Most beautiful style of cursive

[ThursdayNext]

To start off, I'm one who can take or leave cursive. My only requirement is that my kids learn to read cursive and sign their names.

 

But my 7 year old has asked to learn. ;) Isn't that just the way life goes? She's been printing her name with curlicues to make it more fancy.

 

I'm willing to relearn cursive with her, as I hate my cursive. We would both like something pretty, that would look nice on a homemade birthday card. I'd maybe even be willing to buy some fancy pens, if useful.

 

What hand (script, hand, what do you call it?) do you all recommend for us?

[Kfamily]

We like Italics...it's sensible to learn (easy to transition from print to cursive) and when done well, it's beautifully elegant. :)

[theelfqueen]

Well Spencerian is the prettiest in my opinion... but not in super common modern usage.

http://www.christianbook.com/page/homeschool/mott-media/spencerian-penmanship?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=homeschool&event=PPCSRC&p=1008728&utm_term=spencerian+penmanship

 

[Guest]

My children developed beautiful cursive using Pentime.

[Ellie]

To start off, I'm one who can take or leave cursive. My only requirement is that my kids learn to read cursive and sign their names.

 

But my 7 year old has asked to learn. ;) Isn't that just the way life goes? She's been printing her name with curlicues to make it more fancy.

 

I'm willing to relearn cursive with her, as I hate my cursive. We would both like something pretty, that would look nice on a homemade birthday card. I'd maybe even be willing to buy some fancy pens, if useful.

 

What hand (script, hand, what do you call it?) do you all recommend for us?

 

Zaner Bloser is a lovely, traditional hand. I'd start there. Then if you want to branch out into some sort of calligraphy, you're good to go.

 

Of course, there's also Spencerian Penmanship. You could buy one theory book, then two sets of the copy books, and both of you could work through them. Oh, and a nice fountain pen. :-)

[momofabcd]

Abeka cursive is very beautiful.

[mumto2]

Abeka has lovely writing style and nice books. Dd is always complemented on how lovely her handwriting is and she is an Abeka girl.

[forty-two]

Aside from Spencerian (which I love but idk if it's practical for us), my favorite hand is Smithhand.  I appreciate both its appearance and how it is easy to write neatly.  Dd9 is a lefty with several symptoms of dyslexia (and it took her years to be able to print neatly), but she has a very nice, legible cursive hand.

[theelfqueen]

Smithhand is LOVELY!

 

I kind of lost the ability to write in fluent English cursive when I learned Russian (certain letter formations became less-than-automatic -- I have to think HARD to write the letter n in English if I've been using Russian at all)... I got it back as I lost Russian fluency. As I've been regaining my Russian, my English has been deteriorating a bit again LOL

Edited April 25, 2016 by theelfqueen

[ThursdayNext]

Thanks for all the ideas! I showed my DD italics and New American cursive at first, thinking it would be easier. Got a firm no on that. Not fancy enough, too much like the regular alphabet.

 

Spencerian is so beautiful. I love the way it looks. I only wish I wrote like that. But my daughter's printing is not great, not sure she is up to it.

 

I just realized that we do copy work with ELTL, and they have a slant cursive option. Has anyone used Handwriting Lessons Through Literature? I don't want to give up the printable copy work with ELTL, so maybe my decision is made.

[tm919]

I like Peterson Directed... I think it's similar to some already mentioned. Except I hate their lower case p.

[nannyaunt]

I used the handwriting for beginning readers workbook in slant cursive. It is pretty with lots of loops and curves.

 

ETA: This is a workbook used with RLTL. They have other workbooks for handwriting also.

Edited April 25, 2016 by nannyaunt

[blondchen]

My children developed beautiful cursive using Pentime.

 

Yep, my 9yo has beautiful cursive, developed entirely via the Pentime books. It's a straightforward, traditional cursive (I think almost identical to Zaner-Bloser) and the books are cheap. DD does one page per day, which is a good pace.

 

I have (but do not currently use) ELTL and I just checked the workbook. It looks to me like the slant cursive is very similar to Pentime. So, if you wanted to use Pentime for tracing and practicing letter formation, you could probably do the ELTL cursive copywork with no problems.

[CJSquared]

I prefer a traditional, beautiful cursive. My grandmother had the loveliest handwriting I've ever seen and the closest seems to be the older Zaner-Bloser. However, we use A Reason for Handwriting because the books are more exciting for my son. Here is the link to ARFH sample. http://www.areasonfor.com/ARF%20HW%20C%20SAMPLE.pdf

Edited May 7, 2016 by CJSquared

[Freya]

Another vote for Spencerian. It's an older style (from the 1800s), and has a lot of elegance to it. It think it's beautiful. We have a set of 5 copybooks put out by Mott Media (this set http://www.canadianhomeeducation.com/products/33917-spencerian-penmanship-set-of-5-copybooks.aspx#.Vy_uSvkrLDc).There is also a theory book available, but I found that it wasn't of any use to us.

 

There are a few letters that are formed in a way that is not used in modern writing, though, and you might wish to modify them so that they will be understood by modern readers. There are only a few, so it's not a big deal, and they are easy enough to modify. The letter C, for example, has a funny little kink at the top that, in my opinion, makes it look more like an E.

 

If you have a left handed child, I wouldn't recommend this style though -- I am left-handed and am completely incapable of doing it because of the slant required. 

[rainbird2]

Another vote for Spencerian. It's an older style (from the 1800s), and has a lot of elegance to it. It think it's beautiful. We have a set of 5 copybooks put out by Mott Media (this set http://www.canadianhomeeducation.com/products/33917-spencerian-penmanship-set-of-5-copybooks.aspx#.Vy_uSvkrLDc).There is also a theory book available, but I found that it wasn't of any use to us.

 

There are a few letters that are formed in a way that is not used in modern writing, though, and you might wish to modify them so that they will be understood by modern readers. There are only a few, so it's not a big deal, and they are easy enough to modify. The letter C, for example, has a funny little kink at the top that, in my opinion, makes it look more like an E.

 

If you have a left handed child, I wouldn't recommend this style though -- I am left-handed and am completely incapable of doing it because of the slant required. 

 

What would you recommend for a left handed child?  Is anything with a forward slant going to be difficult for the left handed child (Pentime)?  What about upright (Handwriting Without Tears)? 

[3 ladybugs]

Get a fountain pen. My son is learning with a fountain pen and it is making it so much fun for him. It is also helping him in general with his handwriting. The one we use is a Pelikan Twist. It cost about $20 but the pen is refillable and affordable when you do. It also helps with proper finger holding which is one the biggest reasons I like it. You can find it on Amazon or probably ebay. It is a German company that makes it as they typically learn to write with a fountain pen.

 

For the record I use Zaner Blosser. I looked at many different styles and decided that it looked closest to what my ancestors wrote in so that would be best. I even had my mother, grandmother, step father, and husband (all of us learned to write in different parts of the country) write the same sentence and then compared it to handwriting available. I also looked at documents from influential people in history to see how they wrote. Google is wonderful that way! That is how I decided what to teach my son. 

[forty-two]

What would you recommend for a left handed child?  Is anything with a forward slant going to be difficult for the left handed child (Pentime)?  What about upright (Handwriting Without Tears)? 

 

My oldest is left-handed.  We did Smithhand and she was able to learn it without trouble.  It's a slanted hand, but she naturally writes it upright; it looks nice and legible written upright and she writes it smoothly.

[MeganW]

I would start with Handwriting Without Tears.  It establishes the correct direction to draw circles, focuses on spacing, size, etc.  It's a great base.  Then you can transition to something with more pizzazz when the fundamentals are solid.  The cursive font I keep thinking I will go to is the one used in French schools - look it up - so pretty!

 

[AmandaVT]

To start off, I'm one who can take or leave cursive. My only requirement is that my kids learn to read cursive and sign their names.

 

But my 7 year old has asked to learn. ;) Isn't that just the way life goes? She's been printing her name with curlicues to make it more fancy.

 

I'm willing to relearn cursive with her, as I hate my cursive. We would both like something pretty, that would look nice on a homemade birthday card. I'd maybe even be willing to buy some fancy pens, if useful.

 

What hand (script, hand, what do you call it?) do you all recommend for us?

 

I'm relearning cursive with DS. I'm a lefty, he's a righty and we're both enjoying Zaner Bloser. I like the way it looks and I'm enjoying relearning!

[wintermom]

Well, to be honest the most beautiful cursive writing I ever saw was my former neighbour's 2nd grade son from his notebook when he was in India. No comparison to North American. Probably not what you're looking for. ;)

[HS Mom in NC]

I think handwriting should have the reader, not the writer in mind when deciding what's best. I think sleek and simple readability is elegant and frilly is gaudy, so we did Getty Dubay Italic Script. http://writealetter.org/main/tag/getty-dubay-handwriting-program It's the easiest transition between printing and italic script and it includes many of the basic strokes of calligraphy. It avoids the mess of letters than hang down on one line getting tangled in the letters that go up high in the next line. After it's mastered a kid could add more frill to it if they're so inclined.

Then I taught my kids to read frilly handwriting because that's how so many people were taught to write for so long that they'll need to be able to decipher it.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Homeschool Mom in AZ