Has anyone taught HWOT Cursive to a kindergartner?

[Surfside Academy]

I just purchased HWOT Cursive for my older son and I want to teach my kindergartner at the same time. The curriculum lists it as 3rd grade material (which is probably arbitrary) but I was just curious how well other K'ers fared. Also, about how long does it take before the child gets a good grasp of writing in cursive?

[TracyR]

yes we did . My oldest learned with this book at age 6 . She learned it VERY quickly , and did most of it on her own . I definitley think a 5yr old can learn cursive with this program :>)

[sandra in va]

Hi,

 

I haven't used HWT cursive with my K students, but we do use it in 1st grade. I found some of the lines are a little too close together for an average K-age student. (Just an idea - If you wanted to start in K, it might be easier for them if they did their work/practice on the wider-lined paper HWT sells instead of the workbook?)

 

For us, we use the printing books quickly, then at the tail end of 1st grade I start the cursive. We continue through 2nd. For them to become really proficient in cursive, you have to start limiting the printing (unless you've got a kid that just takes to cursive from the get-go!). I got to the point where it became cursive only (esp. in certain subjects - spelling is a good one). That helps them pick it up. I have found that if you don't enforce a "cursive only" rule, then they stay with the more comfortable printing.

 

I don't know if this really answers your questions. It is just what has worked for us. :)

[JenneinCA]

My son wasn't in kindergarten but he was a young six. He had no issues with writing in cursive. He enjoyed the lessons as much as he would have enjoyed any other work at that age. It was easily six months before he was close to fluent in writing the letters and still occasionally (at 7.5 ) has trouble remembering how to form the less common letters, like q and z.

 

For us it has been very smooth, but the reason he is doing cursive is because he was reversing his letters in print and frustrated. It did solve that problem. However, in group situations, he sticks out because most of the boys print and can't read his writing. So it does create a few problems too.

 

Good luck

[TracyR]

The lines start out big enough and they do get smaller . What I did was just bought the HWT printing paper which has bigger lines and we just used that . It worked perfectly .

[Surfside Academy]

I did actually buy the wider-lined paper for just that reason. I noticed there's no schedule in the TM so do you just have the kids do a page/day in the workbook? I'm a bit of a scheduling nut so I get a little "anxious" when it's not laid out :scared:

[sandra in va]

I think they say to just do 5-10 minutes a day or something like that? It may be a couple of words for your K student and a couple of lines for your older child. I go more by time than pages.

 

hth,

[Lenora in MD]

I did the cursive book during first grade, but had done the printing book before that. I did not just start out with cursive. If they each have their own workbook, there really is no reason to keep them together.