Manuscript or Cursive for Kindergarteners

[grace'smom]

How many of you think it's important to teach cursive before manuscript for kindergarteners? Theoretically, I would like to teach cursive first, but my daughter would rather learn manuscript. Should I push it or just teach her what she wants?

[justamouse]

I taught cursive and I'm so happy I did. It wasn't an option, I just did, and they learned.

[Crimson Wife]

I wish I'd started with cursive for my oldest. She turns 7 this week and has *AWFUL* print penmanship. I started her in cursive this semester and it's going unbelievably well. She finds it so much easier writing all in one fluid motion rather than constantly having to pick up the pencil.

 

I'm seriously leaning towards a "cursive first" approach with my two younger kids.

[grace'smom]

I read that cursive is better too, I even purchased the Cursive First curriculum, but my daughter wants nothing to do with it. She is not quite five yet, and she wants to learn to write, but she wants to learn manuscript. I am wondering if it is worth the effort of pushing it on her. She's pretty stubborn so I am wondering if I should use my "push" chips here or on something more important, KWIM?

[justamouse]

that's hard. I understand, you want to pick your fights carefully. The other way to look at it is that you are laying down tracks of your expectations of her. Here's the thing. She's not insisting on wearing purple with orange, or a pair of mismatched shoes (my three YO does this often) and you're not engaging, this is going to make her life and yours easier as her schooling career goes on.

 

How about telling her that she needs to learn it because it will limit her propensity to write certain letters backwards? And that it's more beautiful. (I always appeal to the *pretty* gene in my girls :001_smile:)

 

What about her just learning the curves first and then taking it from there? Make a deal, she does the swoops and loops and if she still hates it then let her print?

 

I used ...umm, I forget. Not cursive first. *g* Spell to Read and Write? Yikes I can't remember!

[grace'smom]

I might try the Peterson Directed Handwriting. They have a cursive for kindergarteners that looks much easier to understand than the clock face used in Cursive First. Maybe she wants manuscript because the clock face method is too hard.

[Aurelia]

I taught manuscript first. It made sense to me because nearly all the workbooks for young children are in print and Ariel tends to copy the form as it's printed on whatever page she's working on. Plus, most books are written in manuscript, so I think it helps to reinforce reading.

[tdeveson]

Go with cursive. Get the HWOT workbook and tell her it's grownup manuscript. (It sort of looks like connected manuscript letters.)

 

It's traditional to begin with manuscript, then segue into cursive in third grade. My personal experience with my children, and the children of my home educating friends is that manuscript is sort of a waste of time. Go for the gold.

[sarahv]

I decided on cursive first, and am teaching at least the form of the manuscript letters, too just to cover them. I'll continue to cover both until he knows them well, but will require everything school-ish in cursive. My experience with spending a couple of years in ball and stick writing as a child was that I had tremendous trouble slanting my letters afterward. So I started with cursive with my K-er, and am doing an italic manuscript on the side, just so he knows how to print.

 

BTW, I am using the ABB handwriting along with the phonics instruction, but will switch to NAC next year. I don't like the form of most of the traditional uppercase cursive letters, so this year I'll do just an introduction and go NAC next year.

[SheriGene]

I did cursive with my dd in K and she had nice handwriting, but it was slow. She couldn't handle the amount of writing she needed to do by 2nd grade, so we started printing and she was faster. We do both now in 3rd. I have assigned certain subjects for each. I am doing printing first with my next dd who is now in K. I think each child is different and I don't think one is necessarily superior. We are saving a lot of time now in 3rd grade, when many are starting to learn cursive. Printing in later years comes a lot faster. My son, who is in 7th grade and not homeschooled, learned to print himself. He was taught ABeka cursive and his school never taught him to print...but alas he did survive.

[Ellie]

I read somewhere that manuscript is actually a fairly new invention; before than, children always learned cursive first.

 

I don't think it matters which one you do first, as long as you do both eventually.

 

You could try doing what Spalding does: teaches manuscript first, and in short order teach the strokes that connect the manuscript letters...voila! Cursive!

[Ritsumei]

My Mom uses a script called D'Nealian that is sort of halfway between cursive and manuscript. I haven't decided yet what we're going to use, but like a PP I'm leaning toward manuscript because it looks like the letters in the books he'll be reading

 

 

*sorry about the weird italics thing... can't figure out how to turn it off when the button won't work!

[Ellie]

My Mom uses a script called D'Nealian that is sort of halfway between cursive and manuscript. I haven't decided yet what we're going to use, but like a PP I'm leaning toward manuscript because it looks like the letters in the books he'll be reading

 

 

*sorry about the weird italics thing... can't figure out how to turn it off when the button won't work!

The thing with D'Nelian is that there isn't enough instruction given as to specific letter formation, and it doesn't reinforce the left-to-write movement that some dc need.

 

BTW, to turn italics on, the command is [ i ]whatever you want to be italics[ /i], but without the extra spaces. Then you can do this.

[Ritsumei]

BTW, to turn italics on, the command is [ i ]whatever you want to be italics[ /i], but without the extra spaces. Then you can do this.

 

It brought some sort of formatting with it when I pasted it in from another site. Very frustrating. But thanks for the tip!

[SonshineLearner]

If you saw my VERY smart three girls and their handwriting.. you'd know... Cursive First. Yes my son wants to print, and right after he learns cursive ... he may! Kinda reverse of what they do in school in the US... where cursive is the "special" If you read the information about cursive, brain development... and then the Fact that France went back to cursive after manuscript failed... even if that's not true... Children revert to the FIRST way they're taught... you can see that proven with other things. Children need to learn to print when they do map work. Before that... they don't. I do Cursive First phonograms with my son... and also my set of WRTR with the manuscript. But, for writing, I just decided... it's cursive:-)

 

Carrie:_)

Edited October 16, 2009 by NayfiesMama
Because they printed first... still print... and it's NOT pretty:-)

[Ritsumei]

Children revert to the FIRST way they're taught...

 

Yeah. You can totally see that in my "regular" handwriting: it's much more print than cursive. In fact, I hated my own cursive until I made myself do some copywork for a while. Now I've got a couple of "fonts" that I can choose from, but the fastest and most comfortable is mostly printing.

[lovinmykids]

I was faced with this when my Dd was going into K and her Abeka Curriculum said she should learn Cursive first. After talking to a teacher that I respect very highly, I ended up doing Manuscript like I thought she should do.

A child is trying to learn so much in K and to print those new letters they are learning. It becomes so confusing to try to learn Cursive as well.

The gal I was talking to said that it is better to wait to learn cursive in 3rd grade. So, I waited and this year my Dd is in 3rd grade. She picked it up so quickly and she just loves it. Her printing is still not the prettiest, so we are still working on that alot this year.

HTH

 

Oh, forgot to mention that the Public schools are working on getting rid of cursive writing because it is becoming obsolete. Children do everything on Computers as they get older.

I can see that cuz the only time I cursive is my name on a check to pay a bill. That is all!

[Whereneverever]

We started manuscript and DD1s handwriting was awful. Really. So I switched to Cursive First and it's SUCH an improvement. She says it's easier, as well.

I'll be doing cursive first with all later children. We learned. :001_smile:

[lovinmomma]

 

Oh, forgot to mention that the Public schools are working on getting rid of cursive writing because it is becoming obsolete. Children do everything on Computers as they get older.

I can see that cuz the only time I cursive is my name on a check to pay a bill. That is all!

 

Huh. I always use curisve. It's much faster for me. Also, I wouldn't base my opinion off of what public schools are doing, personally. I'm not exactly thrilled with the level of literacy in most school as a whole. I'm not trying to be rude to you. These are just the typical reasons that I hear, and wanted to voice my opinion on those opinions. Clear as mud?

[Aloha2U]

Huh. I always use curisve. It's much faster for me.

 

Me too, now that I've relearned it! Ha Ha Ha ;) Funny thing... the exception is when I'm signing my name on a check (which is rare in itself), I still use mixed writing then... manuscript w/some cursive, because I am still a silly lefty. :D

[Medieval Mom]

Cursive, cursive, cursive!;)

[justamouse]

 

Oh, forgot to mention that the Public schools are working on getting rid of cursive writing because it is becoming obsolete. Children do everything on Computers as they get older.

 

I can see that cuz the only time I cursive is my name on a check to pay a bill. That is all!

 

 

This is true! I have a friend in WA and her son is going into the Navy. Well, he had to sign the papers and he had never been taught cursive! He couldn't sign his own name! Mom freaked when she realized he couldn't write in cursive at all and is now considering HSing her other son.

 

I write in cursive all the time. It's all I use, even when I'm writing pages and pages of notes.

 

I've found that I think better when my pen is on paper. I don't know why, but when I'm plotting and stuck, I sit down with a legal pad and it all starts to flow much better. There are MANY writers who write in notebooks first, then copy to the computer so I believe it when studies say cursive helps.