Cursive First?

[Servant4Christ]

Has anyone used this? How old were your children who used it and what was your experience like? I'm considering it for DS10 over the summer. He can use a chart with cursive letters and directional arrows but just hasn't had regular practice to retain the letters or how to connect them other than his own name. I also have 2 youngers that I may be interested in using it for when they are school age. 

[jboo]

I used it with my 7 year old daughter and an 9 year old son. I thought it was quite good - there's a lot of guidance on how the instructor can teach the class, and the gross motor -> fine motor model seemed pretty effective. Son had just about graduated from OT for dysgraphia when the pandemic hit, and after CF and a *lot* of copywork and writing practice, his handwriting is... well, it's within normal limits for a nine year old boy. No prizes for neatness, but it's entirely legible.

The curriculum is *really* cheap, and it allows you basically unlimited copies of the practice sheets, which was handy for the DS, who needed a lot more practice than just a workbook is likely to give. The only trick is that some of the material comes unlaminated, and the instructions strongly suggest you laminate it, so you need to either go to an office supply store to get that done or use it as a transparent excuse to splurge on the laminator you have desired for years. Obviously, I picked the latter.

Here's a video of the author working with a four year old, which gives you a sense of some of the strategies. I didn't do the saltbox much, but spent a lot of equivalent time working on a chalkboard. 

 

 

 

[drjuliadc]

Montessori schools often start with cursive first. Our children’s school did.  I really like that idea.

[lulalu]

Does using a clock cause confusion? I looked into this years ago, but using a clock and going counter clockwise seemed as if it would make telling time more difficult. 

[jboo]

46 minutes ago, lulalu said:

Does using a clock cause confusion? I looked into this years ago, but using a clock and going counter clockwise seemed as if it would make telling time more difficult. 

 It might even have been beneficial to describe movements as "clockwise" and "counter-clockwise" and get them used to a clock face, but probably there was no effect in either direction. Both of them are able to read an analog clock now. I think the 9 year old could before we started, but the 7 year old couldn't.

[Servant4Christ]

I'm wondering how well it would work for DS10 over the summer. He can write individual letters in cursive, just not by memory. And he doesn't know how to connect letters to form words yet. Would this program teach that or is this mostly for teaching the individual letters?

[jboo]

The wacky trick side is focused on the letter formation, but the worksheets spend a lot of effort connecting letters to themselves, and then to a variety of others.

[Susanna.R]

I'm currently using Cursive First with my 7 year old and (slowly) with my 5 year old. My favorite thing about it ,besides the price tag, is that all of the lower case letters start on the baseline, so learning to connect the letters is really simple. I also like that it's pretty basic. Not a lot of loops or fancy swirls. I figure they can add that stuff as they get older, if they want to. 

As far as being able to remember how to form the letters, it teaches individual strokes, such as short uphill stroke, clockface stroke, connector stroke, then the strokes are combined to make the letters. Both of mine have done very well remembering what they've learned, and it's easy to prompt them with the correct stroke if they forget. 

[Servant4Christ]

1 hour ago, Susanna.R said:

I'm currently using Cursive First with my 7 year old and (slowly) with my 5 year old. My favorite thing about it ,besides the price tag, is that all of the lower case letters start on the baseline, so learning to connect the letters is really simple. I also like that it's pretty basic. Not a lot of loops or fancy swirls. I figure they can add that stuff as they get older, if they want to. 

As far as being able to remember how to form the letters, it teaches individual strokes, such as short uphill stroke, clockface stroke, connector stroke, then the strokes are combined to make the letters. Both of mine have done very well remembering what they've learned, and it's easy to prompt them with the correct stroke if they forget. 

I learned D'Nealian cursive in elementary school and this looks the same which is what drew my interest. Yes, all letters start on the baseline, but not all end on the baseline, thus connections aren't always easy peasy. For instance, connecting a lowercase "o" to a lowercase "t".

2 hours ago, jboo said:

The wacky trick side is focused on the letter formation, but the worksheets spend a lot of effort connecting letters to themselves, and then to a variety of others.

Thankyou! This is what I was looking for! Do I need just the basic set or the additional 70 phonogram card set?

[jboo]

Just the basic set is fine. The additional phonogram cards are if you're also teaching reading.