Am I old-fashioned? or do others of you teach penmanship?

[irizarry4]

My mom said that was old-fashioned. Do you include penmanship in your curriculum? Do you use a separate book for their practice? If so, what's your favorite?

 

Ivette

[JudyJudyJudy]

Call me old-fashioned, too. :) I do teach it.

[razorbackmama]

I've never even considered NOT teaching handwriting!:001_huh:

[Chris in VA]

I absolutely teach it! I started with HWT, but switched to Horizons Penmanship for cursive. Dd has beautiful printing, and her cursive (now taught in her ps 3rd grade) is coming along nicely.

[razorbackmama]

Meant to say that I use Handwriting Without Tears also.

[Ellie]

Penmanship here, too.

[Sandy in Indy]

I just bought a program at convention...Presidential Penmanship. (Really cool CD with copywork taken from presidential and other statesmen's papers for 1st grade through Senior High.) Not only do I teach handwriting, but I also intend to supplement and reinforce good handwriting through the upper grades.

[Matryoshka]

My older two just finished up their 7th penmanship books and are excited to start calligraphy...

[Homeschooling6]

Yes, we do too :)

[scrapbookbuzz]

It may be old-fashioned but it's still great thing to do! Some of the best 'education' is "old-fashioned."

[Corraleno]

Yes, I started with Getty-Dubay Italic, but recently switched to Barchowsky.

 

Jackie

[Ohdanigirl]

Me too. Started with a prewriting/tracing book in Mexico called Mi Libro Magico (amarillo) and now we do ZB. I would love to do Calligraphy, but am not to familiar with the different resources yet.

 

Danielle

[amyco]

My 3rd and 5th grader are doing Getty Dubay Italics. Very easy to teach (the student workbooks are pretty self-explanatory if your child can read). They both started out with D'Nealian handwriting, which I also really liked.

 

I must be old-fashioned too (woo-hoo! To me, that means I'm doing something right!) but they have to do handwriting practice every day, above and beyond whatever copywork they're doing.

 

Now...if I recall correctly, penmanship is a different animal than handwriting. Everyone has to learn handwriting, to some degree, right? Penmanship to me is above and beyond that--excellently formed letters, maybe even the swirly-q things and such. See if your library has a book called The Universal Penman. Also I would consider calligraphy penmanship.

 

So--did you mean handwriting, or the really fancy stuff of old-fashioned penmanship? If you look at them as different things, I can see why "penmanship" would be considered old-fashioned. Handwriting, no way.

[sagira]

Yes, I teach it, and we do call it Penmanship (we use Getty-Dubay's Italic Handwriting too). It's ds' favorite subject :001_huh:

 

In fact, he used to run around the house screaming "Penmanship!!!" when it was time for Penmanship :lol:

Edited April 30, 2009 by sagira
edited sentences

[mom4him]

My mom said that was old-fashioned. Do you include penmanship in your curriculum? Do you use a separate book for their practice? If so, what's your favorite?

 

Ivette

Sadly, I haven't until just recently. I am using R&S now. I really do wish that I had started with them at least 2 yrs ago. I did start with HWT when they were k/prek and didn't like it. I then dropped it but have really regretted not finding something that I did like back then. My dd's hand writing is improving but it has been a lot of unlearning bad habits. My ds has a ways to go.

[FO4UR]

I teach it too. It's fundamental.

[Spy Car]

:lurk5:

[helena]

I've been working to get Spencerian Cursive added as a vendor at our charter school. My 10yo is so excited to bump it up a notch. I think the whole family will give it a go.

http://www.spencerian.com/

[nmoira]

We use Getty-Dubay Italics. My focus is legibility and speed. Since GDI doesn't teach cursive per se, we'll have to do a few extra lessons to teach the kids to read cursive.

[KAM]

I do- we use italics also and although I am sometimes tempted to drop it b/c it makes for even more writing (which my dd doesn't always like), her handwriting is getting so nice that we just keep going. I think it's important to have nice handwriting, I wish that I did!

[Nicole M]

I think you're old fashioned because you use the term "penmanship" instead of cursive!

 

(We have a joke about that at our house, because my husband is older than I am and is always saying penmanship in a very endearing way.)

[AnnetteB]

We call it Handwriting around here :) We are happy with A Beka and use their cursive writing through 3rd grade. I have a couple of kids that would prefer writing in all caps though like their dad!

[Catwoman]

Old fashioned here, too! ;)

 

We use BJU Handwriting.

 

Cat

[mcconnellboys]

I have boys and I've always used Getty-Dubay Italics with them.

[Annabel Lee]

I teach penmanship starting when they begin trying to form 'pretend letters' around age 2-3.5. I begin formal penmanship by Kindergarten, pre-K if they're ready. I started out w/ Abeka, and since that's the style and format my boys are used to, that's what I continue with. I have just started making some of my own penmanship pages on the Zaner-Bloser website (you select line width per grade level and type in your own text) using excerpts from their history, science, lit., and sometimes grammar rules or Bible verses. My K'er has excellent handwriting and my 2nd grader has picked up cursive this year like second nature. I'll continue cursive for my older ds next year in 3rd grade. I don't know if I'll buy a workbook for my youngest to use in 1st since it will just be continuation of manuscript practice. I could simply make my own, having him practice with content more valuable than "Ben has a red hat.", for example. Or, I'm also looking at Presidential Penmanship - they sell it in many writing styles including Abeka's.

[katilac]

We teach very basic handwriting around here. They are required to learn cursive - - dd1 learned it and dropped it ASAP (still practices occassionally); dd2 is learning it now (end of 3rd).

 

If anyone has any brilliant ideas for encouraging/forcing proper pencil grip, I'd love to hear them. it was no problem for the first kid; the second clutches that pencil in a death grip!

[FO4UR]

 

If anyone has any brilliant ideas for encouraging/forcing proper pencil grip, I'd love to hear them. it was no problem for the first kid; the second clutches that pencil in a death grip!

 

Try out different grippers. My ds tends to cross his thumb over his pointer finger, and I have him use a cross-over grip. My dd tends to place her middle finger in front of her pointer finger, and I have her use a stetro grip.

 

Try triangular pencils. My dc really like the triangle colored pencils here http://www.rainbowresource.com/pictures/029981/1241058874-2084998

 

For little ones, it's easier - take away all writing utensils except for broken crayons - about 1-2" is a perfect length. There is no other way to hold them except with a tripod grasp.

[BlessedMom]

Call me 'Old Fashioned" as well.

 

 

katilac,

 

We use Stetro Pencil Grips http://www.amazon.com/Stetro-MPDST36-Pencil-Grip/dp/B000KIEJKE They are extremely helpful.

 

You can buy them at various places. I usually buy mine from the local teacher supply store and only pay about .35 each. They have them up on the counter by the register.

 

HTH

[Paintedlady]

Yes, I've taught it. Used HWT 3 & 4 & loved it!

[katilac]

Thanks, guys, I'll look at those different grips. I'm starting to think it's like potty training - - we just have to pick a few days and not leave the house until that grip is corrected!

[swellmomma]

I teach it here, I use A reason for handwriting for the big kids and handwriting without tears for my Ker, Dd has asked to switch to HWOT next year as she is struggling with her letter formation with our current book.

[Kate in Arabia]

We also teach penmanship. I was once offered a job on the spot due to my penmanship on the application form (clerical position). It's not something we belabor, but it's a regular (albeit short) part of our day.

[mamaof2andtwins]

Yes, I have taught all the children penmanship with Handwriting Without Tears.

 

Jennie

[SLH in ND]

Yes, my kiddos had penmanship. I've been bad with dd#3, though, as I haven't transitioned her to cursive (she's 10 now :blushing: ). She's a lefty and I've been dragging my feet......that's for another thread, though! ;)

 

As far as what we've used: Abeka handwriting and several years ago I bought an inexpensive CD (created by a homeschooler, I believe) to print my own penmanship worksheets. It's really cool, as it has several handwriting fonts on it and you can make it so the letters have dotted lines to trace, arrows showing the direction to move your pencil, etc. There's even choices on the type of "lines" you want to write on.

 

Sheri

 

edited to add: once my girls had the hang of cursive and just needed some 'review' I bought some inexpensive workbooks at Barnes and Noble. The thing I liked best about the workbooks was that the big letter 'Q' looked like a 'Q', not like the number 2 (kwim??)! Do you know of any other penmanship programs that do that?

Edited April 30, 2009 by SLH in ND
adding something I forgot

[PineFarmMom]

We use A reason for Writing. Ds is in 5th and I don't teach it anymore, just make him do copywork and dictation each week. I can't imagine NOT teaching penmanship.

[tricia]

Definitely. I normally use something up until 5th grade or so. Even after that I still like to use different font penmanship series just to encourage creativity. Some people wouldn't like that thinking it best to stick with one type of writing. But I normally don't introduce another form until they are a bit older.

[homeschoolchic]

Although I dont use A Beka for anything else, I do love their penmanship programs. I love how they integrate zoology or other topics into each book...keeps life more interesting for my daughter. :001_smile:

[hsmamainva]

Another Handwriting Without Tears fan here!

 

I use their curriculum from preschool through 5th Grade.

 

My older ones both chose to learn calligraphy in high school, just for fun.

[Ravin]

I'm starting in on it with DD in first grade. I got a workbook from Wal-Mart, which we'll alternate with copywork. Once she's a bit older, we'll probably dive into calligraphy together.

[kamom]

What do you all do about making them use cursive for school work? Is that old fashioned? I have two ,almost eight and nine, who both know how to write cursive, but it's so laborious for them that I don't require them to use it, just practise it once a week.

 

I do harp on neat handwriting, but it doesn't have to be cursive. I don't want to make school miserable.

 

What do you do? :confused: