Handwriting question for CTC

[tbarr12]

Still getting to know CTC, and having many questions come up as I plan for the next couple weeks. Re: handwriting - I understand that all necessary practice takes place through the various written assignments. However, my ds age 9 doesn't have a firm grasp of cursive - we just started learning it near the end of last year. He learned how to form all the letters, but has probably forgotten most of it over the summer. So I'm inclined to add in a brief HW program everyday - Reason for Handwriting - to allow him to work on his cursive. Otherwise, I'm not even sure he'd KNOW how to write those assignments in cursive! But, of course, this adds more work and time.

Does anyone have any suggestions about this?

Also, he is handwriting-phobic - meaning, he HATES the process of writing, and gets overwhelmed when there is lots of written work. He's a young 9. Would it be okay, for example in the Science, to only assign him CERTAIN questions to answer, rather than all of them. I then would probably assign more to my almost 11 yo dd who is in 5th grade.

Thanks for any help.

Tracey

[StillJulie]

Has he done Cheerful Cursive? I find those assignments to be more fun/less daunting (than A Reason for...) for my boy that doesn't like handwriting.

[blessedmomof4]

I second Cheerful Cursive. My youngest daughter's handwriting suffered for the year and a half she spent in public school-they didn't teach/require it. She does Cheerful Cursive just one page a day, which only takes a few minutes, and I see steady improvement. Meanwhile, I am only requiring her to do dictation, written narration, and copywork in cursive, and anything else, I let her choose cursive or print. We have built up to that, when she started Cheerful Cursive I didn't require any assignments in cursive, but have been adding them in along the way, one at a time. By the end of Preparing I hope to have her doing all her writing in cursive.

[Kathleen]

A third vote for Cheerful Cursive! We're familiar with both here, too, and Cheerful Cursive was GREAT for my anti-writing son.

Kathleen

[Tabitha]

Just adding in my 4th vote for Cheerful Cursive.

I have issues with my 11yo, 6th gr., dd as well with handwriting. Due to this I am adding in a handwriting curriculum for her in with all her CTC work. She just needs more practice in this arena. She does MUCH better having a full blown written model infront of her to copy vs coming up with it all on her own on a blank canvas. She never remembers how the letters should look. Her handwriting in general is very poor, to the point of being unreadable more often than not. I hope to remedy that this coming school year. Until then, more handwriting practice for her it is. And, she was a bit excited about it when I showed her what I bought. That's a plus.

[LynnH]

Another option if you don't want to do a handwriting program is to do what I do and that is write whatever it is they are to do in cursive up on our white board and then my ds just copies it. It gives him the model like a handwriting program would. He does great with this.

[Alison in KY]

I have an 11 year old that sounds just like your 9 year old. He doesn't like cursive, so he isn't very good at it, nor very confident inusing it. I'm doing a cursive review with him. I started off copying the copywork for him in cursive, to make sure he was getting it right. For a kid who doesn't like writing, there can be quite a bit of writing. You might want to reduce the amount of copying, or, until he get's where he needs to be, let him copy in manuscript.

HTH,

Alison

[Carrie]

Tracey,

I agree with the ladies that I would have him go through a year of Cheerful Cursive, simply doing one page a day all year. It's so important to have a good strong foundation in cursive before being asked to write that way! For the year you're doing Cheerful Cursive, I'd have him do any copywork assigned in the guide to be done in cursive in manuscript instead. Then, the following year after Cheerful Cursive have him do one (or more) copywork assignments from the guide in cursive each day to practice the new skill of cursive.

Blessings,
Carrie