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[Renochka]

My 6.5 year old just finished book C. We started D. He doesn't love doing handwriting but the results are great and we are sticking with it. He does, however, enjoy the italic cursive. Do any of you just skip the print italic parts and just do the cursive? I figure since it's such a legible cursive, nothing is lost by always writing in cursive. And I doubt transitioning to print would be so difficult, when needed. So my question is, anybody just do GD cursive and skip the print. Anything lost in doing that?

Edited June 4, 2016 by Renochka

[Pistachio mom]

I used the Italic Handwriting Courses for my oldest daughter. She and I really liked the Italic Cursive. We had to eventually re-learn cursive though because she could not read it. Grandparents write birthday cards in cursive, etc.... If your son is already doing well with the Italic Cursive, I personally would not make him go back and learn the printing. It is very similar except for the connecting serifs. But since printing is at times requires in the real world, you might want to give him periodic practice writing something without the serifs, which would be printing.

 

When he is a little bit older, you could handle the printing issue with teaching him calligraphy. Many calligraphy alphabets are not connected like cursive. If he is already writing the Italic way, he is half way there already.

[Renochka]

Thank you! My gut tells me to let him write as he wants and luckily it is cursive, which is my goal. It seems GD is not used as much as other handwriting curricula so I don't get much feedback. It throws me that there is no GD exclusive cursive book, one that actually guides, doesn't just offer copywork, so it feels like we need to do the whole book. But I guess not! As for regular cursive, he can pretty much read it already. I guess it just takes some getting used to. :)

 

[Pistachio mom]

Do you have the teacher's manual for the Italic series?  It does give more ideas for fun projects to apply the handwriting to other content areas. It also includes letter descriptions for what to "say" as you demonstrate a letter. You could just skip the print review at the beginning of most of the books. concerning copywork: most handwriting books are copywork. The handwriting books from BJ Press are similar to the GD Italic because the print is pre-cursive - rather than stick and ball. The D"Nealian (sorry, I forget how to spell this) books are also similar in letter forms. Any alphabet that teaches one stroke letters will be similar enough to the Italic that you could utilize it. The GD books D and E continue to give guided practice for the specific letter patterns that need review.  When your son is ready, you can have him copy from printed regular type into the alphabet he already knows. Some possibilities might include checking out the various handwriting books on the Queen Homeschool Supplies website, or even to pre-plan this summer some of your own lists, quotes, and Bible verses to supplement the GD books.

 

I am deciding about what direction to go with my 6 1/2 year old too. She finished book B, but had trouble getting through the pages due to her attention span. I had to make handwriting copying pages for her related to other school content for her the last semester. My middle daughter worked through the Italic printing and Italic cursive briefly, before switching to traditional cursive.

 

Fun fact: I found out about this writing program from my college calligraphy teacher who bought the entire series for her homeschooled grandchildren. I love the clear letter forms it teaches!

 

Good luck as you examine possibilities.

[Renochka]

Do you have the teacher's manual for the Italic series?  It does give more ideas for fun projects to apply the handwriting to other content areas. It also includes letter descriptions for what to "say" as you demonstrate a letter. You could just skip the print review at the beginning of most of the books. concerning copywork: most handwriting books are copywork. The handwriting books from BJ Press are similar to the GD Italic because the print is pre-cursive - rather than stick and ball. The D"Nealian (sorry, I forget how to spell this) books are also similar in letter forms. Any alphabet that teaches one stroke letters will be similar enough to the Italic that you could utilize it. The GD books D and E continue to give guided practice for the specific letter patterns that need review.  When your son is ready, you can have him copy from printed regular type into the alphabet he already knows. Some possibilities might include checking out the various handwriting books on the Queen Homeschool Supplies website, or even to pre-plan this summer some of your own lists, quotes, and Bible verses to supplement the GD books.

 

I am deciding about what direction to go with my 6 1/2 year old too. She finished book B, but had trouble getting through the pages due to her attention span. I had to make handwriting copying pages for her related to other school content for her the last semester. My middle daughter worked through the Italic printing and Italic cursive briefly, before switching to traditional cursive.

 

Fun fact: I found out about this writing program from my college calligraphy teacher who bought the entire series for her homeschooled grandchildren. I love the clear letter forms it teaches!

 

Good luck as you examine possibilities.

Thank you! I actually forgot to check the teacher's manual. Will do that now. Regarding copywork, what I mean is there is a Character Italic Cursive book but it directs a kid to copy without guiding on the connection of the letters. We are not ready for that. We still need the slow direction and instruction. I almost wish there was just a cursive book so I didn't feel remiss ignoring half a book. :)

 

Why did you decide to switch to traditional cursive? I also like the clear letter forms it teaches and the crystal clear and legible cursive that GD offers. 

[sunshineslp]

Curious too why people switch away. I am switching to GD next year after using HWT cursive this year.

 

 

Homeschooling mama of 4... Preschool 3, preschool 4, 1st, and 2nd:)

[Pistachio mom]

I switched for 2 reasons: first, my oldest daughter really had trouble reading regular cursive such as lower case letters like b, f, z...even some of the different looking uppercase letters too. It doesn't seem hard, but for her it was. Also writing speed. She can go so much faster with regular cursive. I think it depends on the person. This daughter has a disgraphia issue and we needed to help her with speed.

 

My younger daughters love to write "in cursive" partially because they think it looks "grown up." I do want everyone in my house to know how to write in regular cursive. But what I see happening by about 5th- 6th grade is they come up with their own mixture of all of the styles they have learned. My youngest girl is still too young yet to tell.

 

I also had an easier time finding handwriting books appropriate for my middle daughter in regular cursive. She needed to copy for a while but with interesting content. I used the New American Cursive from Memoria Press that went along with our Latin book. A few upper case letters (A, W,V) were so ugly that we kept a few letters in their Italic form.

[Renochka]

I switched for 2 reasons: first, my oldest daughter really had trouble reading regular cursive such as lower case letters like b, f, z...even some of the different looking uppercase letters too. It doesn't seem hard, but for her it was. Also writing speed. She can go so much faster with regular cursive. I think it depends on the person. This daughter has a disgraphia issue and we needed to help her with speed.

 

My younger daughters love to write "in cursive" partially because they think it looks "grown up." I do want everyone in my house to know how to write in regular cursive. But what I see happening by about 5th- 6th grade is they come up with their own mixture of all of the styles they have learned. My youngest girl is still too young yet to tell.

 

I also had an easier time finding handwriting books appropriate for my middle daughter in regular cursive. She needed to copy for a while but with interesting content. I used the New American Cursive from Memoria Press that went along with our Latin book. A few upper case letters (A, W,V) were so ugly that we kept a few letters in their Italic form.

Makes total sense! I think consistency is key. If you found what works, stick with it! And you are very right that eventually they find their own style. :)