Bigger Handwriting ?

[Kristin]

We are starting Bigger on Monday and I wasn't sure if I should have my kids do both the Cheerful Cursive and the copywork in the Poetry section. Even though we are starting cursive their printing could still use some work. Should I do both or is there enough other writing that they will still get enough printing practice?

[Happy2bMommyof3]

My dd is in Bigger and and is doing Cheerful Cursive. I have a hard time getting her to do one opage at at time since she loves it so much! Anyway, I have her print her R&S english, dictation and sometimes her memory verse, so that she still get that printing practice that needs.

[pjdobro]

We're doing Cheerful Cursive this year with Bigger also. We aren't doing the poetry copy work right now. I may decide to add it later, but right now we copy our Bible verse, Science notebooking, History notebooking, and grammar all of which practice printing. It seems there is always quite a bit of writing in a day so I haven't felt like we needed to add in the poetry copy work. I know many people do use the poem as copy work, but for us right now, it would be a bit too much. It's something you can always try but not feel required to do. The poems are so wonderful that there have been a couple of weeks when I have considered having them copy them, but we still haven't as yet. Surprisingly to me, they can still pretty much quote the poem by the time the week is over even though memorizing it hasn't been our goal! Enjoy your first week of Bigger!

[girlboygirlboy]

I am using Bigger w/my 7&9yos. We are using Cheerful Cursive, but each morning during their "independent work"(work I give them so that I can do K w/my youngest), I have them do a little copywork - maybe it's just a couple lines or a stanza from the poem, maybe it's part of our Bible verse for the week; just a little something so they are still working on their printing, but not too much that it would be overwhelming. HTH!

[Tansy]

I'm using bigger as 2nd grade for a 8 year old.
She does one page of cursive, and about 3-5 lines of the poem (printing) per day. This is assigned as homework she wants to be like her sister and she does it when her sister is doing her homework. And I actually grade it in the morning lol cause she wants me to. For her Science Journaling and History pages. If its writing light she does it all. If it's got lots of writing, say a Long bible verse I do most of it. I may even set it up as a work sheet if she is fussy about getting it to look just right. But I make her scribe her conclusions even if I have to spell every other word for her. I don't make her do more than One thing per column for the Science note booking and I'll make her tell me details but scribe those for her.

[my3sons]

My 7 1/2 yo ds is doing Bigger Hearts half-speed. I have him do the poetry copywork every other day, dividing it out over 2 weeks. I want him to keep his printing up, and I also believe copywork is such a wonderful way to teach spelling within writing. A side benefit is the lovely poems he has copied too. When my oldest ds did Bigger Hearts, we did it full-speed with him at 7 1/2 yo, and I had him do the copywork of the entire poem along with the Cheerful Cursive too. I didn't have him illustrate the poems though, as I am having my middle ds do. I think it depends on how a child is doing with the rest of Bigger Hearts. If the rest of the writing is a bit much, then I'd probably downsize to doing a line only of poetry each day. I have just really come to believe in the benefits of copywork - I'm becoming a big CM fan. Her methods work so well, and the way they are part of HOD makes it easy to do them. Actually, one more reason I have my dc do the copywork of the poems is because they can do it independently. Those skills are at a premium at that age! I know copywork is a choice of preference though in Bigger Hearts, so I guess it's up to each of us to weigh where that goal falls for each of our dc. HTH as you decide what fits your dc.

In Christ,
Julie

[water2wine]

I have this same dilemma. I have one that is 6 1/2 doing bigger and for her I decided to hold off on cursive and spend a quarter or so working on printing. For the other that is 8 1/2 I am going forward even though her printing could use some work and low and behold I notice some improvement in printing as well since she started Cheerful Cursive. So from this and having my other kids go through cheerful cursive because their cursive was horrible I think when they are ready they can work on both if it is a matter of sort of sloppy and not knowing how to form letters correctly consistently. That is my total sort of semi experienced guess that seems to be working for us.

[Carrie]

Kristin,

The ladies have already given you such wonderful counsel. The choice of whether to do the poetry copywork in Bigger Hearts works well either way, as the copywork of the poetry is an optional choice if you're currently doing Cheerful Cursive or Italic D. When we did Bigger Hearts with my second little guy, we did the poetry copywork in manuscript along with doing Cheerful Cursive, but that particular son of mine loves to write. There is plenty of writing/copywork within Bigger Hearts, so if you have a child who does not love to write or is easily tired by too much writing, I wouldn't do the poetry copywork but instead work toward fully doing the other assigned copywork in history and science and vocabulary.

For my third little son, who will begin Bigger Hearts in December, I am planning to do the poetry copywork in manuscript but wait on Cheerful Cursive, as he is not nearly ready for cursive yet (having had some struggles with handwriting due to having surgery on the tips of his fingers on his left hand and us having to make him be a "righty" when he was obviously a "lefty"). Anyway, we'll add cursive next year when we come back to finish the rest of Bigger Hearts (at which point we may or may not continue with the optional poetry copywork in manuscript).

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Kristin]

Thank you for all the help. Bigger is really full of other writing so we have decided not to do the copywork. They are doing all the other writing (except 1/2 of R&S, which we do orally) so they are getting plenty of practice. We are in our 2nd week and I love to see all the new skills that they are already learning. I know that it will be a great year!