DS (11) is still struggling with cursive. WWYD?

[iammommy]

Ds, 11, has always had some fine motor issues. His printing is very nice, but he has always had trouble with cursive, especially connection certain letters together. We've done HWT cursive and he still struggles. WOuld you re-do the HWT cursive workbooks? Or would you let it go. He can write his name in cursive enough to "get by" in life. The thing that concerns me is that he's so used to the simple HWT font that he has difficulty reading other cursive fonts. Help! He really wants to be good in cursive, but isn't progressing, and I don't know if it's worth the time involved. Is there another program we should try?

 

Nan

[Hedgehog]

I guess you could get more cursive handwriting programs to see if there's one out there that works, but it could be an age thing, maybe for some reason your ds isn't ready to do cursive. We use the Christian Liberty Press Handwriting series.

 

At the end of the day it's not a complete disaster if he never learns cursive at all. Many of my generation here in the UK only ever learned to print - and some pretty poorly at that - and we get along alright. I'm not saying he shouldn't learn it, and indeed if he wants to then I think I would continue to try and help him achieve it.

[BlessedMom]

:grouphug: It is always so tough when our children struggle with anything. It is great that he really wants to be good at cursive.

 

If it were my child I would definitely give another program a try. Maybe one of the programs that starts by teaching the lower case letters with connectors.

 

Here are a couple of suggestions that might help improve his motor skills.

 

He might benefit from practicing on a personal size, lined dry erase board with markers.

 

If you aren't already using mechanical pencils you might give those a try. It made a huge difference for my child.

 

Hth

[In2why]

Interesting question. I plan on teaching my 7y/o and my 11 y/o learned in school, but I believe that the only use of cursive is in school. I went to college, worked in a legal office and with the courts for years, and have handled numerous adult responsibilities, and other than my name I never used cursive. But I have had to read it many times, and I wonder if it is possible to read it without the same effort spent learning to write it.

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

Ds, 11, has always had some fine motor issues. His printing is very nice, but he has always had trouble with cursive, especially connection certain letters together. We've done HWT cursive and he still struggles. WOuld you re-do the HWT cursive workbooks? Or would you let it go. He can write his name in cursive enough to "get by" in life. The thing that concerns me is that he's so used to the simple HWT font that he has difficulty reading other cursive fonts. Help! He really wants to be good in cursive, but isn't progressing, and I don't know if it's worth the time involved. Is there another program we should try?

 

Nan

 

I tried HWOT tears with ds10 last year and he didn't do well either. This year I am using Penny Gardner's Italics, and his writing is very pretty! :lol: Not that I would say pretty to him, but I am impressed with the difference. The Italics cursive is more similar to print and easier to write, IMO>

[BatmansWife]

My son has struggled with cursive too. He also had been using HWT....but he'd never ever use it other than in that book. He is 15 and still prints his name. He doesn't seem to be able to read cursive either (print is hard enough for him!). So, as I was about to order New American Cursive for my 7 year, I thought...gee, I should try cursive again with son. I showed him the cursive sample and asked if he wanted to try cursive again. He said, "Maybe". I had e-mailed the author with a few questions and one question was if an older student should start with book 1. She said that he should just start with book 2, which has a complete review in the beginning. You can also order the NAC StartWrite CD from them to make more worksheets. Book 3 is not on the website, but she told me it will be available in a few weeks...it's theme is "Good Manners" and the secular version of book 3 will be available next year. The author also said, "I think you will be very pleased with the results your children make with the New American Cursive Penmanship Program. NAC is a serious penmanship program that gets results yet is fun for the students." I hoping that will prove to be true.

Here's a link:

 

http://www.newamericancursive.com/alphabet/