When do you start requiring cursive?

[EmmaNZ]

Ds 8 is becoming more competent at cursive now, and writes nicely, although it does take him considerably longer than print. He tends to chop and change between the two which I have so far been happy with. I realise though that he will only get faster if he practises so I've been considering asking that all his narrations be written in cursive. What do others advise/do?

[justamouse]

I start them in cursive. I don't allow print until about 3/4th grade when they have beautiful handwriting.

[SorrelZG]

DS is required to do all his English copywork and written narrations in cursive.

[EmmaNZ]

I start them in cursive. I don't allow print until about 3/4th grade when they have beautiful handwriting.

So you would advise starting my 4 year old in cursive? What do you use to teach them?

 

DS is required to do all his English copywork and written narrations in cursive.

At what stage did you require this? From as soon as he can copy a sentence in cursive?

 

Thank you! :001_smile:

[justamouse]

So you would advise starting my 4 year old in cursive? What do you use to teach them?

 

 

At what stage did you require this? From as soon as he can copy a sentence in cursive?

 

Thank you! :001_smile:

 

 

Unless your 4 year old is very advanced and you can't stop the train, I wouldn't advise you doing anything with them. The longer I do this, the more I see the wisdom in starting later.

 

If you chose to go ahead, I used The Writing Road to Reading to teach them.

 

You don't have to require anything, once they learn the strokes and letter formations, the connections, then they just naturally progress to writing words then sentences, et cetera.

[SorrelZG]

Well, DS was learning cursive while he was just five and six (he didn't learn it first - he was just an early, self starting "writer") so when he had learned the letters and began copying one sentence from a cursive model each day, that was the limit of his daily required writing which means I could say that I required it as early as when he could copy a cursive sentence. That wouldn't directly translate to your situation, though. From that point, as he transitioned into being able to copy into cursive a sentence from regular type or print and then worked on increasing how much he actually wrote each day in school, it has all been in cursive. You could transfer that to your situation, I think, by steadily increasing how much of his daily work is required to be in cursive (or how many days each week) as his ease and speed increases.

[Ellie]

I expect my dc to be writing everything in cursive by the time they are 8 or 9yo.

[thewaka]

What is the reason to require cursive? I only print myself (why is a long story), but it does make me think of why we require cursive instead print. I understand cursive should be faster, but is there any other reason?

[justamouse]

What is the reason to require cursive? I only print myself (why is a long story), but it does make me think of why we require cursive instead print. I understand cursive should be faster, but is there any other reason?

 

 

Apart from the fact that it's nicer to look at, it actually helps brain development. of course in the old days they didn't know that, it was just the correct way to write.

 

Sometimes newer ideas aren't all better.

[Ellie]

What is the reason to require cursive? I only print myself (why is a long story), but it does make me think of why we require cursive instead print. I understand cursive should be faster, but is there any other reason?

 

Because it is how English has been written for hundreds of years. Because for many, many years (longer than my lifetime, lol), it has been a sign of a well-educated person. Because we want to give our children every possible advantage, and yes, writing in cursive is an advantage. Because public schools have dropped the ball in oh, so many ways, including teaching good cursive penmanship skills and I see no reason to emulate a bad example. Because good cursive penmanship is beautiful and a pleasure to read.

 

And it has nothing to do with writing faster.

 

 

ETA: I understand that the U.S. is the only English-speaking country that does not teach its young citizens to write in cursive. I don't know if that's true or not, but if it is, it sure seems to me that we're putting our children behind if we don't teach and require cursive.

[ForeverFamily]

I plan on teaching my Dd7 cursive in 2nd grade. I plan on doing the same with all of my other kids.

[threedogfarm]

My children started cursive last year, our first year homeschooling (grade 2,3). They have continued with their workbooks this year. It is becoming more natural for them, though they still have to think about letter formation at times. They prefer to print. The way I started to get them to do more cursive with no complaints is to say, "If you do your copywork (which is in manuscript BTW) in cursive then you don't have to do handwriting today." Of course, they choose to do the work in cursive. And then I do that with spelling as well. We'll be adding narration soon. I have waited to do narration last because they are just at the stage where they are starting to do their narration on their own without me writing it first. To add cursive to this step would be too overwhelming in my opinion (I think SWB's philosphy about writing is right on and I don't want to add yet another hurdle for writing. If I am writing out their narration then I don't mind giving them the option to do that in cursive too). In this way I am slowly transitioning them from doing all printing to cursive writing without any fights or tears. It might seem that they are doing less "practicing" but it actually seems harder for them to do the copywork/spelling in cursive than doing the cursive workbook because they are not following a cursive example. And over time their practice time is going up by including more and more of their work in cursive.

[MinivanMom]

Dd8 is required to do all of her work in cursive. Ds7 is just learning cursive. Next year he will do his journaling and copywork in cursive. The following year he will be required to do all his work in cursive.

[thewaka]

Justamouse and Ellie,

 

Thank you very much for your replies. I do want my children to have beautiful cursive handwriting. This is a question my husband asked his parents several years ago. It startled them and led to the understanding that homeschooling wasn't something I dragged him into but that he fully supported it. When he told me of the conversation, I realized that other than possibly speed and comfort I could only answer tradition to the question. I did write in cursive until my first year in college, so I did learn and use it, but since I have only printed since, I haven't been as insistent on cursive as perhaps I should be. I appreciate all the thoughtful parents who post here, sharing such wisdom and experience.

[Sahamamama]

Pre-K-- Learn to form all the letters in manuscript (print), upper and lower case

Kinder -- Manuscript copywork + all other written work

 

1st grade -- Learn to form all the letters in cursive, upper and lower case

2nd grade -- Cursive copywork + most other work in cursive (steady encouragement to use cursive)

 

3rd grade & up -- Cursive mastered, all work in cursive

 

 

 

My 2nd grader taught her K'er twin sisters cursive, so now they all prefer cursive. It's "grown up" writing. ;)

[Clarkd]

Yes, I think 8 is appropriate to write in cursive if print came first. Some folks teach cursive first because it reduces reversal issues.

[ccolopy]

DD (3rd grade) has to write in cursive for all of her work in English (narrations, dictations, journals, etc.) and history. For her other subjects, she can choose. She learned cursive at the end of 1st grade.

[ladydusk]

All of my kids "self taught" print. (not right, they just started writing things down).

 

I only teach cursive (via Cursive First). I find their print improves 100% when I do that.

[Mrs Twain]

It is very important to teach cursive, even if the kids don't use it later on when they are adults.

The main reason is to be able to read cursive. Some kids can't read things such as the Declaration of Independence because they were written in cursive. Teaching kids to write in cursive will guarantee that they will be able to read cursive. Not being able to read cursive would be a handicap.

[justamouse]

Justamouse and Ellie,

 

Thank you very much for your replies. I do want my children to have beautiful cursive handwriting. This is a question my husband asked his parents several years ago. It startled them and led to the understanding that homeschooling wasn't something I dragged him into but that he fully supported it. When he told me of the conversation, I realized that other than possibly speed and comfort I could only answer tradition to the question. I did write in cursive until my first year in college, so I did learn and use it, but since I have only printed since, I haven't been as insistent on cursive as perhaps I should be. I appreciate all the thoughtful parents who post here, sharing such wisdom and experience.

 

My MIL *freaked out* on me for teaching cursive first. She hates me homeschooling, but she would be here for a long visit and 'play' school with my youngest and purposely teach her print first because,"all the other schools are dropping cursive and you need to get with the program. Teach the kids to type."

 

She wasn't going to pay attention to the findings of a brain scan, so I had to tell her that actually, private schools are making it a point to teach cursive and my SIL better go into her school and demand to know why they were dropping it. She shut up. :D She's very much a new adapter of everything, even if there's no good reason to adapt. Just because it's new it must be better...

[LindaOz]

I start my kids on cursive when they hit 3rd grade. My ds starts 3rd grade next week and is very much looking forward to starting cursive. I went online to buy him a cursive book of some description and lo-and-behold I found these beautiful books from Queen Homeschool. I liked them so much I bought one for my 5th grader too 'cause I know she'll like them.

 

https://www.queenshomeschooling.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=60_66&zenid=089487a7e79f174ed5f8f3cd402c0e73

[Dmmetler]

DD 8 started learning cursive at 5, and now I require everything but math, charts/graphs, and maps to be done in cursive. She started typing last year, and has the choice of doing longer written assignments on the computer, but does cursive copy work and short assignments in cursive daily.

[Ailey]

My rule is that all complete sentences have to be in cursive. For things like filling in blanks, labels, outlines and jot notes, he can choose either print or cursive. Ds is 8.

[metrodorus]

I made a series of videos to avoid the repetitive aspects of teaching cursive - you can find them on my youtube channel index page. I use these in my computer lab, for students who join the school but who have never been taught cursive - they attend sessions until they can master it. I simply supervise their output, and annotate and correct their work- but the teaching itself is done via video.

 

The videos teach the way I was taught cursive at school in South Africa in the 1970s.

When using the videos, or when teaching handwriting in general, it is really helpful to circle the best letters the student forms - positive reinforcement goes further here than negative - or the well-formed parts of letters, if you cannot find a whole well formed letter.

 

In my School, where I teach in the Senior Department, I visit the Junior School once a week, and teach cursive to the two upper classes. (Year 5 and 6 - 9 and 10 year olds). The expectation is that the students will have the ability to write in cursive by the time they reach Senior School. I don't use the videos in these classroom session, but the whiteboard, the old fashioned way. I also write sample letters in the students' books.

[mommylawyer]

I actually stopped cursive with my oldest last year when she was in fourth grade. My children get their handwriting from their Dad, who has horrible writing. Instead of forcing even more horrible writing, I have them "translate" cursive in their handwriting books. I want them to be able to read it, but writing it is optional at my house.