Did early cursive improve your child's print?

[alisoncooks]

My DD is 6.5/first grade.

We haven't worked on handwriting as much as we should've, mainly b/c we had a lax K year, plus she has been *so* writing-resistant. (Unlike her younger sister -- who writes and draws nonstop -- older DD has always been outdoors and active and totally uninterested in putting pencil to paper. :p)

 

Anyway, her print is so-so. She is very resistant to my instruction (when she forms letters incorrectly, I gently remind her but she immediately raises her hackles). Printing is slow and laborious. I don't want to continue as is -- she's solidifying bad habits and incorrect letter formation.

 

She's shown interest in cursive & claims she'd be glad to write it. I wonder if cursive can be our do-over/clean slate, in regard to teaching her how to write legibly. :D So that's not my question -- I'm pretty sure switching to cursive will be better than our current struggles.....

 

HERE'S the question: DH & I didn't learn cursive until 3rd grade, and I'd always assumed that I would wait until her printing/manuscript was *very good* before moving on to cursive. But her print is NOT good.....so will it also improve when we switch to writing in cursive for the majority of our schoolwork? (ie. she won't be stuck at kindergarten-level print, right? :p)

 

And for those that do cursive early on.... when you have workbooks (like phonics) that are assuming you do print, do you still just fill them out in cursive?

 

**Forgive all the questions/rambling -- I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this early-cursive concept! I NEVER thought I'd be interested in it!**

[RootAnn]

Short answer: Some parts of her lowercase handwriting might improve, but overall -- probably not.

 

Long answer: My oldest dd was a reluctant writer. (She's still not nearly as interested in writing as her two younger sisters.) Her print was HORRIBLE. Her cursive is beautiful, but her print is still bad. (Her spacing (letters & words) is better, but her actual letters are messy.) She prefers to write in print. I haven't enforced mandatory cursive for everything because this year I'm requiring her to write a LOT and I don't want to fight over writing and hand-writing. I'm picking my battles.

 

The next two have really nice cursive, but I taught them that (first). They will sometimes print, but mostly write in cursive. Their print is messy & uneven (filled with capitals in the midst of lowercase letters). I never taught them how to print. They taught themselves by copying words from books. I don't worry about it because they mostly default to cursive.

 

My dd#2 filled out ETC (Explode the Code) workbooks in cursive. We don't have many "workbooks" other than math, so it hasn't been a big deal.

[blondeviolin]

My 6.5yo is learning cursive, but it hasn't currently improved her printing. That might change, but I'm not waiting for it to.

 

In my house, legible handwriting is worth the battle. If it's not proper formation or messy looking, it is rewritten. At this point, I sit right next to her during any writing. I correct a mistake in process and make her fix it right then. She went through a stage where she wanted to write the letters a "different" way, but I made it clear that for schoolwork she would write with the appropriate formation. That stage passed quickly. She doesn't write a whole ton - most days she writes 5 spelling words, 1 spelling sentence, and two or three sentences for FLL/WWE. Her handwriting is legible at this point.

 

Something I've noticed, though, is that wider lines do not equal better writing. To be honest, with wider lines it looks almost like she's drawing letters rather than writing them. The spacing she does best with is wide ruled or maybe a bit wider.

[boscopup]

Something I've noticed, though, is that wider lines do not equal better writing. To be honest, with wider lines it looks almost like she's drawing letters rather than writing them. The spacing she does best with is wide ruled or maybe a bit wider.

 

 

I had the same experience. My son's handwriting greatly improved when I gave him smaller lines to write on.

 

My middle son is learning cursive now after briefly doing print. Either one looks equally messy right now, but he's only K.

[alisoncooks]

Haha, okay. So maybe switching to cursive won't help our print at all.

Alright, I guess I can deal with that... (as long as her current penmanship improves -- and if it's cursive, I'm alright with that. :))

[duckens]

She's shown interest in cursive & claims she'd be glad to write it.

 

For the second daughter I nannied, getting her to do printing was a struggle every day. (She was in first grade or K).

 

She expressed interest in cursive; possibly because it is what older sister was learning. I can't remember because it has been so many years.

 

I thought the mom was crazy when she bought younger daughter a cursive book.

 

 

....But it was awesome. And no more struggles over handwriting. And she learned to print just fine on her own. It was ALL good.

 

You should go for it!

[alisoncooks]

For the second daughter I nannied, getting her to do printing was a struggle every day. (She was in first grade or K).

 

She expressed interest in cursive; possibly because it is what older sister was learning. I can't remember because it has been so many years.

 

I thought the mom was crazy when she bought younger daughter a cursive book.

 

 

....But it was awesome. And no more struggles over handwriting. And she learned to print just fine on her own. It was ALL good.

 

You should go for it!

Thank you for that encouragement! :)

[BugsMama]

If she's enthusiastic about cursive, and fighting you on manuscript- then absolutely GO for it, if anything maybe your day will be easier!