Cursive for 1st grade (not cursive first)

[EmilyGF]

After living in Europe, I'm a big fan of learning cursive as one's first script. However, I hated the curriculum Cursive First. Does anyone know of a handwriting curriculum that could be used with a young one easily?

 

I disliked Cursive First because it seemed cumbersome (the wording took *so* long) and it didn't hold my hand *at all*.

 

Thanks,

Emily

[Dmmetler]

I'm using HWOT cursive with my 5 yr old, and it's working pretty well.

[thowell]

I don;t know how good it is but I know Abeka uses cursive in the early grades.

[toawh]

I agree with the European way of learning cursive first. Kids pick up print on their own anyway. I don't use a program. I just buy one of those first grade writing pads, and each day I teach one more letter. After all the letters I start letting them pick first a word then eventually a sentence from their reading that they want to write. I write on one line and let them copy ont he next. After some of that they begin writing fromthe whiteboard/blackboard/scratch paper. Then by second grade I write in print and they are expected to copy it into their notebook incursive. So far it's worked quitre well, and it's so cheap!

[tranquilmama]

I haven't used it yet but the New American Cursive from Memoria Press looks good and I've heard great things about it.

[Satori]

We're starting HWT Cursive next month with my 5 year old. I'll have the book in hand tomorrow, but I've heard good things about how they teach cursive. We LOVE the Handwriting Without Tears program.

[Doodle]

Doodle started HWT cursive near the end of his K year. We'll continue with it when we start 1st grade soon.

[mammaofbean]

my 5 yo is doing HWT, she is taking it slow and it is working well. i was against it, because i thought cursive would be too hard, then a friend of mine gave her the workbook when she expressed an interest and it is going better than print. i don't know if it is because of the book or because somehow cursive is less confusing for her, but two weeks in and things are going well.

[FO4UR]

Abeka has nice cursive workbooks K4 and up.

[Whereneverever]

I've heard OK things about New American Cursive from Memoria. My only complaint with them is that all the lower case letters don't start on the bottom line. I like that aspect of Cursive First.

[scrappyhappymama]

We use A Beka for K4 and K5 for phonics/learning to read and handwriting, specifically because it uses cursive right from the start. We don't use A Beka for anything else, but it's worked really well for us in this area since we preferred the cursive first approach. I've heard great things about HWT as well, but I like to keep things very simple in the early years, so one program for learning to read and write both has been ideal.

 

At first, I was skeptical, but my husband majored in Russian in college and remembered his first Russian language class starting out day one learning to write in cursive. So when he heard that A Beka offered the option of cursive, he really wanted us to go that route. With our first, I was amazed at how easily he picked up on the cursive formation, and also how he seemed to just pick up printing as well. Our second is well on his way now too.

 

Once we finish the A Beka phonics (we drop it at the end of 1st), we continue with cursive penmanship by doing the WWE copywork in cursive (I use StartWrite to create the copywork pages).

[krismoose]

I found a great workbook on Rainbow Resource called Handwriting Help for Kids - Create Cursive. It's meant for 3rd grade or so, but the font is large enough for my 5yo to use comfortably and there are very few words on a page, so it's not too overwhelming. We're almost done, and there are only 6-9 words per page. We made copies at first and did some pages many times at first, and then progressed to doing the book as written. You can see previews on the site. He's picked up printing on his own, and I'm teaching him correct letter formation as it comes up. I just found Pictures in Cursive by Queen Homeschool on RR today and we're going to try book A as soon as he's done with HHFK. It's a combo of picture study and cursive copywork, and there's a primer level to teach cursive as well...looks interesting, anyhow. HTH :)

[Novafan]

My oldest learned cursive in a Montessori school in the first grade. I was so pleased with him learning cursive first that I went ahead and taught my second child cursive (at home) in Kindergarten. I'll be teaching my youngest to write in cursive this year as well (1st grade).

 

My favorite book for teaching and drilling cursive is Cursive Connections. Rainbow Resources has three books - Modern Style A, Modern Style B, and Traditional Style B. I'm not sure why there isn't a traditional style A. Hmmm? Anyway, we muse the Modern Style books and they have worked out very well for us.

[gandpsmommy]

Dd taught herself to print when she was 3, so she asked me to teach her cursive in first grade. We chose Abeka, although we've never used any of their other curr. or products. We were pleased with it and continued with the next two books, until she no longer needed a handwriting book.