What's the easiest way to teach cursive

[justLisa]

I'm having the worst time with writing. As I've posted a billion times DS tries so very hard, but I don't think I'm helping him by using the Getty Dubbay italics course. He does NOT write with a slant, and he prefers the style of HWOT for print. I know kids will develop their own style but I think he still needs some copywork in the font that mimics his style. I have been using starwrite with the text similar to the GD style but I think I will switch to the HWOT style.

 

So he wants to learn cursive. His print has picked up a bit and his hand no longer hurts so I am thinking after the holidays to start.

 

I despise the look of bubbly cursive. I hate those capital letters! HWOT cursive looks so loopy and weird, but I think it makes the most sense...if that makes sense. The GD cursive is NOT going to work. He just cannot pick up the style and it makes him feel bad. I don't want him looking at that beautiful text if he cannot reproduce it.

 

So is HWOT the only option or is there something better/easier? He is commited to learning it well so I want to start out right! As much as I would love to use the GD approach, I just know it is causing some feelings of failure as he is very sensitive.

[OK Family]

On the website donnayoung.org she has traceable cursive you could try. I printed them out for my son to learn cursive.

[3monkeys]

http://teachmejoy.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2

 

This you just download and print off each lesson. Maybe he would like this style.

[Critterfixer]

I can't help you with what you might like to use, but as far as slant goes, I have had some luck with my boys learning to slant by using fences for them to write their letters on the slant. I do angled lines on the paper for them and we lean the letters on those.

(But you may have tried that already.)

I've been doing some reading on the old methods of teaching penmanship, and it is amazing the amount of time that was given just to learning to control the pen well before the student started writing letters. I've got several vintage texts and I've got to say, this idea of having the student first work on making the pen do what he wants it to do well before writing a single letter or word makes a lot of sense to me.

[Mrs Twain]

I have been using HWOT cursive with my son. I think it is a great program. It is so easy to learn. There is no slant. The style is the most simple I have seen (not loopy in my opinion).

I don't spend any time teaching it--only going over each new page for a second to see if my son understands what he is supposed to be doing on the page. Besides that, I wrote out the spelling words for him to "translate" into cursive on those particular pages of the practice book (which I got from the teaching guide). That is all of the effort I have had to put into "teaching" cursive this year.

 

Also, the HWOT teachers guide says that kids can start writing cursive after they have only learned the lower case letters. They can just use print captials and continue the rest of the work in cursive. This is actually how I write cursive, and I think it is an acceptable style. You could do that for your son if you don't like the cursive capital letters. I am going to teach the cursive capitals to my kids, even if only for teaching them to be able to read cursive.

 

Good luck!

[Jay3fer]

IMO, it doesn't have to slant. My mother has the neatest script handwriting in the world, and it doesn't slant at all.

(ETA: she was taught in the 1950s in a VERY proper Anglican girls' school - I suspect they knew and taught handwriting VERY properly indeed :-))

 

I think it's a matter of personal taste, so choose a program - we use HWOT - that will help your ds feel like a success right away.

[Twigs]

IMO, it doesn't have to slant. My mother has the neatest script handwriting in the world, and it doesn't slant at all.

(ETA: she was taught in the 1950s in a VERY proper Anglican girls' school - I suspect they knew and taught handwriting VERY properly indeed :-))

 

I think it's a matter of personal taste, so choose a program - we use HWOT - that will help your ds feel like a success right away.

 

:iagree:

 

My handwriting was always up & down - no slant. I taught G-D italics to myself a few years ago & still have not slant. If your son writes with no slant, but his penmanship is legible, I would say, let it be.

 

Best wishes

[Walking-Iris]

And truthfully---if your kid is a leftie than it may be too cruel to teach a slant. I agree with others---there's no point to a slant. I'm a leftie and I don't slant anything---and have very bad memories of a teacher trying to teach me a slant. My handwriting was legible but still wrong??? I never got over it!

 

My ds8 goes to OT for fine motor work and uses HWT there and at home. His cursive is gorgeous, better than mine!!!

 

If you don't like the way a letter looks---change it! We like HWT but neither of us liked the way the lower case r was formed so we changed it.

[mommyto4]

I have a leftie, and I tell him not to worry about slant. He has been using Abeka cursive (Grade 1) for four months, and he has learned to write in cursive. It has a bit of a slant, but I just require correct letter formation and connections.

 

And I agree with the previous poster that if we don't like how a letter looks (especially the upper case -- too loopy!), we change it.

[justLisa]

Thanks to everyone! I agree with the slant. My biggest issue with using GD books is that it IS very beautiful script. I mean it is just not feasible for at least my kids to produce the same level. It makes them feel bad and they say things like "I wish I could write like that."

 

I do not have the HWOT cursive books but plan to get them today because I know they will work hard on their own. Today I taught them h,t, l, e, i and words like hit, the, it, let, lit.....I was so suprised how perfect they did! I think HWOT speaks more to kids. It is much easier to look at and produce something that looks similar. I also appreciate the advice on capitals. I think for ease of transition I will just have them stick to print capitals for a while.

Edited December 2, 2011 by 425lisamarie

[deeinfl]

Only one of my children write with a cursive slant. All the others were taught with programs that slanted, and they ended up straightening their letters anyway.

 

Don't sweat the slant. Just make sure that it's neat and legible and that he can read other people's slanted cursive. ;)

 

Start him up with only a row a day. This is how I've done it with all of my children and they have all transitioned on their own with absolutely no stress at all.

 

HTH,

 

Dee :)

 

ps Please no tomatoes, but we hated Getty Dubay cursive. My daughter wrote beautifully until she learned with that program and after that her cursive has been a mess. Sorry. I much prefer anything to that. By the way, we used Cursive Connections and loved it! Remember, only one row a day. Make it very non-important and they actually think it's art, or fun! I would circle the neatest letter in the row and tell my son that was my favorite!

[creekmom]

Thanks to everyone! I agree with the slant. My biggest issue with using GD books is that it IS very beautiful script. I mean it is just not feasible for at least my kids to produce the same level. It makes them feel bad and they say things like "I wish I could write like that."

 

I do not have the HWOT cursive books but plan to get them today because I know they will work hard on their own. Today I taught them h,t, l, e, i and words like hit, the, it, let, lit.....I was so suprised how perfect they did! I think HWOT speaks more to kids. It is much easier to look at and produce something that looks similar. I also appreciate the advice on capitals. I think for ease of transition I will just have them stick to print capitals for a while.

 

I agree that the GD script is beautiful!! I used it to teach my kids print, but when it came time to teach GD cursive, it didn't work for us. I tried teaching it to myself first, but I had a hard time figuring out which letters connected, and how to do the cursive r, etc. I realized that if I was having a difficult time learning it, how much more would my kids be frustrated! So, I bought the StartWrite software (I love it for the italic print practice), and showed them the different cursive fonts (GD included) and let them pick the one they liked the most. The StartWrite program makes it easy to teach/practice any font you like. BTW, none of them liked/picked the GD cursive as the nicest looking cursive!

[Finnella]

I thought GD was beautiful too, but we ended up using HWOT. IMO, it was the least attractive of the styles I looked at. But my son liked it, and he's had lots of success with it. Since his printing is awful, I'm glad that he has some sort of handwriting that's legible.

 

HWOT is designed not to slant. I tend to slant some when I practice with him, but he doesn't slant.

[boscopup]

Isn't the slant supposed to come from tilting the paper? That's why some left handed people have a slant to the left - they tilt their paper the opposite direction from that of a right handed person.

 

I had to tilt the paper a LOT to get any sort of slant from my son. It's like he was just trying so hard to write straight up and down. :lol: Really, an unslanted cursive looks fine.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

For dd we incorporate cursive with spelling. I am letting her develop her own style in the sense of slant/no slant but stress uniformity.