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My daughter went through Cheerful Cursive, so she basically knows how to shape each letter. Since we are doing Bigger again, I am having her copy Bible memory passages and the poems. Sometimes in her copywork, she will make a letter wrong. For example, yesterday she was writing and she made a 'v' look like a 'u', coming down at the right instead of doing the next letter off the top of the 'v'. I had her fix it in her copywork. Should I do that, or let the copywork the way it is and have her practice separately? When I point out something like that, she realizes what she did and usually knows how to fix it, so it is not a consistent problem.

Another question. I am having her write Bible verses in cursive, but the poems I am letting her do in manuscript. Because of her major difficulties in spelling, my thinking is that any writing will help her spelling. I also want her to focus on how poetry is lined up. Even though she can write in cursive, because of her dyslexia, she struggles trying to read cursive. I will have her read the verses or poetry after she copies them, and it is difficult for her to read the cursive, especially if she doesn't have it completely memorized . She does write neatly when she is concentrating and not frustrated or hurrying. I am more concerned about her reading and spelling. So, I guess I need to know how much emphasis I should put on cursive, since books she reads are manuscript. I definitely want her to do some cursive, but should I have her do all copywork in cursive? Or is what I am doing sufficient?

I think I found the answer. Here is a quote from Julie from another thread. I take it, once a child formally learns both methods of handwriting, he/she practices both. So, I guess I am okay with letting my dd do some in cursive and in manuscript. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't depriving her of something. Unless someone tells me differently, we'll just continue as we have been.



"Finally, every child after being exposed to formal writing programs for both printing and cursive writing will naturally begin to have a preference for writing in one of the two most of the time. Most grown men, and many adult women, choose to print. Others love to write in cursive. HOD plans for this preference by first teaching each formally using curriculum to do so, then practicing each for several years, and finally letting the student choose which to write in. I hope this can help!

In Christ,
Julie"

Yeah it sounds like your intuition with it is correct. Have her do some in cursive to hone that skill (and help her correct any mistakes she makes - on her "setting up Preparing" post she said she writes a sheet with all the cursive letters on it for the child to look at, would that help her?), and have her do some in print to reinforce that as well. I think your logic on thinking it will help her spelling if she writes the poetry copywork in print is probably good. You certainly know her best!

Melissa,
Thanks for the reassurance. I was just wondering where I find "Setting Up Preparing". I basically stick to this general board, so I'm not sure what you were referring to.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10426

This is the one I was thinking of. I found it by going to the Preparing Hearts forum and someone had linked to it. There's one for each of the guides, and I really appreciate them especially for the older guides where it often seems like there are so many directions you can go. I think for a while I was using one-subject notebooks for several things and then switched to a binder because of the setup posts.

Here is one Julie posted for Bigger

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5531