I was thinking of purchasing this and making copywork pages. I know there are sites where you can do this free, but I am using Italic and none I’ve found uses that font. (I vowed after teaching my oldes son cursive I would NEVER again teach a boy cursive! ) My son is 6 1/2 and we will soon have another 6yo we are adopting from China so I know I would be making a lot of sheets. We memorize Westmister Shorter Catechism, scripture, etc. plus poetry, passages from books we’re reading, hymns, etc. I have lots of ideas. Just wanted to make sure Startwrite was worth the price before plunging in.
I purchased StartWrite at the beginning of the school year. We haven’t used it a whole lot because my daughter is only 5. But I laminated some pages for her to practice with. I plan to use it a lot more next year when we do more copywork. But I have found it to be worth the money to be able to print what we want to practice in the font and size we need.
You can get a free trial Download, it doesn’t have all the features but you can still make sheets from it. Its on their site at http://www.startwrite.com
We use Start Write with my 7yo ds. He likes tracing the letters and never complains about having to practice. I bought it because we, too, are using Italic handwriting. I also use it for him to “write” thank you letters when he receives gifts.
One thing I did was to make up the copywork on gray scale and without the dots. So, my children then traced over the letters and words. This was VERY helpful when they were younger. As they progrssed, I would have the sentence or verse they were to copy on one line, then a blank line underneath. From there we went to the whole copywork excerpt at the top of the page and then blank lines on the bottom half of the page.
What is so great about StartWrite is that your copywork can correspond to whatever you are learning since you are tailoring it. The downside is that you have keep ahead of the kids with the prepared copywork ready to go. It is very helpful, even for just the tracing aspect alone!
I also love startwrite! It was recommended for me and I use it all the time. I love the idea of making it any size, so for my 3 yr old I can make the letters really big and for my 11 yr old I can make them small to work on detail. I like that I can add pictures for my 3 yr old also, and as said before that I can tailor it to each childs needs. And yes you do have to stay on top of it, but I usually do up a couple pages on a weekend and then they can work through them for the next week or more depending on how fast they are copying. I think you should get it! Misty
For anyone using startwrite, can you leave out the gray scale? I want to be able to generate verses at the top of the page and then have empty lines below for my dc to copy. Would that work with this program? Also if you know of any other free resource links, I’d like to check into them.
I know this doesn’t help the original poster as they want the Italic font….
But for anyone doing cursive (or manuscript) – check out the Donna Young website. (I think it is http://www.donnayoung.org) I downloaded a cursive font there and followed the directions to make a grey outline text for my son to trace – so I can make whatever copywork I want for him.
(btw, If you can find a Truetype font that is like what you want your child to write, you can check out the directions on using that cursive font on the Donna Young website, and make a grey outline text for tracing with any font… it is just a few settings. You just wouldn’t have the lines…)
For anyone using startwrite, can you leave out the gray scale? I want to be able to generate verses at the top of the page and then have empty lines below for my dc to copy. Would that work with this program?
Thanks also for the suggested ‘free resource’ links! ~ heather
At what age are the chidren you are looking to do this for?? I have a 71/2 year old and I’m planning on just using what we have around the house. I found a hymnal, a book of poetry, and of course, the Bible. Now, for my 4 year old he will need something for his age and abilities (he’s a true beginner). Just making plans for next year and thought I’d ask…thank you in advance.
@my3boys, I’m looking at this for my 9yo. I’ve been using those things I have around the house since he was 6. Startwrite would make life easier for me in that I could just type in the passages for copywork of my/his choice, printing multiple ones a time so that he can just open his binder and go. Thats my hope anyway…we’ll see.