A Beka vs Cheerful Cursive?

[kiloyd]

I really like how pretty A Beka's cursive looks. Does Cheerful Cursive look the same?

Thanks!

[Kathleen]

I haven't seen Abeka's book. Cheerful Cursive doesn't have colorful pages...but it does an incredible job of teaching cursive writing! I couldn't have been happier about our trip through it. It gives much-needed slow pracitce of letter formation before jumping to copying passages, which was great for my non-handwriting-loving boy. Grant actually really loved it, too, which says a lot! He also is writing beautifully in cursive.

Kathleen

[kiloyd]

Thank you Kathleen. My ds is not crazy about writing either. We do it in small steps , trying to not have him hating it.

I just don't like how Handwriting Without Tears looks. I wish there was a picture somewhere of Cheerful Cursive. I like A Beka's pretty flowing cursive.

Katherine

[Mommamo]

I know I've seen some pictures on this board of Cheerful Cursive. You might want to try a search for the thread. I'd do it for you but I'm supposed to be working right now....

[WigglesMom]

If you scroll down, MamaMary has a picture of her dc writing in a cheerful cursive book. viewtopic.php?t=1538
Val

[Kathleen]

Cheerful Cursive teaches a traditional style cursive. Once the kids get to learning capital letters, the book shows several different ways that the letter could look, so that they can recognize different cursive styles. Cheerful Cursive teaches them to copy cursive models, write in cursive from a manuscript model, write in manuscript from a cursive model, read cursive, (and probably some things that I'm missing). Here are a couple of pages of my son's work that I had taken a picture of for someone else a few months back.




Maybe you could do a search about Cheerful Cursive samples, because I know that someone had some they could e-mail. Or, you could request them from the company as I think that's where they came from.

Kathleen

[kiloyd]

Thank you Kathleen! That is what I wanted to see. It does look good, A Beka (at least Kindergarten) just taught writing in cursive, not copying back and forth from cursive to print or back to cursive.

I"ll get it!

Now to figure out our math so I can place my order.

Thanks again!
Katherine
ds8 soon to be in Bigger
dd4 soon to be LHTH
dd2

[my3sons]

Thanks for posting those pictures, Kathleen! I'm remembering this post for future reference.

Katherine - I just wanted to chime in (late here) that Wyatt really did well with Cheerful Cursive too. It does a super job making cursive "cheerful" and does the usual modeling and tracing of letters in a fashion that is just enough repetition, but not too much. What I found to be unique about Cheerful Cursive is that it also has dc write cursive looking at a manuscript model, write manuscript looking at a cursive model, and it also has a nifty box that shows other ways letters might look in cursive (i.e 10 different ways people might write "Q" in cursive). These parts of the program teach dc to be very versatile in moving between print and cursive, which is a skill dc often don't learn in other cursive programs. Wyatt all but taught himself Cheerful Cursive since I was on complete bedrest that year, and Cheerful Cursive is the only formal cursive I've had to do with him. So, I'm another Cheerful Cursive advocate!

In Christ,
Julie

[kiloyd]

Thanks Julie! I'm going to go with it. Now if I can just decide on math I'll be ready to order.....

[faithful2him]

At what age do you usually start cursive? My oldest was in public school when he learned it at the end of 2nd grade into 3rd grade. I have a 2nd grader now and am wondering if this is a good thing to add in at the end of the year or to make a summer activity. We school year round but go to a lighter load in the summer. Thanks.

[MomtoJGJE]

Since you are doing Beyond now, and I'm assuming you'll continue with HOD I would suggest just holding off until you get in Bigger because cursive is scheduled in that guide.