard! thanks everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paisley Hedgehog Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkermamaof4 Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I'd think B would be ok if you want it to be all print. But you could print check a sample from each and then decide. My dd's did B and we have C for them too, but C is the transition to cursive. Also, somewhere I read that it is fun to do it yourself with them. I am tempted to do that this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmamainva Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I highly recommend Handwriting Without Tears' Can-Do Cursive. It's their recommended workbook for 5th grade and it's excellent! I believe you can view samples at HWT's website or at Sonlight.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJoy Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I don't know about the 'cursive is no longer used' thing. Isn't it required that the SAT essay portion be written in cursive? My kids are nowhere near this, but I remember reading in the paper that our local high school was scrambling to teach cursive because of this requirement. :confused::confused: The essay may be printed--statistics were relased about the average scores of cursive vs. printed essays. However, students do have to write a sentence about having not given or recieved help in cursive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sue Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 In one of the schools our dd attended, they learned cursive in 2nd grade and used cursive/priniting in 3rd. In 4th -5th they were only allowed to use cursive. In middle school and highschool, I think the decision is up to the student. Usually that is when students seem to create their own personal handwriting style. We used Zaner-Bloser for handwriting. They have samples on their web site. With computers, I imagine some of the art of cursive has diminished. I only use cursive for a signature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 To this day, I write half print, half cursive. I taught my older son both and now he also writes with a mixture (just his "style" but the letters are formed correctly and legible which is all that matters). It works fine. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brindee Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 My dd did Getty-Dubay some last school year and this school year. I LOVE her writing now! But it's not set yet, and she is kind of slow, so I may have her do the next book (which is the last in the series) next school year (7yh grade) to help solidify her writing and help speed it up some (make it less thought, more habit). After that she can make it more her own style, whatever she feels comfortable with. She ASKED to do Getty-Dubay, and is happy with the results she's seeing, except for speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitraces Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 We ended up printing our own writing books using the standard line width for the age of our children - some ages need the spacer lines, others just a single line - and had the kids copy from books read, Bible verses they were learning, dictation from literature or just free writing. We printed in landscape mode and left 1/3 of the top of the page blank for drawings and then had them bound. Now I have a spiral for almost every year from elementary years with lots of cool writing. They are great keepsakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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