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Copywork – Manuscript – 10 year old
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I have a 10 year old that has previously homeschooled, spent 1 year in private school and will be coming home next year. His printing is not very nice at all, I’m wondering if I should work on manuscript copywork with him or if cursive will improve his overall writing.
This will be his first experience with the CM method.
Does your son show a preference? Since he’s 10 and knows the difference between the two types of writing, I would ask him which type he would like to work on first.
My own son prefers cursive. I think he found printing too tedious.
editted to add: Welcome!
Welcome,
I would recommend cursive. My dd who is 8 learned to print early at 4.5, but at 5.5 or 6 wanted to learn cursive. I taught her and she said, “this is so much easier!” My ds who’s 5 and wants to start learning is starting w/ cursive. I have no intention to work on print w/ him.
I use Cursive First, but it was written for younger kids and requires more mom involvement. I suggest trying to find something that is more on his own w/ direction from you when needed.
Some possible resources – Handwriting without tears cursive, New American Cursive, Pencil Pete – you want something that teaches how to make the letters and isn’t just a practice book.
Both my kids prefer cursive.
I don’t see how cursive would improe his printing, even if the cursive is nicer looking or he prefers it. If his printing needs to be more legible, work on print until it’s to your satifaction then move to cursive. Keep the printing lessons short, that’s the CM way; even though he’s old enough to do longer copywork selections, you don’t want to frustrate him too much. It may not take very long for him to improve enough to move to cursive.
I had to back up with my son at one time. I had him, for a short period, practice only the letters themselves every week. Tracing it, then freehand letter “A” one week, “B” the next, etc..then move to lower case; he would copy it about 5 times in his best effort. Then I bought a differnt curriculum hat used quotes he was interested in (Presidential Penmanship)and he took off with the format. You would definitely want to choose a program that uses tracing until the final day. For example, do one sentence (the same one) daily, so he’ll be copying it 5 times. When he takes off with it, move to cursive.
Do you think it’s a motor skills problem? Handwriting Without Tears has a specific book that deals specifically with older students with printing problems called “Can Do Print” for 5th grade up. There’s a sample page and you could call them to ask about the rest of the content.
http://shopping.hwtears.com/product/Can-Do_Print/5thGrade
There are other options, too but HWT is good with people who need extra assistance.
I consider legible printing extremely important a all legal documents (any forms, really) he’s going to have to fill out requires a good printing hand. Others have to be able to read it to avoid misunderstandings in any forms he’ll have to fill out.
Hope this made sense, I was in a hurry when composing.
Rachel
I, too, consider legible printing important, but not at a young age. Not too many 10 year olds that I know have a need to fill out any job applications or legal forms. 🙂
However, if you choose to improve the printing before moving on, that’s understandable. I just offered my experience of cursive being much easier for the kids – no spacing issues or letter reversals, less tiring for the hand, etc. This has been shown in my kids and many others who’ve either started with cursive or made the switch to it. Also, this enables kids to read both print and cursive equally well.
An interesting tidbit – until about the 1950s, all American school children were taught cursive first from first grade on and printing was introduced as late as high school years to enable kids to make posters and complete forms and the like. Here’s one article that talks about this very thing – http://donpotter.net/PDF/Cursive%20First.pdf
In the end, it’s a personal decision, but making a change may make a difference for your child.
Blessings,
Christie
I asked him which he would like to do and he said printing because he’s already really good at cursive. Which is true, his cursive looks better, but I think it takes him longer and that’s why he wants to print.
I wouldn’t throw out the idea of a motor skills problem, we have special needs kids and printing problems seem to go along with all of that.
I think I’ll check out the Handwriting without tears 5th grade book, it looked simple enough.
I was planning on using the Spelling Wisdom book with him – using it as copywork each day and then dictation on Friday. Maybe I’ll have to rethink that or save it for a later term.
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