Has anyone used the Italic handwriting course from the pennygardner website instead of the SCM handwriting courses? Can anyone compare these products for me for a 6 year old? Pros and cons? Thanks!
handwriting, copywork suggestions
(8 posts) (2 voices)-
cekfamily
MemberPosted 1 year ago # Report Post -
I am using the Italic handwriting course from Penny Gardner, and it is working well for us. (btw, she has free videos on you-tube showing each letter etc...) I haven't used the SCM handwriting course.
The Penny Gardner Italics was the 3rd writing program I had tried with my son. It is working nicely for him (he is 8), and his writing is looking quite nice. It is the 2nd writing program I tried with my daughter (she is a young 6 right now) - and it was a huge difference for her. The previous program, I could hardly get a clear stroke from her - and certainly not a legible letter. We have finished all the letters with her now, and she is just into doing basic copywork. At this point, her writing is ok, but needs work. Probably just fine for an average 5th grader....
Pluses - it worked for my kids! lol. It is straight forward. They like the videos. When we move to cursive italics, it won't be a big change. I found a similar (not identical) font for making our own copywork.
Cons - They use the "Primary" Lines in a non-standard way, which makes it difficult to use premade notebooking pages, off-the-internet Primary Lines (you need solid-dotted-solid-dotted-solid.... most are solid-dotted-solid solid-dotted-solid) etc. What I've done with my son to get past that was transition him to using the lines that can be turned on with our italic font (totally different...) - and then transition him to standared ruled lines.
The other thing I didn't like - they didn't go through each capital letter... you do all the small letters, then you get 1 page with all the Capital letters.
I hope that help some!
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
cekfamily
MemberThanks for the feedbach suzukimom. Can you tell me where you found a font for the copywork? Thanks so much!
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
In a rush - my post here has the link http://maplehillacademy.blogspot.ca/2011/10/new-handwriting-program.html
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
cekfamily
MemberHas anyone found that italics is harder to teach a beginning writer as opposed to vertical printing? It seems some research says that it is, I'd like some feedback to compare the two methods. Thanks!
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
cekfamily
Memberhttp://www.ericdigests.org/pre-924/know.htm
Here is an interesting link to info about handwriting styles and how to teach by copywork. Enjoy!
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
well, all I have is my own experience with my 2 children that write.... my daughter was getting nowhere with peterson (their cursive first option) - couldn't make even the first letter legible (i and t)... but had no problem doing most of the italic letters. (there are a few she has problems with...) My son who was writing ok in cursive wasn't using it for anything other than copywork... now with starting over with italic, he writes in it mostly.... (always for copywork - not always when doing his own writing...)
now - note that I never tried regular manuscript/printing....
One other thing I'd note - the Penny Gardner Italic, during the printing portion, really doesn't seem that much different from regular printing. It isn't particularily slanted, etc. I actually prefer the Briem.net italic style - but there isn't a nicely laid out program for it. (I'm almost tempted to make my own for my younger kids - but will admit to liking the videos)
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post -
cekfamily
MemberThank you for the info. I do like the Penny Gardner idea, because it's one more curriculum I don't have to pull out from different places. It should be okay, since we're only starting with the printing anyways.
Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
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