Italic Cursive ?

[DHT1999]

My oldest son has been using Handwriting Without Tears since K. He is now in his 5th HWOT book! It's the second cursive book. His printing is lovely and almost looks like an italic print. His cursive looks nice too, but not so, and he hates it. He doesn't want to write in cursive at all and even though he is in his second cursive workbook, he can't transfer that to his other writing. It's only in the workbook that he will do cursive! When I ask him to use cursive for his copywork, spelling words, or whatever, he says he can't remember how to write the cursive letters and he literally gets a deer in the headlights kind of look.

He just completed his current HWOT book and I think rather than get another for him, I'll try something different. I don't think he's ready to be weaned from a handwriting book yet. For whatever reason, cursive just hasn't clicked with him. I'm thinking a new approach would be better. Since his printing is so much like an italic print (he's just sort of developed that on his own with the HWOT books), I think I'd like to teach him an italic cursive.

Any thoughts? Is there any reason not to do that? I'm going to a convention this week-end and thought I could take a peek at some different options while there. I thought cursive writing was supposed to be easier, so I don't understand why he hates it.

[eazbnsmom]

I think italic cursive would be perfect for your son.