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Well, we're finally starting our school year (delayed due to travel, illness, and I'll admit a bit of laziness and me not being better prepared). Although we HAVE been keeping busy with workbooks (finishing up the R&S Pre-K workbooks and a couple of fun visual/reasoning pre-K books by Critical Thinking). That makes me feel a little bit better! We finished Little Hands preschool (took a year-and-half) during the summer.

Anyway ... I'm really torn as to which handwriting program to use. The private (Christian) school that they WOULD have attended had we chose not to homeschool uses ABEKA curriculum and they learn cursive right away in Kindergarten. BEAUTIFUL penmenship - I was amazed. Of course my kids (I have two 5-year-olds) have already been printing their name (DD actually prints everything in sight - copies the back of cereal boxes, magazines, her favorite books, etc). DS not so much - holds a pencil (or crayon) only when absolutely necessary! Should I continue with manuscript teaching her the correct way to print (since she's had little formal instruction) or follow what our private christian school does and start with cursive?

Just a note - DH agreed to allow me to homeschool on a year-by-year basis to see how I (and the kids) do - if it doesn't work out I will go back to work so we can afford to enroll them in the private school I referred to above. Which is why he ALSO wanted us initially to use the ABEKA (video/DVD) curriculum. I was able to persuade him to let me try HOD Little Hearts this year - we both really loved all the rave reviews and I really wanted to be their teacher. AND he saw how much we all loved Little Hands last year. So hopefully we will continue with HOD every year. I just have to prove to him (and myself) I can do it!

Anyway - back to handwriting programs. Thoughts? Suggestions? Anyone ever teach both manuscript and cursive at the same time?

Thanks in advance,
Cindy

I am teaching manuscript first for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is that everything they READ in the beginning is in manuscript. This way, everything my dd reads and writes is the same. Also, these days cursive is rarely used. YES, I do think it is important to learn, but it can wait in my opinion. I guess I also have one last reason that pertains specifically to my dd... she is left handed, and I believe that cursive will be slightly more challenging to her.

pollo_la wrote:I am teaching manuscript first for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is that everything they READ in the beginning is in manuscript. This way, everything my dd reads and writes is the same. Also, these days cursive is rarely used. YES, I do think it is important to learn, but it can wait in my opinion. I guess I also have one last reason that pertains specifically to my dd... she is left handed, and I believe that cursive will be slightly more challenging to her.

Ditto! These are the reasons we are beginning with manuscript as well. I think it's a nice tie- in to learning phonics too. Just seeing the letters over and over again and writing them as they are learning their sounds, all is very inter-connected. The hope of course, that as they write the letters they are thinking of the sounds too. There are basically no phonics programs in cursive, so this is another reason we've begun with manuscript. Oh, and after my ds had done a few years of A Reason for Handwriting manuscript (K and A), he just did one year of cursive (Cheerful Cursive), and now writes well in both manuscript and cursive. We don't do any formal handwriting program anymore - he's in fourth grade and is a typical boy. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

We chose to start cursive in kindergarten after much research and we also have a few friends who did the same, and their kids have picked up manuscript on thir own with minimal instruction, because everything they read is in manuscript, and yet have decent handwriting by 2nd grade or so. My son's fine motor skills are taking their time coming in, and so far, I think it's been worth the effort. He can write his name in cursive, and also has started printing manuscript letters here and there. He knows that there is a difference between cursive and manuscript, and doesn't mix them in the same words, which is interesting to see. Both my husband and I have fairly poor handwriting, so we also wanted to teach our children to have better handwriting. The phonics program we're using, The Reading Lesson, does not have writing associated with it, which is exctly what my ds needed, and it opened up the freedom to teach handwriting independently. I can PM you where I found some info about using cursive first if you're interested. I have read that it's easier for the child to receive instruction in only one mode at a time, so finish learning at least the basics of one and be able to use it mainly on their own before doing formal instruction on the other. HTH I'm sure you will find the right path for your dc

With my little ones, they all learned manuscript first. Then they will learn cursive when they are ready for it.