When to start cursive and what to use

[MomN]

When do you suggest starting cursive practice and what are some good choices for books?  I have heard about traditional cursive vs slant print or simplified cursive.  Can anyone tell me what these mean?  Thank you!!!!

[Ellie]

1 hour ago, MomN said:

When do you suggest starting cursive practice and what are some good choices for books?  I have heard about traditional cursive vs slant print or simplified cursive.  Can anyone tell me what these mean?  Thank you!!!!

When a child's manuscript is quite good and legible, then do cursive.

"Traditional" cursive would be hands such as Zaner Bloser and Palmer (I learned both, although I didn't know their names at the time: Palmer in second grade, then Zaner-Bloser at another school in third).  (Also, the main difference between them is the shape of some of the upper case letters. I have a story about that which is painful to me after all these years, lol.) My favorite is Zaner-Bloser, for manuscript as well as cursive; it first teaches the different strokes used (under curve, over curve, etc.), then the letters which use the strokes.

Rod and Staff Publishers does a slant print as sort of a transition between manuscript and cursive. It isn't necessary. Even after learning cursive, there will be times when manuscript is still used. 🙂

Cursive itself is pretty simple; I don't know why there would need to be a "simplified" cursive. o_0

Scott Foresman (Pearson owns it now) came along with D'Nelian; they built it up--and built itself a market--by coining the negative-sounding term "stick and ball" to refer to basic manuscript. Supposedly, children learn the manuscript, which has little tails in the letters which theoretically make it easier to become cursive because there is really only one "alphabet" to learn to write. The problem with that is that children are not given specific instructions on how to form each letter, which can result in reversals and awkwardness in writing, and they still have to remember two different upper case alphabets.

Some people go with a calligraphy-looking hand, sort of between manuscript and cursive, such that they only have to teach penmanship one time.

There's also the very scroll-y Spencerian Penmanship, which is beautiful to use, but I don't know...I'm not sure I would teach it instead of a basic cursive.

When I'm starting from the beginning with a little child, I do Spalding, which teaches children to read by teaching them to spell, and simultaneously teaches penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple writing. Its manuscript is a traditional style; its "cursive" is connected: once the children have good manuscript, they learn to connect their manuscript letters so that it looks like a cursive. Zaner-Bloser teaches very similarly to Spalding; to use ZA materials while also doing Spalding would not be a conflict.

[Soror]

I have had good luck with Good and Beautiful handwriting for the girls, it gradually adds cursive in to the levels.

[Sarah0000]

I start having my kids practice reading cursive and tracing in the Kumon Cursive Words book at four years old. By this point they know the proper manuscript formation but they still need to be reminded and helped with it. At five years old they start Pictures in Cursive with a lot of support. I teach the basic traditional cursive in which I normally write and what I've seen other adults use. 

[MomN]

Thank you for the thorough responses!

[Emily ZL]

I want to second NAC from MP! I am not an MP person really, but I had used cursive books meant for Kindergarten from Abeka and needed something else. They were in color and pretty, but my kids didn't get the formation. With NAC 1 (which is designed to be started in 1st grade) there is a very clear instruction for the letters. I saw the "samples" of first graders' work on copying the pledge of allegiance in cursive and thought it looked like a miracle. But my first grader has really done well with it! I don't know why but it clicked for her. Now I'm going to buy NAC 1 again next year for my fifth grader actually, because he learned cursive back in 2-3rd grade but the instruction was patchy (my fault) and even now he can't form certain letters well. 

[MomN]

20 hours ago, Ellie said:

When a child's manuscript is quite good and legible, then do cursive.

"Traditional" cursive would be hands such as Zaner Bloser and Palmer (I learned both, although I didn't know their names at the time: Palmer in second grade, then Zaner-Bloser at another school in third).  (Also, the main difference between them is the shape of some of the upper case letters. I have a story about that which is painful to me after all these years, lol.) My favorite is Zaner-Bloser, for manuscript as well as cursive; it first teaches the different strokes used (under curve, over curve, etc.), then the letters which use the strokes.

Rod and Staff Publishers does a slant print as sort of a transition between manuscript and cursive. It isn't necessary. Even after learning cursive, there will be times when manuscript is still used. 🙂

Cursive itself is pretty simple; I don't know why there would need to be a "simplified" cursive. o_0

Scott Foresman (Pearson owns it now) came along with D'Nelian; they built it up--and built itself a market--by coining the negative-sounding term "stick and ball" to refer to basic manuscript. Supposedly, children learn the manuscript, which has little tails in the letters which theoretically make it easier to become cursive because there is really only one "alphabet" to learn to write. The problem with that is that children are not given specific instructions on how to form each letter, which can result in reversals and awkwardness in writing, and they still have to remember two different upper case alphabets.

Some people go with a calligraphy-looking hand, sort of between manuscript and cursive, such that they only have to teach penmanship one time.

There's also the very scroll-y Spencerian Penmanship, which is beautiful to use, but I don't know...I'm not sure I would teach it instead of a basic cursive.

When I'm starting from the beginning with a little child, I do Spalding, which teaches children to read by teaching them to spell, and simultaneously teaches penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple writing. Its manuscript is a traditional style; its "cursive" is connected: once the children have good manuscript, they learn to connect their manuscript letters so that it looks like a cursive. Zaner-Bloser teaches very similarly to Spalding; to use ZA materials while also doing Spalding would not be a conflict.

With Zaner-Bloser, would you say to buy the Teacher's Edition book or is it not necessary?  Thank you for your thoughtful reply!  Very helpful!

[Ellie]

3 hours ago, MomN said:

With Zaner-Bloser, would you say to buy the Teacher's Edition book or is it not necessary?  Thank you for your thoughtful reply!  Very helpful!

It depends on what is in the teacher's edition, and how much it costs. 🙂 I haven't seen it with my own eyeballs. If it isn't too pricey, and it has helpful information, and maybe actual verbiage on what to say to the children, then it may be useful. Sometimes we can hand a worksheet page to our children and say, "Here, do this," and that's fine; sometimes we need to do some actual instruction before giving the children their assignments. That's why I'd want to see the TE before I recommend it or not (and also, I'm not going to spend $100 on a TE, so there's that).