KristenR Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 My dd5 is pretty comfortable reading and writing. We officially start K this month and I had planned on just strengthening and giving her practice. Yesterday she handed me a note where she had written her name in cursive- at least her attempt at it. It wasn't a bad attempt considering the only place she has seen cursive is the occasional note my dh or I might have around. Oh- and I just realized some Abekka readers that we picked up from Goodwill have sampling cursive. Anyway, she said she REALLY wants to learn cursive cause its "so pretty". I hadn't intended on teaching her until her print was a bit more natural. She writes it neatly but she is very meticulous and takes her time so its a slow process. She's a bit of a perfectionist and will auto correct if it doesn't look perfect to her. Anyway- I had planned on doing it next year but I don't want to necessarily hold her back if its something she is growing an interest for. What do you guys think? I know some teaching philosophies teach cursive first so I don't think I would necessarily throw off her current level of learning. But if I do teach cursive what do you recommend? I had assumed I could just pick up some workbooks from the bookstore like I did for her alphabet and print. But I haven't seen anything. Is it pretty standard to get a curriculum like Handwriting Without Tears? Is it not something that would be easy enough to just teach on my own? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 Oh and one more thing I meant to add. I have a middle dd that will turn three soon and I had planned on doing a Letter A Week with her because she loves trying to do school work with her older sister. I had thought I could do a Letter A Week for both of them. My oldest learning cursive while my middle dd would get exposure to print and then they could both do activities on the sounds together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 My dd8 just started to learn cursive this year and I was BLOWN away at how well she took to it. She took to cursive 100 times better than typical penmanship. So in my opinion I don't see an issue with teaching it earlier. If my dd6 decided she wanted to do cursive, I'd not question it at this point to flip open the book and let her have a go at it. But prior to the experience of see'ing how well my dd8 took to it I wouldn't have let either of them do it sooner. My heart has changed now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momacacia Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Go for it! Dd, soon to be 7, started cursive mid-K because "she already knew how to print" :glare: and "wanted to write fancy." So instead of fighting it, we started the Cursive First curriculum. Yes, I'd choose a specific style of cursive to be consistent. Even in cursive, there are options. We also only allowed her to write cursive in school--she could print on her own time. And, she has learned how to form letters correctly in print on her own and her print looks quite good. We do need more rote cursive practice, but the cursive first style is easymto teach. (all lowercase letters start at the baseline.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 Thanks so much. I just wanted to be sure I wasn't throwing something too hard at her. But since she is the one who instigated and expressed her desire--- I suppose we'll add it in this year. Now, I guess I just need to do a search on threads about cursive programs on this forum. Something tells me there are probably a bunch already! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I taught it to my dd last year when she was 5yo. I think it took about 3 weeks. I have learned that cursive is actually easier for a child than print. Easier physically because there is less up and down motion with the pencil; and easier mentally because there are fewer decisions to make about where to place the pencil. Knowing what I know now, I have decided that I will teach cursive first with the next child. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 We use HWOT. So that's what I'd suggest. This is what we used for print as well so it was an easy transition into cursive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grace'smom Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I taught my DD cursive at 5 as well. She learned it easily enough with HWOT. The only issue we've had is when she is at Sunday school or co op, science camp, etc. she will try to write in print rather than cursive and she doesn't really know how to print. She doesn't want to write in cursive in front of the other kids, but she doesn't know how to make all the print letters, so you get a hodge podge of letters that looks pretty rough. She did know print before we started cursive, but she forgot it as we went along. I'd just make sure you keep your daughter doing print every once in a while so she won't forget it like mine did. Other than that cursive is awesome! My DD constantly writes words backwards if she doesn't write in cursive. With cursive that is a complete nonissue. I wish you could write 6's and 9's in cursive, LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Other than that cursive is awesome! My DD constantly writes words backwards if she doesn't write in cursive. With cursive that is a complete nonissue. I wish you could write 6's and 9's in cursive' date=' LOL.[/quote'] :iagree: And 3's and 7's, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 If your dd wants to "write pretty", she may not like the HWOT style. I suggest you let her choose which style she prefers - there are several styles shown here. Our choice was Getty-Dubay Italics, but I think BJU is also good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Have her continue writing most things in manuscript. It's a skill she'll continue to need. You can easily teach her connected writing, which is Spalding's answer to cursive: it's just manuscript with strokes that connect letters to each other, plus a few extras for letters like b and r. You might be able to find a copy of WRTR at your local library and use it just for that. She's going to write cursive one way or the other: she'll either teach herself with all sorts of lines and shapes that you'll have to remediate, or you can teach her correct form. Your way will be better. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misidawnrn Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 ABeka has a pretty easy to follow cursive program. DD is in 2nd this year and this is the first year we are doing cursive and she is gobbling it up. She told me today that she wishes she could do the whole book right now. I am going to be pretty lax about the grading part of it and just let her have fun learning it. I still to this day remember having my paper with a bunch of red circles on it circling all of my lower case r's because they looked like v's and this was in the 3rd grade. I still have unpretty (is that a word?) handwriting. So, I am going to let DD think that handwriting in cursive is fun. No red pen here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black_midori Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Teach her :) I did the same for my son - I hadn't planned on teaching it until 2nd/3rd grade but he REALLY wanted to learn in 1st so we went for it - and I am SO SO glad!!! I actually write most everything cursive myself, so it is a relief to be able to do most of his board work and written "mom" stuff in cursive :) When we started, I just got a dry erase cursive book from Walmart to see if he really enjoyed it. He did, so we worked our way up to printed worksheets from the computer. At some point, I finally broke down and got the HWOT - if I had it to do over again, I'd probably start with that right away & also have the dry erase book for "fun". It was surprising to me how much easier it was to truly teach with a few hints along the way <g> - the whole "tow truck letter" thing that they do gave me a catch-phrase to use when he was having trouble & he thought it was fun & made sense. Nowadays, we just do a small worksheet for his writing in cursive 2x a week to stay in practice writing & I do almost all my writing in cursive (so he practices reading it a lot!). Next year, I think I'll pick a specific subject and have him do that work in cursive & not "teach" it anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 If she wants pretty, she might find 'Pictures in Cursive' inspiring. The samples are very pretty! Rosie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 If she wants pretty, she might find 'Pictures in Cursive' inspiring. The samples are very pretty! Rosie :iagree: I have been :drool5: over them for some time, but it just doesn't fit in with what we are doing at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prose Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 This is encouraging to me too, because we are starting cursive for DD this year in First grade also because she wants to write pretty. It sounds like she ready! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aim4balance Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Sorry to jump in here, but we're also starting cursive and wondering about which curriculum to choose. I have 2 kids (a rising 2nd grader and a child between K/1st grade work), so b/c of their levels is there one curriculum I can use for both (like Cursive First?) In terms of writing they both do well with WWE. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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