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When to start cursive…
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Dd is turning 6 on Wednesday. She learned to do her print letters at 4.5 and has been doing print copywork much of this past year. Her print writing is quite good and has become fairly fluent (in that she writes correctly without thinking about how to form each individual letter everytime). My plan had been to have her continue doing print copywork to get that really solid for this coming school year (first grade) and then transition her to cursive in 2nd. However, all of a sudden she has been asking about “scribbly writing”, attempting to join her print letters together, etc. So…now I’m thinking maybe we should start cursive now. What do y’all think? Would it be a good idea to introduce cursive now while she is keen to start? How important is it to be solid in printing before attempting cursive? (I know some teach cursive first, so maybe it’s not that important?) And when you start teaching cursive do you have them continue doing print copywork until they know enough cursive letters to transition to cursive copywork?
Thanks!
Jen
I’d teach cursive while she wants to… I’d do print copywork a couple of days a week while she is learning cursive letters the other couple of days.
We do cursive when they are interested, so far at 2nd grade but my second is in 1st and wants to learn. As far as copywork, my dd8 doesn’t have great printing. We used Handwriting Without Tears workbook that I got for a quarter at the thrift store. We used that for copywork in the morning, one page per day. This year (she is in 3rd) her copywork is all in cursive but she usually prints for her other work. My guess is you will find out pretty quickly if she is ready or not! I would give it a try and if she gets frustrated or can’t catch on, you can always pick it up again in a year or two.
Hi Jen!
I’m glad you asked this question! My daughter (6) wants to write in cursive, too! She has learned to write her name in cursive (her style of course). Although she has very neat printing, I have told her I want her to work a little longer on her printing and maybe we can start cursive after Christmas. My reason is that I don’t want to put too much on her plate at once. We’ve somewhat been transitioning towards more CM and less Unit study, so I don’t want too many changes at one time. I think giving her a target time to begin also gives her something to look forward to. Although, I think the other posters have a valid point about starting when the child is ready. Another thing about my daughter, she is still a beginning reader. I guess that also makes me a little tentative…
Jennifer
I taught my oldest to print first, but when she was quite young, 6 I think, she asked for cursive. I taught her and she mastered it in a very short time and since then everything was in cursive. Her immediate response was, “Mommy, this is so much easier. Why didn’t we start with cursive?” That got me to researching. Here’s one find –
How Should We Teach Our Children to Write? Cursive First, Print Later! By Samuel L, Blumenfeld
Soooo, when ds was ready to learn to write at 5-6, we started with cursive. He’s 7.5 now and has lovely penmanship. I’m sold. Cursive first all the way at our house. Two programs that I’ve used successfully – Cursive First and Pencil Pete.
Christie
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