Benefits of Cursive Writing Book

Benefits of Cursive Writing Book

The teaching of handwriting has a low priority among educators these days. They believe that handwriting is passé and that in the future everyone will be using word processors to do their writing. But have you noticed how easy it is to make errors when writing an email?

Homeschooling parents can be quite confused by the subject of handwriting. So whenever I lecture at a homeschool convention on the second R, I always ask by a show of hands if parents think that handwriting should be formally taught. Usually the response is unanimously positive. "So you agree that teaching your child to write is an important part of your homeschooling curriculum." The next question I raise is: "If you believe that handwriting should be formally taught, do you believe that your child should be taught manuscript - also known as "ball-and-stick" - first or cursive first?" Most parents assume that ball-and-stick should precede cursive, because that's the way they were taught in school. Besides, it is supposed to be easier that way.

Cursive Writing Book help to improve your writing But then I tell them that when I went to primary school in the 1930s, like their grandparents, we were all taught cursive handwriting, or what was then known as penmanship, using pens dipped in real ink. That was before ballpoint pens were invented. We were actually taught in the first grade that there was a correct way to hold a pen so that we would be able write with ease and facility without tiring. Thus, in those ancient days, an important part of the primary curriculum was the development of good handwriting, and we were given plenty of drill to make that possible.

This surprises most parents who assume that print script always preceded cursive writing. But when I tell them otherwise, I then have to explain why cursive should precede print script and not vice versa.

 

If you teach a child to print for the first two years, that child develops writing habits that will become permanent. Thus when you try to get your child to switch to cursive in the third year, you will find resistance to learning a whole new way of writing. That child may continue to print for the rest of his or her life. Some children develop a hybrid handwriting consisting of a mixture of both print and cursive. That seems to have become the dominant form of writing in America. And there are those children who develop a good cursive handwriting because they've always wanted to and practiced it secretly on the side.

If you consider good handwriting or fine penmanship a desired outcome of your home teaching, then you must teach cursive first. There are a number of good cursive programs on the market. The Abeka program from Pensacola Christian College is probably one of the best currently available.

 [Source: https://www.home-school.com/Articles/the-benefits-of-cursive-writing.php]