My son's cursive is too fat and scrawly

[Cindyz]

My son has been writing in cursive since he was 5 years old.  He didn't do well with printing, but picked up cursive immediately.   We have worked on it ever since.  He knows how to form letters and connect letters, but the letters are all too wide, and large, and scrawl across the line.  I feel as though he often wrote better when he was 5 than he does now.   :glare:  Are there some methods that I can use now that he's toward the end of 4th grade to help him to form his letters a little smaller and more compact so it looks a bit more mature?  It works better when I make him write in regular notebook paper, but I was thinking of having him practice writing letters inside square graph boxes?  Any ideas?  Thanks so much!

[Mom22ns]

It works better when I make him write in regular notebook paper, but I was thinking of having him practice writing letters inside square graph boxes?  Any ideas?  Thanks so much!

 

What does he write on most of the time?

[Guest Cozette]

I had a similar problem with my 4th grade girl. Her manuscript was atrocious. I got Handwriting without Tears and it did wonders. I swear by it. We used several other curriculums but this one did the trick. Good luck.

[Cindyz]

What does he write on most of the time?

 

He writes in WWE 3 (the lines are pretty large), MOSDOS workbook, spelling book, etc.  I'll post a couple samples a little later.

[BlsdMama]

Does he ever say writing makes his hand hurt?

[Cindyz]

He doesn't complain that his hand hurts.  He did when he was much younger, but he's built up his hand strength since then.  

 

These were written within days of one another.

 

Here's one of the MOSDOS pages.  It's pretty bad.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a final draft version of something he wrote last week, so this is his very best.  When he does his final drafts, I have him do one paragraph at a time with other things in between, so he's not becoming fatigued.

 

 

 

[nansk]

Some people naturally make bigger, fatter letters. I think his looks okay. That final draft looks quite good, in fact. 

 

[Barb_]

I think that's a pretty good variation of normal.  The top one looks as if he's just rushing to get it done.  I let my kids do a lot of their work aloud at that age to prevent the rushing that makes for spelling errors that stick, sloppy habits, etc.  Then I don't feel badly asking for their very best spelling and penmanship on anything I do require written.  An organized paper reflects an organized mind.  That's one of my annoying mantras I toss at my kids daily.  It's true though.  I believe in quality over quantity when it comes to written work.  That said, I don't think you need to do anything if he can crank out something that looks like the lower paper at his age.  Kudos to you both!

[EndOfOrdinary]

I told my son that initially his writing was to get his ideas out.  It did not matter how atrocious I thought it was, as long as he could read it and understand it.  Now that he is writing for other people, I have described it like art.  He is showing respect and communicating himself to another person.  Now it really matters that his writing convey a message, not just exist to be written.  That seemed to make sense to him (he is in 5th grade).  You can definitely tell when he is writing for someone else now. Since he has never been in public school, I do not think the idea of writing for another person had ever really meant anything to him. 

[Cindyz]

Hmm,  ok.  I appreciate the input.  I guess most of his work looks like the first one so I start to think it will never get better.  The second one does show that he can do better if he really puts his mind to it so at least there is that.  Usually on the MOSDOS, we alternate with one oral and one written, but this day he had to do the last few written because I had something to do and I wanted him to keep working.

[Barb_]

I told my son that initially his writing was to get his ideas out.  It did not matter how atrocious I thought it was, as long as he could read it and understand it.  Now that he is writing for other people, I have described it like art.  He is showing respect and communicating himself to another person.  Now it really matters that his writing convey a message, not just exist to be written.  That seemed to make sense to him (he is in 5th grade).  You can definitely tell when he is writing for someone else now. Since he has never been in public school, I do not think the idea of writing for another person had ever really meant anything to him. 

 

This is an excellent point.  I've told my kids that they don't want to put the burden of communication on the receiver of the message.  Whether in speech or in writing, one must ensure they are clear enough to be understood.  

[Cindyz]

I told my son that initially his writing was to get his ideas out.  It did not matter how atrocious I thought it was, as long as he could read it and understand it.  Now that he is writing for other people, I have described it like art.  He is showing respect and communicating himself to another person.  Now it really matters that his writing convey a message, not just exist to be written.  That seemed to make sense to him (he is in 5th grade).  You can definitely tell when he is writing for someone else now. Since he has never been in public school, I do not think the idea of writing for another person had ever really meant anything to him. 

 

 

I really like that explanation.  I'll try that.  :)  Thank you!

[Suzanne in ABQ]

You might have him do copy work, just a sample once a day, but give him a model to copy from.  Have him copy it line for line, not from one page to another, but a blank line directly underneath the model.  Tell him you want him to try to make his letters look exactly like the model, same size, same shape, same slant, same everything.

 

You can get cursive practice texts that are laid out this way.  They come in a variety of styles.  We use Prescripts (American History), which we get from Classical Conversations, but may be available from other places.  Each week, they provide a sentence from the history lesson, laid out in 4-5 lines, with blank lines in between for copying.  There are three copies of each sentence, so the student gets three opportunities to copy the sentence.  My dd (4th grade) has really improved over the course of the year.  Sometimes, I have to look carefully to figure out which is the model and which is the copy.  I'm still waiting for it to transfer to her regular writing, but it hasn't fully.  Of course, I'm not being a stickler there.  She types her final drafts.

 

If you'd like to make your own copywork sheets, you can get a font called Educational Fontware.  You can order it in whatever handwriting style you prefer.  With it, you can type in your model sentence, then run it through their Linkletter software to connect the letters.  Lay it out in whatever size you want, and lay out blank lines (in 1, 2, or 3 line format - whatever he's used to) in-between the model lines.  

 

I used to do this with my older kids with their memory work.  That worked great (I should start again with my younger dd).  For instance, when they were memorizing the Gettysburg Address, I had them copy a portion of it each week, several times.  It helped them with their handwriting and with their memorizing.