Teaching Cursive vs. Printing

[ciles]

What do you teach first? Do you start with printing or cursive? Why? 

 

Favorite writing program? 

[Ellie]

I taught manuscript first because that's how I learned and no one told me it wasn't a good idea. :-)

 

I taught older cursive with Zaner Bloser, younger dd with Spalding.

[Love Home]

Like Ellie I taught manuscript first because that is the way I was taught - and it worked out well enough. 

[CadenceSophia]

following -- Trying to figure out what to do for my 5 year old. So far I am letting him learn to print in the ETC books but I always thought I would teach cursive first. I am considering starting some of the basic lessons from the 1874 Theory of Spencerian Penmanship and 1935 Palmer Method of Business Writing. 

[idnib]

I taught manuscript first to DS and it took me way too long to get him to a place where I felt I could move on to cursive. (DS had fine motor control issues.) I was dreading cursive after our experience with manuscript. Lo and behold, his cursive is far better than his manuscript, he picked it up much more quickly,  and somehow learning cursive improved his manuscript letters as well.  :huh:

 

My heretical suggestion might be to try a bit of both and see if one is more natural and start there. 

[boscopup]

I taught manuscript first. All of my kids have found manuscript easier to learn. Two kids are a little weaker in fine motor skills, and straight lines were easier for them than curved lines.

That said, I've not been successful teaching cursive. My oldest can copy cursive, but he has to think too hard to do much writing in cursive, and we can't move forward in "writing" if he's using cursive. So I've made the decision to have him continue his cursive handwriting book so he knows how to read and write it, but to let him do his school work mostly in manuscript, especially his "writing". He's a reluctant writer as it is, so I really don't want to take the LONG time required to get cursive automatic in order for him to compose with it. He still has to think about which way to make b/d in manuscript.

My middle son is also still having to think hard to form manuscript letters. He sometimes asks to do cursive, but it's unreadable.

My youngest has much better fine motor skills, so I could probably get him up and running with cursive quicker, but I feel a bit ambivalent about the whole thing. I'm not sure I really care about cursive. Also, my own cursive is not really pretty, nor is it faster (I have to use manuscript when taking notes for a lecture). So my main goal for my kids is to get them to a point where they can take notes by hand during a college lecture and still be able to read the notes later. For ME, that's always been manuscript. I don't care if cursive is faster for some other people. It isn't for me, and it definitely isn't for my 9 year old. It took him 15 minutes to copy one and a half sentences in cursive one day, and he could copy an entire 4 sentence paragraph in manuscript in less time than that. While writing more will help with speed, that only works up to a point. I write almost everything in cursive now and have been for the last few years, yet I still can't write it FAST while still being legible. The loops send my brain into a tizzy - my 'm' might end up with 4 or 5 humps, for example. :lol:

Anyway, I think if you want to start cursive, start it earlier than 3rd grade. I think that was one mistake I made. That was the point where my son was finally able to start writing, and then I introduce cursive, which takes him back to the beginning. At the same time, he wasn't ready to learn cursive at age 5 or 6. Maybe there is a reason it's often taught in 2nd grade. ;)

[plumshadow]

After reading the benefits of learning cursive first, we tried that. I read that is was especially easy for left handers to learn cursive first but it didn't prove true in our case. Maybe if we had kept at it longer we would have yielded better results and it was possible we started too young (DD was 4) either way manuscript worked out better.  She picks up cursive in spurts when she thinks about it and ironically enough I pulled out her Kindergarten ABEKA cursive practice book this morning! She will be 7 the end of the summer and we are setting a goal to master all the letters by fall.

[kbutton]

I taught manuscript first to DS and it took me way too long to get him to a place where I felt I could move on to cursive. (DS had fine motor control issues.) I was dreading cursive after our experience with manuscript. Lo and behold, his cursive is far better than his manuscript, he picked it up much more quickly,  and somehow learning cursive improved his manuscript letters as well.  :huh:

 

My heretical suggestion might be to try a bit of both and see if one is more natural and start there. 

 

My older son was like this. Unfortunately, the manuscript has been sticking better. The manuscript was ball and stick learned in school and a loopy cursive style also learned in school. I believe if he'd been taught a flowing style of print (like Italic) and/or simple cursive (like New American Cursive), all of his writing would be better and more automatic than it is now. He does enough problems to have a dysgraphia diagnosis, and if I'd know, I would have lobbied for him to do modified work at school years ago.

 

My Kindergarten boy started with Italic handwriting because someone gave me a book, and I couldn't find a cursive that I thought he could handle in time to use it first. He wanted to write RIGHT NOW, and he wanted to learn cursive RIGHT NOW. We moved into cursive (New American Cursive) quickly, and he's done well with it. He has a hard time automating his writing, so I had to work closely with him on a very slow path when we started (I made a bunch of extra worksheets tailored to his needs and abilities).

 

Please don't teach your child ball and stick. Please use a simplified cursive if your child has ANY issues with motor skills or automaticity. Please supervise them while they are learning to write until they will make their letters the same every single time (neatness isn't a factor at first, just motions). :-)

 

I think it's really, really important to help them learn to read cursive and translate print to cursive if you are committed to cursive first or early cursive--if they are reading print and writing cursive, that is an extra step. I will often let my son spell something while I write it in cursive, and then he copies it. It's just too many steps for him to do automatically at this point (and he is a slow processor).
 

[mamamindy]

Both my DDs learned manuscript first.  I started DD1 in cursive around age 7 (because she begged - I was going to wait until closer to halfway through 2nd grade) and after a first flop with HWoT - it was ugly - we are using ZB and it's been great.  Since DD1 writes in cursive, DD2 has been asking to learn cursive (and mimicking her sister's writing, so I better step in and make sure she's doing it correctly!)  Although I was going to wait with her as well, we are in the beginning stages of O-G spelling program and I figure now is a good time to learn, while she's learning her phonograms.  I am still undecided on a favorite writing program…  I am going to just teach her using my own handwriting, which greatly resembles Spalding cursive.  I have no idea what style I was taught.  Although I do remember learning it in 3rd grade.

 

I think it's fine to start with manuscript.  I think printing has a place - like for writing lists, labeling, writing a note to your 5yo brother. :)  However, I did not know about "cursive first" when I began homeschooling.  I am sure I would have stressed about it if I had known. ;)

[sbgrace]

We started with manuscript. I started cursive in 3rd grade. It's been harder than I expected to learn. I'm sometimes wondering if I'm wasting my time, particularly with one of mine. I don't expect he'll ever voluntarily write in cursive. I don't care, so I won't have him do school work in cursive outside of the actual cursive instruction. I don't think he'll get to mastery. But he can read it and sign his name. It's good enough for me. His daddy prints everything too. It probably has nothing to do with it, but they are both left handed.

 

I'm wishing I had focused on keyboarding instead.

 

 

[My3girls]

All my girls learned manuscript first as they went to ps, but I would probaly have taught them manuscript first anyway.  Dd12 and dd9 are learning cursive, now.  DD12 is learning much later than I would have preferred, but ps never taught her.  DD7 will learn next year in 3rd grade.

[a27mom]

My girls started teaching themselves manuscript capitals when they were 2. My older daughter did manuscript for k, but now in first is doing cursive. My almost 5 y/o I plan to teach cursive first, though she already does write almost all uppercase and over half the lowercase letters in a messy type of manuscript.

I am going to wait until she indicates readiness to start teaching her, I anticipate it will be sometime in K.

[kristin0713]

Cursive first with both kids and so glad we did. They both also learned to print on their own. They are 8 and 6 and I require cursive for schoolwork. It is easier to learn than print--less strokes to learn, especially if you use a program that begins every lower case letter on the baseline. You practically eliminate the issue of reversals and they are able to see each word they write as a unit. Leaning to read in print was not an issue for either of them.

I absolutely love the Logic of English Foundations program. This is a complete reading, spelling, and handwriting program (either print or cursive, you can choose the workbook you prefer and the teacher's guide will instruct you both ways).

[ciles]

Cursive first with both kids and so glad we did. They both also learned to print on their own. They are 8 and 6 and I require cursive for schoolwork. It is easier to learn than print--less strokes to learn, especially if you use a program that begins every lower case letter on the baseline. You practically eliminate the issue of reversals and they are able to see each word they write as a unit. Leaning to read in print was not an issue for either of them.

I absolutely love the Logic of English Foundations program. This is a complete reading, spelling, and handwriting program (either print or cursive, you can choose the workbook you prefer and the teacher's guide will instruct you both ways).

I've been looking at that program today- so you like it a lot? It's one I hadn't heard of before today.

[a27mom]

I've been looking at that program today- so you like it a lot? It's one I hadn't heard of before today.

I use LoE Foundations and really like it. My kids enjoy It to. I am using it with my 4 y/o natural reader and 6y/o struggling reader. It has helped their reading so much.

As far as the handwriting part, My 6 y/o's cursive is coming along beautifully. My 4 y/o isn't doing cursive on paper (plan to go back over handwriting in the fall probably). But my 4 y/o can read the cursive letters and works on some of the non-paper cursive activities.

It has just been a fabulous program. Very flexible, but very easy to implement. It is so worth the cost!

[ciles]

I use LoE Foundations and really like it. My kids enjoy It to. I am using it with my 4 y/o natural reader and 6y/o struggling reader. It has helped their reading so much.

As far as the handwriting part, My 6 y/o's cursive is coming along beautifully. My 4 y/o isn't doing cursive on paper (plan to go back over handwriting in the fall probably). But my 4 y/o can read the cursive letters and works on some of the non-paper cursive activities.

It has just been a fabulous program. Very flexible, but very easy to implement. It is so worth the cost!

That's great to hear! I'm pretty much certain that is the program we are going to use. Now I just have to figure out what math I want to use and I'll feel more ready for fall! 

[kiwik]

I don't think I would bother with cursive at all. I have never needed it as an adult and the style taught here has changed so frequently my younger siblings can't read my cursive.

I have always wondered though, what exactly is "ball and stick" - is it doing say a d in two separate parts? If so it sounds awkward.

[strange_girl]

We've done manuscript first. I can't say why, really, except I think I just prefer to do it that way.

That being said, I do think cursive is a skill worth learning, and learning well. There is no reason for a child to go through life with terrible handwriting (so says my husband, who was never taught properly and hates his own writing).

We began cursive with DD when she was 6. She was begging! She has really enjoyed working through Cheerful Cursive this year. Now she's almost done with the book and her handwriting is beautiful.