Handwriting woes...

[King Alfred Academy]

We did not use a formal writing program. I have not been a stickler on forming letters "correctly". If the boys write their "o" counter clockwise, great! If their "p" extends below the line, fantastic! As long as the reader can recognize the letter and read it, I am happy.

 

Now...I am looking at cursive programs. I feel having something to guide me in how to teach it would be helpful.

 

My charter school offers two programs for me to use (even though I am pretty sure I could have them order one of my choice)...

Handwriting without Tears cursive

Zaner-Bloser

 

After viewing samples online, they are very different.

 

HWT is very much straight up and down

ZB is very curvy and slanted...much the same way I was taught.

 

Here are my questions...does it matter? Really. Does it matter how my boys write? I don't know anyone who as an adult continues to form their letters the way they were taught as a child.

 

If I do decide "it matters", then which style of writing do I choose and why? Would the HWT be better for my boys? My ds5 enjoys writing very much and seldom complains about doing it. His hand does not tire easily. Ds7 complains, but I think it is just because he doesn't want to do it. His handwriting is very neat and he has expressed interest in me teaching him calligraphy. I thought we would start with cursive.

 

I am trying to make a decision and to form an opinion, so I would love to have your feedback on writing.

[Diane]

I bought HWT cursive because we had terrific success with the first two printing books in the series. When we started, I hated it! I ended up following what HWT did, step by steps, and I made my own worksheets here: http://worksheetworks.com/english/writing/handwriting/handwriting-cursive-copy.html My son learned to slant. However, there were some letters I didn't like from the worksheet site, so I have ended up doing a mixture of both. My son does the HWT, only with a little bit of a slant. I really like the HWT approach, just like it a little slanted, that's all.

 

I can say if it doesn't really bother you either way- I'd go with HWT. It's PAINLESS and gets the job done. Good luck.

[King Alfred Academy]

Thanks Diane! I checked out that worksheet site and I ended up being on there for an hour playing around!

 

Anyone else care to share? Please...

[Surfside Academy]

I also am not a huge stickler for writing styles but I do encourage my boys to form their letters the correct way. I have all boys and I started them out using Cursive First. It was a good program but it just had way too many strokes. I then switched over the HWOT and have been very pleased. It is a more vertical writing style but they've adapted it a little (on their own) so that it looks a little slanted. I will say that for my older son, the improvement of his cursive over his printing has been amazing. It looks 100% neater and more legible. I am also using HWOT Cursvie w/ my kindergartner as well.

 

I didn't see the age of your kids but I also like Memoria Press' New American Cursive. It looks similar to HWOT but it is geared for younger ages (K-2). The only small problem I've encountered w/ HWOT is that a few of the sentences towards the back of the workbook are a little advanced for my kindergartner because it's geared more for 3rd-4th graders but that is a minor complaint.

 

Hope that helps!

[KAM]

We started out with HWOT and I didn't think I cared about HW very much so I didn't push perfection. Then I heard about italic handwriting and decided to give that a try. Wow, I am so impressed with my 7 y.o.'s handwriting now, it's really nice. I hope she carries it into adulthood. I have terrible handwriting unless I write really slow and it drives me nuts.

[Ellie]

It *can* matter.

 

Writing correctly formed letters makes it easier to join to the next letter when writing cursive. It helps the general flow of the actual writing, IYKWIM. It's also going to make the writing more legible, too.

 

I love ZB's style. And ZB does a good job of teaching, too.

[King Alfred Academy]

Thank you! I very much appreciate all of your "2 cents"!:001_smile:

 

If anyone else would like to donate their 2 cents, I'm :bigear:

[apheartsong]

"Then I heard about italic handwriting and decided to give that a try."

 

Sorry, I don't know how to borrow from a previous message.

 

Can you tell me which italic handwriting you use? My 9yo is still struggling with writing fluency.

 

Thanks.

Allison

[SkateLeft]

My ds is using HWT Cursive this year, which is what both my girls used. Not having to worry about the slant made learning cursive a lot easier, I think. It's interesting, because although my girls both learned cursive with HWT, they both *do* slant their letters and have developed their own "style."

 

I think it only matters that you pick something that's easy for your kids to learn and easy for you to teach. (I bought Getty-Dubay Italics for Kyla years ago, but couldn't model it properly myself, so I ended up ditching it.) Regardless of how they learn cursive, once they internalize it, they'll develop their own style. :D

[Laura Corin]

How are your children's fine motor skills? HWT has been a wonderful programme for Calvin, who has fine motor delays. His school said that he would never learn to write adequately; his cursive is now legible and occasionally beautiful. The actual style doesn't bother me at all - just that, of it's type, it's regular and pleasing on the eye.

 

Laura

[keptwoman]

I do think it matters what you choose. When I was first looking into homeschooling I got a real old school book out of the library. I can't remember what it was called, or who the author was. It was written in a time when writing was very necessary as there were no computers.

Anyway....she suggested that handwriting shouldn't be randomly chosen to suit masses of children as different children needed different types of handwriting. And that you should look at the childs natural hand to determine what program would suit them best. This made great sense to me, to work with a childs natural style to improve their handwriting rather than try and force them into something that didn't feel right and was harder to acheive.

 

So I asked C to write something...anything in the way he felt most comfortable. Then I looked really carefully at the way he formed his letters; which way the slope went, whether his loops were more circular or oval etc etc etc. Then I chose the program of writing that best suited his natural hand. For us that was Getty Dubay Italic, oval loops, sloping to the right etc. For you it might be GDI or ZB or HWT etc... It worked really well and doing that made his handwriting improve out of sight.

When DD gets a bit older I will be doing the same for her.

Edited October 25, 2008 by keptwoman
Because I need to learn to preview before hitting submit.

[ChemMommy]

And have always been harped on for having poor handwriting. It was the only area in elementary school that I didn't do well in. My teacher gave up on me, finally, and to my relief.

 

I have my own handwriting style and, if I'm not rushing, it is nicely legible.

 

So, when it came time to teach my own 4 right-handed kids to write, I wasn't going to put a lot of effort into it. I figured it would all work out in the end.

 

I was wrong.

 

My dh pointed out that my kids' writing looked like the writing of kids 2-4 years younger. He pointed out that the poor quality of their writing made them look stupid.

 

So, this year, we are actually doing the Italic Handwriting series formally. This was the style I chose to teach them way back when, but we had never done the program officially. I liked that when the switch to cursive came, mostly you just learn how to connect the letters you were already writing properly with serifs. I learned that awful formal cursive where almost every letter in cursive was a complete change from print. And I never, ever got the hang of it!

 

Now, how's this for surprising. I thought the kids would fight it, but they were all relieved to be working on better writing. It turns out that they were very aware of how bad their handwriting was.

 

So, we do 2-3 lines a day, slowly in the Italic book, working on proper letter formation, fine motor control, etc. In two months, there is noticeable improvement and every single kids, including the 9th grader, cheerfully practices handwriting each day. I know! Where did these kids come from!!!! They must be the evil spawn of some penmanship fanatic. They certainly can't be this handwriting phobic mom's progeny!!:lol:

[KAM]

Can you tell me which italic handwriting you use?

 

We're using the Getty-Dubay program, I ordered it from Rainbow Resource.

[abbeyej]

Well, I *am* a stickler for correctly formed letters. I think it makes writing so much easier, more fluid, more efficient as kids get older. It's *worth* the effort to learn proper handwriting when one is young.

 

I think HWT and ZB are both good programs. I have used Getty-Dubay and modern manuscript programs with my kids (much closer to ZB than HWT), because I feel they're a good balance between clear, legible, attractive writing and ease of motion. I would probably only consider HWT if I had a child with relatively severe fine motor or dyslexia problems. I refuse to do all-caps first (which wouldn't be an issue with older kids), and I just plain think it's ugly. ;) There, I'm shallow. If I had a kid for whom ZB, GD, D'Nealian, etc *wouldn't* work, I would do HWT though.

 

But whatever you do, *yes* I think proper handwriting is absolutely worth while, even in today's keyboard-centric world. It can be *crippling* for an older student not to be able to write smoothly, *quickly*, and legibly.