Cursive, how do know they are ready?

[ktwensel]

My ds is 8 (9 in January) and we are planning on starting Bigger with him as soon as I can get it ordered!

He is left handed and has really struggled with printing. I have to keep reminding him to slow down, but he rushes through his work. His answers are correct, just sloppy. I don't know if I should work more on manuscript or go into cursive. I've heard some say cursive helps with manuscript.

Any thoughts?

[crlacey]

We struggled in our house with manuscript. My DD is dyslexic, so remembering how to form each letter was painful. In cursive, there is only one way that you can start to write the letter, so for my DD it made writing easier for her and her cursive is turning out to be beautiful! I know the traditional advice is to master manuscript first, but for us cursive was the perfect solution to our problem.

[Kristin]

I have two that were ready to move into cursive and two who I weren't sure about but I wanted to keep them all together so I went ahead and started everyone in Cheerful Cursive. My boys (who already had neat handwritting) are doing fine and my girls (who both have sloppy handwriting) have been doing well too. In fact, I have seen a great improvement in the girls' printing since starting cursive. I would say to go ahead and start cursive and see how things go.

[ktwensel]

Thank you both! I think we will move into cursive and see how it goes.