luciana11tx Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 I like D'nealian modern cursive and Zaner-bloser simple cursive. I'm looking at Cursive First, A reason for handwriting and Pictures in cursive but any suggestion is welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy Jo Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 JOY of Handwriting - much better than Cursive First IMHO, and a PDF so its easy to print copies for younger kids. (You are permitted to copy Cursive First, but it would have been expensive when I checked.) My 2nd son did better with the outline letters in JOY as opposed to the traditional dashed letters. And it looks professional. Then either Copycat books for practice, or go to Donna Young's website and install the cursive font to make your own sheets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 The instruction in WRTR. Simple, effective, one on one teaching with almost instant results. Cursive First APPEARS to be ALMOST the same, but it is NOT. The worksheets do NOT work as a supplement to Spalding. I do wish there was a Spalding worksheet curriculum, but it's actually easier to just wing it from the instructions, than to use another program's font. The Spalding font and the scripts are ingenious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luciana11tx Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 thanks night owls! I'm close to having a "rough draft" of what my son's 3rd grade curriculum will look like. Stressful but totally worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 I have to say that for ease, HWOT is absolutely wonderful. I started with the 3rd grade cursive for my son's handwriting and it was great... (I taught him cursive, first :)) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 We have always gone withe the Italic workbooks and I love the way my older one writes. Had forgotten about them til I realized our 11 year old had lousy handwriting and reimplemented them with great success. They are inexpensive as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Cursive is the bane of my existence. I can't seem to find a font I really like. Some come close, but then there is one or two letters I prefer a different way. I found ONE font that is exactly what I'm looking for - Steck Vaughn - but they don't make handwriting workbooks anymore! And I can't really justify the $50 for EFI (it has that font) when I already have Startwrite AND Joy of Cursive. :tongue_smilie: My problem is typicaly with 'T' and 'F'. I was taught the Palmer style. I can't make that style look good. My cursive used to look like a 2nd grader wrote it. I have gone through the Italic Cursive books and also played around with Zaner-Bloser type. The Italic was good, and practicing in Write Now certainly helped my handwriting in general, but the problem with Italic is that my brain gets confused when it's time to join - the letters join different ways or some don't even have a join, and I can't keep up with it. It makes me think TOO hard. So then I switched to a more ZB-style, and it looked better and didn't cause my brain problems. Their 'T' and 'F' look better than Palmer style, but I still have trouble with them! Then I saw the BJU style and tried their 'T' and 'F'. Totally love that style! I can do that one, and it looks nice. My problem with BJU? The 'J' and 'I' are funky. Sigh. So then I went on the hunt for a program that was more like ZB, but with the BJU style 'T' and 'F'. Found it in Steck Vaughn on that handwriting chart everyone posts all the time (let me dig it up... here it is). Oh, and looking at that chart again, I really liked the BJU 'G' as well. Maybe I should just try the BJU and see if I can do the 'I' and 'J'... I like all of their other letters. :tongue_smilie: For my own handwriting, I can mix style easily. But for teaching the kids... It'd be nice to have it done for me, but if I'm mixing styles, I can't do that. And I don't really want them tracing MY handwriting or only seeing MY handwriting as a source, since my handwriting is so horrible. It's better now, but I like them to see a nicer version of the cursive letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 I mixed styles with DD when I switched her to New American Cursive. I was willing to give up on Peterson Directed Handwriting (which is my preferred style as it's the prettiest that is still easily legible) but I put my foot down on NAC's capital F's, T's, Q's, and Z's. I just had DD practice those letters on worksheets I made at this site. Didn't seem to throw her any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Pentime which has workbooks for all the way to 8th grade which can be found at Rainbow Resources:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 We are using Joy of Handwriting: Cursive with my 3rd grader, it's mostly independent (she's doing the pdf on the iPad) and her cursive is really nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atozmom Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 LOE (Logic of English) is putting out a new cursive handwriting program. They don't have it up on their website yet, but the author said there should be samples up soon. For now they have some multi-sensory cursive instructions posted free on their website. There are examples of how to form the letters there as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atozmom Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 We are using Joy of Handwriting: Cursive with my 3rd grader, it's mostly independent (she's doing the pdf on the iPad) and her cursive is really nice! I love the looks of this font, but my ds would have the same problem with this as many others. All of the examples are on the left side of the page. That doesn't work well for lefties. Bummer, it is a great price too. ETA: I have Startwrite. I just need to suck it up and make my own I guess. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 We have always gone withe the Italic workbooks and I love the way my older one writes. I love Italics too, but the OP is asking specifically about Zb-style traditional cursive. :) Cursive is the bane of my existence. I can't seem to find a font I really like. Some come close, but then there is one or two letters I prefer a different way. Wow! You are WAY overthinking this. I can guarantee that your children will not write the precise way you teach. They are their own men and WILL tweak some letters as they like. My dd is 7 and is already doing this. I like D'nealian modern cursive and Zaner-bloser simple cursive. I'm looking at Cursive First, A reason for handwriting and Pictures in cursive but any suggestion is welcome! Are you looking for handwriting instruction or copywork? If you are looking only for copywork, Pictures In Cursive is beautiful, but expensive. Otherwise, you will find lots of free and affordable copywork on Currclick.com and Lulu.com (esp. history copybooks by Julie Shields) where the cursive model is *above* the line to be copied. You can print these books and have them spiral-bound at the top. For handwriting instruction, have you looked at books from Scholastic, Evan-Moor or Carson Dellosa? They are usually available as ebooks, so you can print and have them spiral-bound at the top. Otherwise, just use any good cursive program, but have your child copy on a separate notebook paper. That way, the model can stay on his right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 LOE (Logic of English) is putting out a new cursive handwriting program. They don't have it up on their website yet, but the author said there should be samples up soon. For now they have some multi-sensory cursive instructions posted free on their website. There are examples of how to form the letters there as well. I am so NOT impressed with LOE's choice to use D'Nealian. Just...NOT impressed at all! She lost me right there. Pasting watered down Spalding wannabe instructions onto D'Nealian is...I don't know what. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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