Handwriting

[Nm.]

What are you all using and loving?  I haven’t done anything official workbook wise (tried to just teach letter formation with dry erase board), but their handwriting is terrible!  

[Ting Tang]

25 minutes ago, Lovinglife123 said:

What are you all using and loving?  I haven’t done anything official workbook wise (tried to just teach letter formation with dry erase board), but their handwriting is terrible!  

We’ve used Abeka, MP, and now Pentime. I feel like my kids do best if I am intensely involved, which I haven’t been this year. My oldest refuses to write in cursive. Sigh. I do spot check. They at least like Pentime. They color the pictures— I put the 3 older ones all on grade 3. 

[Nm.]

Thanks I forgot about pentime!

[Clarita]

Handwriting Without Tears, I really like it because it isn't row after row of practice, it's do 5 really well instead of a page of sloppy ones. I also like it because it puts an example in between each one the child is suppose to do, so they are copying a good example rather than their own handwriting.

The thing I don't like about it is the font is not pretty. 

[Ellie]

Zaner Bloser. I learned cursive writing with Zaner Bloser elebenty years ago. 🙂 It teaches the different strokes (under curve, over curve, horizontal line, etc.), the children practice them, then they learn the letters which use them. It's very compatible with Spalding, which is important to me.

The thing with learning to write is that it isn't enough just to do the actual penmanship instruction; the children then have to actually write. This is especially true of cursive. When they have learned to write all their letters in cursive, they should write all of their school assignments in cursive, because just practicing letters isn't enough. And good penmanship should count in all subjects.

[Momof4sweetkids]

My 5 yo dd is using TGATB and loves it because they put a little activity on each page (maze, coloring, etc). She does reverse a lot of letters outside of the workbook though so I don't know how much it's helping her retain formation.

[Miska]

Both my boys hated to write in any way, even it it was just 3 words.  My youngest (now 11) still insists on printing his letters from bottom to top no matter what I say.  His regular school teachers never corrected him on it, even though I repeated asked them for help for all 3 1/2 years he went there.  My oldest (18) has dyslexia and ADHD.  His dyslexia teacher tried to get him to use cursive years ago but it didn't click with him then.  They both struggle with "thinking and writing" at the same time.  We are working on this aspect--connecting their right and left brains, etc. with a program and it is slowly helping, thank goodness!   Being able to write in cursive is a part of this skill (continuation of thought vs stop/start with print).  

After a lot of looking, this past Sept I found a cursive program that the boys absolutely loved literally on day one.  The light went on in their brains and after finishing the 1st day's lesson both boys were saying that it made sense and they went ahead and finished day 2 because they were so happy it clicked for them.  It made sense to their brains and they actually enjoyed doing it.  We've finished the program and they still want to do cursive everyday, so I've been printing out Viking quotes for them to copy/write. (There's actually a lot of good life lessons in these quotes that I get to sneakily put in...LOL)  

The cursive program is called CursiveLogic.  Found it online and it's reasonably priced. (FYI there is no "teacher" book--I made that mistake and misordered getting an extra student book.) She teaches the letters in groups based on strokes - letters that use the oval, letters that use the loop, letters that use the swing, letters that use the mound.  There are also video lessons that go with it you can watch.  After the first few my boys were good and didn't feel the need to watch anymore.   My oldest still is not much of a hand-writer but his cursive is good and he can read his grandparent's handwriting.  My youngest will do his homework in cursive if I insist and it's really pretty cursive too!  Now if I could just get him to print from top to bottom we'd be golden....

[wisdomandtreasures]

Classical Copywork

Edited because it's midnight and I mixed up the title with MP's writing course. Anyway, my children use Classical Copywork books for the McGuffey Readers and Milo Winter's Aesop for Children. 

Edited January 20, 2023 by wisdomandtreasures

[Nm.]

8 hours ago, Clarita said:

Handwriting Without Tears, I really like it because it isn't row after row of practice, it's do 5 really well instead of a page of sloppy ones. I also like it because it puts an example in between each one the child is suppose to do, so they are copying a good example rather than their own handwriting.

The thing I don't like about it is the font is not pretty. 

Thank you, for my 1st grader I just ordered printing power.  I think it will be a good fit.  Now for the others….

[Green Bean]

I was going to say HWOT, as well. Excellent choice. Most people say the cursive is ugly. I’m in the camp of who cares as long as it’s legible and easy for the child to use.

But the extra lined writing paper, too.

[ArtHaus]

We used HWT at younger ages, but I taught them French Cursive, and we used the HWT books as practice for FC.

Edited January 20, 2023 by HeatherW

[Nm.]

Thanks!  It looks like it’s not overwhelming and will stick.  Going to switch to that for all.

[Green Bean]

Grab the lined paper, too! 

[BusyMom5]

McRuffy handwriting,  hands down.  I spent HOURS looking for another alternative bc the price is getting so high and you have to buy direct and pay shipping now.  It used to be much cheaper and available from Rainbow.  I couldn't find anything better for daily practice.  

[ScoutTN]

Handwriting Without Tears was good here. Both my kids are lefties.

We switched to New American Cursive when they were ready. Good, easy. I had the software and could make practice sheets to go with our other schoolwork. 

[goldenecho]

ProgressivePhonics is free an also has similar formations, and I love the cute animal letters.  I didn't know about them when I started but might have used them if I were doing it again.

I loved Printpath on teachers pay teachers.  It has letter formations similar to Handwriting Without Tears, but it uses three lines, and then has a unit (all their units are pretty cheep) that helps kids transtition to regular lined paper.    They also now have a dinosaur themed unit for lowercase if you have a child who likes dinosaurs (with real dinosaur facts and everything).  It was something I suggested to the owner, and she did it! (Though it didn't come out soon enough for my kiddo sadly).   They also have some extra stuff that you could use with HWT or ProgressivePhonics.  I've found it's easy to find HWT style traceables for learning letters specifically, but if I want traceable stuff in that font style for any other topics (science, spelling, etc.), it's hard to find it.   I really liked her traceable calendar, and she has traceables for learning number spelling and some other ELA stuff.

[AnneGG]

Print Path OT on teachers pay teachers. It’s similar to HWOT but uses three lines. We tried HWOT but the two lines just weren’t for us. 
 

For cursive we’ve had success with Catch on to Cursive from Masterbooks. I’m not a big masterbooks fan, but something about the fishing theme in the cursive course has really *hooked* the boys. 

[Green Bean]

3 hours ago, AnneGG said:

Print Path OT on teachers pay teachers. It’s similar to HWOT but uses three lines. We tried HWOT but the two lines just weren’t for us. 
 

For cursive we’ve had success with Catch on to Cursive from Masterbooks. I’m not a big masterbooks fan, but something about the fishing theme in the cursive course has really *hooked* the boys. 

It made it reel for them. 😆

Edited January 22, 2023 by Green Bean