? for those who teach cursive first

[grace'smom]

Hey guys-

I have another question for you! For those of you who taught cursive first (using Cursive First or some other version), did you feel your young child's (around 5/6) handwriting was fairly neat? What is a child's cursive supposed to look like at that age?

 

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my daughter. We're using HWOT and she's very frustrated and having a difficult time. She knows the look of the letters, and most of their formations, but she has trouble writing legibly, without pressing down too hard, without a hook, etc. etc.

 

The last few days we've skipped handwriting altogether and she's like a brand new kid. There must be something wrong that it was causing such an issue. Was I asking her to do too much? We've tried to do one letter a day, which equaled out to two HWOT pages.

 

Could it be that cursive first really ISN'T the best way to go? We are doing it so that she can't write her words backwards due to family hx of dyslexia. But her fine motor skills don't seem quite up to the job and it's driving her (and then me) bonkers.

 

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out what to do... Obviously I need to change up something. I'm not sure I want to just switch back to manuscript now that we've come so far though. Could it be that her cursive is just supposed to look almost illegible? Maybe that's just how it is for kindergarteners doing cursive? :confused:

 

thanks for any advice,

hailey

[Dinsfamily]

I taught my ds print in K and switched to cursive in 1st. Ds's writing was much better with cursive. So much so that I've decided to go with cursive first with my other dc. It could be that her FMS haven't developed enough to produce neat hw yet.

[Whereneverever]

My DD1's handwriting was very neat and is only getting neater. On my blog under the handwriting tag I have pictures of how her writing has progressed. :)

[Kipling]

We started cursive at age 4 using Abeka. At 4/5, my dd's handwriting was almost illegible (as, I could read it because I knew what it was supposed to say, but no one else could). At 6, she was capable of producing good, legible handwriting - when she wanted to (but that wasn't often). Handwriting was a struggle for us as well. Copywork took up LONG periods of the day, no matter how short or easy I made it.

 

We have persevered and she has continued cursive this year strictly using copywork, not a program (she's 7 now). We've talked a lot about the importance of handwriting and the reasons for practice. We improved copywork by breaking it into VERY small sections with lots of feedback and praise in between. For example, "write these 4 words and then let me see it." Or, "have this line completed in 4 minutes and we'll check it" (I used a timer a lot at this stage). We came up with the 4 "s"es to check her work: Are her letters small, slanted, skinny, and the same size (referring to each lower case letter in a word)? She has worked up to longer passages now and has very nice handwriting. It's not what I'd call pretty, but it is neat, orderly, and completely legible. She no longer complains about copywork, although she doesn't particularly enjoy writing in general. She does take pride in her handwriting, and I feel like a major breakthrough has been made.

[justamouse]

I started with cursive with all of them, and I use Spell to Read and Write, starting at the two on the clock, making the formations, making the connections, real easy stuff.

 

I WISH I had spent the $ on fountain pens way back then. It's easier on their hands, they don't have to apply much pressure and pink, green and blue ink makes learning cursive fun. *g* Try jetpen.com if you want to get them, they're really not too much $.

 

Don't make her do pages and pages of letter and connectors, just make sure the ones she does are as perfect as she can make them. If she does 5 and they are slowly and perfectly done, that's better than doing 20 and crying, you know?

 

My now 8yo was the worst with it, but he's a boy and his fine motor skills were slower than his big brother (11). So I just slowed down with him a bit, but now his handwriting is gorgeous.

 

ETA, her fine motor skills. Dover publications has these really detailed coloring books-fairys, flowers and such. They're in AC Moore. Can you get her some of them and some colored pencils? Make sure she takes her time and colors them as best she can. That helped with my little dude.

Edited January 20, 2011 by justamouse

[ElizabethB]

I had no luck with paper.

 

It works from the white board or chalk board. I am doing a letter a day with my 5 year old, my daughter works on the same letter and then joins a few words using the letters we have worked on so far.

 

I start them off with really big letters and then work them down to a bit smaller. Only after they are doing really well with all letters and joins and can write fairly small on the white board do I switch to paper.

 

You can also try writing in the air and/or a pie plate or pan of sand for a while for a fun change.

[Cindyz]

You can see my son's handwriting with cursive first on my blog. We started when he was 5 and he just turned 6 in November.

[hmschooling]

Are you using HWT cursive book, which is grade 3? That could be the issue...I'd look into finding a program made to teach cursive first. Cursive First, Abeka, New American Cursive...all those have books for little ones.

[Dmmetler]

We're using HWoT, and my 6 yr old has reasonably good, but very slow penmanship. She did have manuscript in PS last year, but her cursive is already better than her printing. I've attached her most recent page from her HWoT book (complete with drawings of sea serpents. I'm not sure what they have to do with cursive..or math, or history...but they're everywhere lately!)

[Dmmetler]

Trying the image attachment again...

[grace'smom]

dmmettler, I can't see the attachment but I am glad to hear someone else is using HWOT cursive. We tried Cursive First but the lines were so small it was hard for her. HWOT has bigger spaces for writing.

 

I guess I should just try doing more board work and maybe just do ONE page of HWOT instead of two... She does have better writing on the board.

 

Thanks for sharing all the handwriting samples from your kids, everyone. It is good to see what the other kids are doing so I can gauge if hers is developmentally appropriate. I think her fine motor skills are a definitely off, but she doesn't seem totally out of the realm of kindergarten either. That's a relief. We'll just slow down and do more board stuff-- I always take ElizabethB's advice, LOL. She got my child to read!!!

[SonshineLearner]

Regardless of how it looks with cursive, I think with printing it'd be worse. Second grade is when I really started trying to have my son write, and after a couple of months... Whew.. much better ;)

[Tracy]

We just switched to cursive with dd5 this past summer. I have never seen HWOT, so I don't know what a full page looks like, but 2 pages sounds like way too much for a 5yo. What I did with dd was had her write a new letter about six times, and she learned a new letter each day. After about a week, she knew enough letters to write short words, and we added 1-2 words per day. Now, 7 months later, we are up to writing about 10 words per day (consisting either of spelling words or sentences we make up together). Though she writes very legibly for her age, that is about all she has stamina for. If you think she needs more practice than that, I would have her practice on a white board or in a salt box.

[Dinsfamily]

We just switched to cursive with dd5 this past summer. I have never seen HWOT, so I don't know what a full page looks like, but 2 pages sounds like way too much for a 5yo. What I did with dd was had her write a new letter about six times, and she learned a new letter each day. After about a week, she knew enough letters to write short words, and we added 1-2 words per day. Now, 7 months later, we are up to writing about 10 words per day (consisting either of spelling words or sentences we make up together). Though she writes very legibly for her age, that is about all she has stamina for. If you think she needs more practice than that, I would have her practice on a white board or in a salt box.

 

This is similar to what we did. I emphasized quality (mainly proper letter formation) over quantity. My dc LOVE the saltbox! My oldest is 6.5 and has no problem writing 20 spelling words daily plus copywork for WWE and FLL but it's been a gradual build up. I try to mix paper/pencil writing with white board writing to make it easier on him.

[Dmmetler]

We do one page of HWOT at a time, and introduce a new letter first outside the book for a day or more, using the chalkboard, wet-dry-try, and the other HWOT strategies. I don't go to the book until DD is pretty solid, and at that point, the 6-8 words and one sentence on a page isn't difficult.

 

I did take time last summer to show DD all the letters and I write her copywork out in highlighter and let her trace, so when she gets to the HWOT book, it's that she's finally writing the letter independently, not that she's never done it before.

[Dmmetler]

 

Trying my DD's sample again, this time from photobucket.

[FO4UR]

Getting the handwriting practice off of paper helps. On the board, it's easy to erase and try again, you're using gross motor movement, and it's simply a change of pace.

 

I started with cursive. I went very slowly and systematically from tracing over letter cards and learning the strokes to writing on the board (and in fingerpaints, sidewalk chalk, sandbox, etc...) to writing on paper. With my 7yo, I waited until he began trying to write letters on paper before assigning him work on paper...it was a long process kwim. (and he started with some fm delay)

 

 

Just today, I noticed he's been getting sloppy...I'm going to spend some time in the near future working at neatness (respecting that baseline LOL). Peterson Directed Handwriting has some good ideas that I'm going to tweak for this. That said, his cursive is still better than mine...but don't tell him I said that.

 

With my dd5 - I use a highlighter on handwriting paper to make her handwriting practice pages. It's a very fluid thing...I know exactly what she needs to work on next - so we do that. I know exactly how much practice is reasonable for her - so we do that. I use Recipe for Reading as my guide for fodder to practice so we can review some phonics and cover handwriting in one 15min session. Basically, I tweak it all to fit her so she can get it done well and go play.

[Edwena]

We use Cursive First and my dc's handwriting always get compliments. With my second dc, I've definitely used the sandpaper letters, dry erase board, salt box, and air writing a lot more. She's had a lot easier time picking it up as well. Make most of the practice be off the paper. Have soem on paper, and maybe put a smiley face over your favorite. My dd loves that.

[justamouse]

Just posting again to say that 5/6 is really very young and you should be going slowly and I would go down to a few lines well done, not two pages.

[ElizabethB]

We'll just slow down and do more board stuff-- I always take ElizabethB's advice' date=' LOL. She got my child to read!!![/quote']

 

Aw, Thanks!

 

I would take other people's handwriting advice more seriously than mine, though. I don't have as much experience with that as with reading.

 

I tell people only half-jokingly that I should have practiced on other people's children for other subjects just like I did for phonics.

 

A friend was quite surprised when I was eager to help her daughter with fractions--I was actually quite happy about the opportunity, her daughter is 2 grades ahead of my daughter, so it was the perfect chance to figure out how to teach fractions in advance. (Money! When you can relate things to $, it all becomes clear and they snap up and pay attention. 1/4= 25cents, 1/4 of $1, decimals as pennies, etc.)