Help....My children were taught cursive first.

[Mama2Boys]

My DS8 and DS7 were taught cursive first while attending a private Christian school using Abeka curriculum. They both have good cursive handwriting for their ages. I am wondering if/when I should I introduce printing. I have purchased GD Italics, but haven't started teaching it yet. It is our first year homeschooling. Thank you in advance for any advice for the newbie. :)

[nansk]

Hi,

 

If your sons have good cursive handwriting, perhaps you should stay with cursive.

 

If you do want to use italics, I would suggest showing them the difference in letter shapes (cursive v/s italic) and getting them to consistently use the italics letters in their writing. Then, introduce the italics letter joins one at a time and get them to start using each successive join in their writing. Based on my experience as a cursive writer who learned italics, it should be a smooth transition. :-)

 

Here are the italics joins, fyi. You may see how they differ from the corresponding cursive joins.

 

1. tt or ft - write both letters first, then cross them together.

 

2. Curved Joins

am um un an in im

ar ir ax ix

 

3. Sharp Joins

ai aj ap at

au av aw ay

ab ah ak al (curving into tall letters is optional)

 

4. Start-back joins

no nc ne he as is

 

5. Horizontal joins

on ox ft fr tn to

th vo wi xn

 

6. Diagonal into Horizontal joins

na ac ad ag aq

 

7. Joining out of an 'e'

en em ev ew eo ee es

ea eg ed

 

8. Joining out of an 'r'

rn ru ro ra

rs rn

 

9. Joining out of b, p, or s

(two s are written just like cursive)

 

10. Letters that are never joined

f z g j q y

[rootsnwings]

My ds has horrible manuscript writing. He just never learned the correct way to form letters (ps k & 1st) and he really struggled our 1st year of hs'ing (2nd grade). He was in 3rd last year & I introduced cursive writing and he did GREAT with it! I am going to start italics with him this year in hopes that he can re-learn some proper printing techniques but feel like it will be close enough to cursive that he won't feel like he's going back and doing "baby handwriting"... We are using Character Italics for grades 1-2.

 

HTH!

[Rosie_0801]

When do you think they need to know how to print by?

 

I have awful handwriting because they changed the way I was supposed to be doing it about four times while I was trying to learn. I think you should leave them writing in cursive until they are quite comfortable doing it before you switch to something else. They aren't going to be filling out paper work saying "print here" any time soon. With a bit of luck, they'll figure out printing for themselves so you won't have to take the trouble. ;)

 

Rosie

[Tracy]

I have read that cursive is easier and faster than printing. Also, if a child learns cursive and not manuscript, he can read both. But if he learns manuscript but not cursive, he can only read manuscript. Consequently, if he has learned cursive, I would give him lots of time (years) to get really good at it. The only time I can think of for really needing manuscript is filling out forms. He won't need that until late elementary/middle school, depending on where you live and what kinds of testing you want him to do. There was a time when manuscript was not taught until high school.

[Whereneverever]

I'd stick with cursive. They'll pick printing up from seeing it in books, ect.

[Lovedtodeath]

They do not need to learn to print until they start filling out forms. I would teach them to print in capitals only and wait until they are proficient at cursive and will be needing to print for something.

[SonshineLearner]

That's wonderful!! It's the way many of us believe that you should learn to write. You will need to do printing with them... when they start to really label maps... much later. I agree; familiarize yourself with Abeka's cursive and use that for copy work and their school work. Lucky you! Many would like to start their homeschooling with children who write their letters well!! :)

 

Yay!! I hope my son catches up... this year.... :) He's in 2nd... but he really likes.... Capital letters :)

[Mama2Boys]

Thank you so much for the interesting replies. It is a lot to think about in our first year homeschooling. I appreciate all of the responses and I am learning so much from this forum. Thanks again for the wonderful in depth information. :grouphug: