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Best cursive workbooks?


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We have been using Zaner Bloser for a few months now and we really like it. I looked at Handwriting with out Tears and I didn't like the look of the cursive. The ZB program assumes you don't know any cursive so it starts with loops and curves, goes into single letters, then joining letters. Hope that helps :)

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I don't know if it's the best cursive workbook, but it's the best one for us.

 

Handwriting: Cursive

 

There are:

--26 pages of learning each letter (one page/letter)

--26 pages words starting with each letter

an, and, animals, April

big, boy, babble, baboon

can, candy, cool, countw

--26 pages of alliterative sentences.

Arctic animals act amusingly.

Big baboons break balloons.

Cool crocodiles count coconuts.

 

Other things we do:

1) Before writing in the book, we write on the whiteboard to practice the letters 3-5 times before writing in the book.

 

2) We are doing the letters out of order.  We are starting with the easier letters.  So far we have done: a, n, d, p, r, o  g, t.

 

3) We have done a few of the words (not pages) in section 2. 

 

We have done:

an, and, but not animals, April

do, dog, but not dandelions, donuts.

pan, but not pet, pick, paper.

 

I have no trouble assigning just a part of a page to be done.

 

4) I have a post-it in the front of the book to map out the next several lessons:

t, rat, e, eat, near, pet, rear, s, see.  I cross them off as dd6 completes them.

 

5)Once we complete this book, I have these two next:

 

Cursive Writing: Jokes and Riddles

 

Cursive Writing: Inspirational Quotes

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I love the Pictures in Cursive books from Queens homeschool, they combine cursive with picture study and are truly beautiful.

 

We started with Zaner Bloser, then moved on to Pictures in Cursive ( :001_wub: ), and now we're working through the Spencerian booklets. Everyone loved/loves all three. 

 

We think Spencerian is fantastic! It's easy enough for a kid and elegant enough to get you through the rest of your life. I figure at the very least it'll add beauty and finesse to the Zaner Bloser look. :) 

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I saw the New American Cursive recommended on here before and picked it up on a whim this summer. About a month later my almost 4-yr-old asked to learn cursive out the blue and I was happy I had a book handy! She's really enjoying it so far, including the little meercat mascot. There's lots of tracing, so perfect for her new skills. She's been asking to do it all the time lately.

 

Not all the letters are how I learned them 30+ years ago, but they're mostly how I do cursive NOW, which is interesting. A little less flair, little more practical, and a little more of a mix between Print and Cursive for a few of the capital letters. It's very clean and easy for my little one.

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I saw the New American Cursive recommended on here before and picked it up on a whim this summer. About a month later my almost 4-yr-old asked to learn cursive out the blue and I was happy I had a book handy! She's really enjoying it so far, including the little meercat mascot. There's lots of tracing, so perfect for her new skills. She's been asking to do it all the time lately.

 

Not all the letters are how I learned them 30+ years ago, but they're mostly how I do cursive NOW, which is interesting. A little less flair, little more practical, and a little more of a mix between Print and Cursive for a few of the capital letters. It's very clean and easy for my little one.

I ordered this because of the meerkat coolness. Will check out others too. :) Thanks so much everyone!

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I love the Pictures in Cursive books from Queens homeschool, they combine cursive with picture study and are truly beautiful.

 

This one looks super cool, and I might create something similar with some art books & devising my own worksheets in cursive. I've printed my own pages before and it's worked out really well.  If it had tracing I would have bought it, but it was all copy work.

 

Thanks for everyone posting resources. I ended up poking around the various sites and was super excited to see writing workbooks in Spanish! I hadn't considered such a thing before. I ended up ordering HWT's Letras y numeros para mi for DD4, which is print, not cursive. I've looked at this series in English before but thought it didn't have enough tracing to appeal to her perfectionist/tentative tendencies, but I think she's easing out of her insecurities given her excitement with the cursive. I hope she's as excited about the Spanish as I am! If not, it can sit on the shelf for a few more months :)

 

 

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Cursive Connections, available at Rainbow Resource, worked really well for us.  I liked the emphasis on connections between letters, because that often trips kids up.  We did Modern Style Book A in 3rd grade and Book B in 4th, and people have been complimenting dd11's cursive ever since.  

 

Amy

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StartWrite software - you can copy and paste anything.  I love this.  I can add memorization items and copywork from across the subject content.  It has the options to add dots and arrows for letter formation, and you can even add graphics.

 

I think this is a must when you conisder the value of being able to incorporate penmanship into another subject area entirely.  It means less work for the educator.

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  • 7 months later...

So I know it is an old thread, but timely. My dd is very, very insistent upon learning to write in cursive as she considers it to be 'fancy.' I have been puting her off because I wanted to make sure she was printing really well, but I cannot really use that as an excuse anymore.

 

I am thinking of ordering the Handwriting Without Tears cursive book, but in Spanish to keep it as separate as possible for awhile. Has anybody used this?

http://shopping.hwtears.com/product/EC/HWT

 

ETA: Bakpak, did you end up using the HoT printing program in Spanish? What did you think of the Spanish itself? Mostly vocabulary, or was it helpful?

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I really like Simply Charlotte Mason's Print to Cursive: Proverbs followed by the Hymns in Prose copybook. http://simplycharlottemason.com/store/product-category/product-language-arts/

 

We started with this and liked it.

 

I love the Pictures in Cursive books from Queens homeschool, they combine cursive with picture study and are truly beautiful.

 Moved on to these and love them.

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