struggling with handwriting

No, I don’t think copywork is the place to begin when teaching proper letter formation.  I belive that should be reserved for later, after all the letters have been learned correctly.  I do not know anything about the cursive first program.  Does it group letters based on the strokes used to form them, or alphabetically?  I prefer the grouping method, it is much easier to start with letters requirely simple basic strokes. 

I do not think that it is unusual for a young child to return to, or prefer printing over cursive at all. The vast majority of printed material our children encounter daily is printed — in story books, on computers, newspapers, billboards, sales flyers, TV ads, signs in shops, on buses, company vehicles, etc. Face it — unless they are reading a letter from Grandma, odds are it will be printed — and odds are good Grandma will print too, because she will expect that to be much easier for your children to read (which it definately is).  Yes, handwriting is pretty and quicker, and feels more natural, but it may be harder for your children to connect with because they don’t yet see the relevance. 

I am homeschooling our two boys for the first time beginning in September.  My older son has been in the PS system for 5 years and can still barely print.  Now, he does have dysgraophia, but I feel the biggest issue is that they were never properly instructed in letter formation.  Even his ocupational therapist has just allowed him to do a modified version going for legibility — he still returns to the ball and stick letters out of habit.  This has left me with a dilema of my own — do I start at the beginning and teach my nearly 11 year-old son basic printing.  I am considering using the Getty-Dubay Italics as it moves very smootly into Italic cursive by telling smooth joins of the letters.  It is very smooth and natural, looks beautiful and is much easier to read than loopy forms of cursive. 

Oh, just thought I’d mention… I have Step 1 as well (for use with my daughter…) – it doesn’t say what order to do the letters etc in step 1, so you can use it with a reading program.  Step 2 (or above) does them in a “shape” order…. ie, based on the strokes being used.   But it is handy to have Step 1 for finger tracing practice before actually writing the letter…..  as it has the letters nice and big.    (However, I don’t like the practice sheets in Step 1, as it has the capital letters and small letters on the same practice sheet.  ugh!)