Copywork-Cursive
Copywork-Cursive
Hi Ladies, My 9yo son and 7yo daughter have been doing cursive for quite some time now. I am asking advice on how to maintain and improve current skills in an instructing yet encouraging way. We are having some set backs and messy work. Can you guide me with how to structure our expectations so it will be less of a conflict and more of a mutual desire?
Re: Copywork-Cursive
Have you seen the Cheerful cursive book? Last year was my first year with HOD. Before I found HOD, I had used Handwriting Without Tears for my younger 2 kids (my son had some major fine motor skills issues and this helped him). Well, this year for Bigger, I had started the year with HWOT because I didn't know if he could actually do the Cheerful Cursive. About a month ago I dropped HWOT and moved to Cheerful Cursive and he is doing great! His hand writing is beautiful too! I find that it starts off slowly and you have your kids do a lot of trace inside the letters. That helps tremendously for them learning how to go slow and make beautiful letters. If it were me and you are trying to break bad habits, I would have them use the Cheerful Cursive. Just have them complete 1 page a day. We are doing 4 pages a week so we aren't quite following the Bigger guide. I did this because the end I will probably have my son finish it up over the summer or have him finish it while he completes Preparing (and his younger sister will finish it at the same time as him). Once they are both finished with the book, my son will follow the plans in Preparing for cursive writing. My younger dd will then be in Bigger (she will skip Beyond because we did that last year) and she will do at least 2 copy work items in cursive every week (probably the Bible copy work from the notebooking science assignment on day 2 and the Bible copy work from the Bible box on day 4). If she can do the notebooking assignment on day 5 in cursive, she will do that as well. This will keep her fresh for when she moves up to Preparing.
Daneale
DD 13 WG
DS 12 R2R
DD 10 R2R
Enjoyed DITHOR, Little Hearts, Beyond, Bigger, Preparing, CTC, R2R, RevtoRev, MtMM
DD 13 WG
DS 12 R2R
DD 10 R2R
Enjoyed DITHOR, Little Hearts, Beyond, Bigger, Preparing, CTC, R2R, RevtoRev, MtMM
Re: Copywork-Cursive
Nealewill did such a great job of answering - I totally agree! "Cheerful Cursive" really helped each of our older sons to be successful with cursive. I did stay near while they were doing it at first, to be sure they understood the strokes. The following year when they did PHFHG, I hand wrote a model of each of the Cheerful Cursive letters, both capital and lower case, for them to refer to for some of the letters that were tricky to remember. For cursive writing outside of Cheerful Cursive, the paper, pencil, spacing of lines or no lines can make a big difference. Carrie had this to say in response to a previous poster's questions about her dd's writing...
Your post struck a chord with me, as so many kiddos struggle with exactly what you are mentioning with your own daughter. All kiddos have their weak areas, and it is sounding like your little honey's weak area is handwriting.
One thing to ponder is that Charlotte-Mason would say that neat handwriting is a habit, which needs to be worked on as all habits are, carefully and consistently one step at a time. With most kiddos who have poor handwriting, it's important to note that as the volume of writing increases, handwriting that used to be passable at best become illegible at worst.
While it is a good idea to work on handwriting in short time increments over the summer,it will be more important to address the habits she's formed with her handwriting during the school year. Likely, you should see some improvement in this area in the summer simply because it is one of the few or only subjects your child is working on, and she is probably doing very little work requiring handwriting during the rest of her day.
However, during the school year it's important to really weigh how poor the handwriting is and whether it is bordering or moving toward the illegible. If this is the case, I would begin first by cutting back the amount she is writing (meaning you would neatly write the beginning part of the assignment for her), and then she would finish the last portion neatly. Charlotte Mason would say that a little done neatly is better than volumes done carelessly. Whatever is not done neatly would need to be redone. When they aren't writing as much, it is easier to have a child redo what is done carelessly. Then, the habit of doing written work carefully can truly be honed.
As your daughter improves in this area, she could take over more and more of the handwriting assignments herself. While this likely would feel like a backward step, it honestly is the retraining of a bad habit that has been allowed to form. I know this because I had it with my own oldest son, prior to reading more deeply about CM. I did not go as far back as expecting perfection from him (and had I been more willing to devote more time to the retraining of this habit I should have), but I did lessen the amount he wrote and did require him to redo as needed. This helped my oldest son immensely and his quality finally improved. Honestly, continuing to write in a workbook is a crutch that will not improve written work in the day-to-day writing. Kiddos can perform it on the workbook page, and then continue their messy habits in all of their other written work. These are just my thoughts, after years of using workbooks for handwriting with my oldest son and seeing little improvement. Diligently working on handwriting overall as a habit in all areas of written work bit by bit made the most difference at our house.
Also, if you feel that your child functions better with lines, as most children do, you can easily assign your child to write on lined paper for the notebooking assignments. Then, she can cut that portion out and glue it on her notebook page. We did this in my public school teaching days all of the time. It makes each notebooking page customizable to fit exactly what the assignment requires.
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
Your post struck a chord with me, as so many kiddos struggle with exactly what you are mentioning with your own daughter. All kiddos have their weak areas, and it is sounding like your little honey's weak area is handwriting.
One thing to ponder is that Charlotte-Mason would say that neat handwriting is a habit, which needs to be worked on as all habits are, carefully and consistently one step at a time. With most kiddos who have poor handwriting, it's important to note that as the volume of writing increases, handwriting that used to be passable at best become illegible at worst. While it is a good idea to work on handwriting in short time increments over the summer,it will be more important to address the habits she's formed with her handwriting during the school year. Likely, you should see some improvement in this area in the summer simply because it is one of the few or only subjects your child is working on, and she is probably doing very little work requiring handwriting during the rest of her day.
However, during the school year it's important to really weigh how poor the handwriting is and whether it is bordering or moving toward the illegible. If this is the case, I would begin first by cutting back the amount she is writing (meaning you would neatly write the beginning part of the assignment for her), and then she would finish the last portion neatly. Charlotte Mason would say that a little done neatly is better than volumes done carelessly. Whatever is not done neatly would need to be redone. When they aren't writing as much, it is easier to have a child redo what is done carelessly. Then, the habit of doing written work carefully can truly be honed. As your daughter improves in this area, she could take over more and more of the handwriting assignments herself. While this likely would feel like a backward step, it honestly is the retraining of a bad habit that has been allowed to form. I know this because I had it with my own oldest son, prior to reading more deeply about CM.
I did not go as far back as expecting perfection from him (and had I been more willing to devote more time to the retraining of this habit I should have), but I did lessen the amount he wrote and did require him to redo as needed. This helped my oldest son immensely and his quality finally improved. Honestly, continuing to write in a workbook is a crutch that will not improve written work in the day-to-day writing. Kiddos can perform it on the workbook page, and then continue their messy habits in all of their other written work. These are just my thoughts, after years of using workbooks for handwriting with my oldest son and seeing little improvement. Diligently working on handwriting overall as a habit in all areas of written work bit by bit made the most difference at our house. Also, if you feel that your child functions better with lines, as most children do, you can easily assign your child to write on lined paper for the notebooking assignments. Then, she can cut that portion out and glue it on her notebook page. We did this in my public school teaching days all of the time. It makes each notebooking page customizable to fit exactly what the assignment requires.
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
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie
Re: Copywork-Cursive
Thank you both for your insight. We have only learned cursive formally so we may need to do a formal print program although they both do print from time to time and I demonstrate correct print as needed. Thank you for your encouragement!