Handwriting: Cursive, Print or Both (Montessori)

[roxannex]

Hi,
My son is attending a Montessori preschool during the morning. He just turned 5 and missed the cutoff for K by two months (which is fine with me).

Montessori is teaching the kids how to write in cursive first. My son totally hates this because he went to a previous preschool where they started them in print. Now he's confused. I'm not really sure I like the starting in cursive, but what can I do. His handwriting is terrible either way, so I wanted to give him some practice at home.

But now I'm not sure how to start. I ordered Handwriting Without Tears Pre-k and K, but those are in print. Now I'm wondering if I should start with cursive instead.

What do you think? Stick with cursive because that's reinforcing what he's learning at school? Print? Can I do both without making him nuts?

I worry that if we do public next year for kindergarten he will be even more confused if he just learns cursive. Maybe this is a Montessori plot so I'll keep him there. :tongue_smilie:

Thanks!

[RobinLK]

do the cursive that he is learning in school..ask the teachers for some resources to use at home.

coming from mom of 2 girls that went through tthe montessori program (3 year cycle)

robin in nj

[wapiti]

:iagree:

One of my kids, with fine motor issues, learned cursive in his montessori K and was writing beautifully by the end of that year. His twin brother learned print in another classroom at the same school. Two years later, the twin brother's handwriting is horrible (his teacher is now using HWT to help fix it but no cursive is planned just yet - still only printing). The one who learned cursive isn't using it - he's printing, because he can get away with it - but his handwriting is so much better than his brother's. Huge difference. I'm not sure how much the cursive has to do with it (he also got OT in K), but I think it does (and he's left-handed to boot).

I'm sad to say that I have another child in that classroom where ds learned cursive but the school decided they had to standardize things amongst the preschool-K classrooms, so all of them are printing only.

[Rosie_0801]

Reinforce what he's doing at school. They changed handwriting instruction on me about four times during my early school years and my writing is an awful blend. Pick one and stick to it, I say! And since the teacher (well the powers that be, anyway) have the right to choose and have, stick with what they are doing.

You probably can't do both without making him nuts at this stage of the game. Get what his teacher wants down fluently, then he can do what he likes in his own private life.

Rosie

[Concerned Mom]

[QUOTE=roxannex;2207903]Hi,
My son is attending a Montessori preschool during the morning. He just turned 5 and missed the cutoff for K by two months (which is fine with me).

Montessori is teaching the kids how to write in cursive first. My son totally hates this because he went to a previous preschool where they started them in print. Now he's confused. I'm not really sure I like the starting in cursive, but what can I do. His handwriting is terrible either way, so I wanted to give him some practice at home.

But now I'm not sure how to start. I ordered Handwriting Without Tears Pre-k and K, but those are in print. Now I'm wondering if I should start with cursive instead.

I do not understand why there is a rush in this country (perhaps it is only happening in private schools) for Preschoolers and Kindergartners to hurry up and prepare for college and ignore the development stages of children. I found that no time is given for handwriting practice at all in public and private school. Gone are the days of coloring and any activities that help with fine motor skills. Parents of our generation are taking our 3 and 4 years old to places like Kumon so they can "hurry up" and prepare for college. This is a mess. We need more educated parents and well trained qualified teachers in tune to the developmental stages of children in the classroom.
There are so many ways to teach math and language these days. It is boarding on the ridiculous. If we as a country want to catch up to other countries academically we must start using our common since instead of rushing around putting unneccessary pressure and stress on our kids. I would ask the question of what is the purpose of a 5 year old learning cursive before print in preschool as opposed to learning cursive in second or third grade. This sounds like a marketing ploy to me. It seems this Montessori school is trying to compete with other private schools for more money and not following the philosophy that children should not be pushed, but need to learn at their own pace.

[Concerned Mom]

I just want to add that when my son was in catholic school in second grade they taught advanced 3rd grade English. My son did not go through too much stress with it, but I spent much time tutoring him. Anyway once the students reached 3rd grade they did not present them with a 4th grade English curriulum. They were presented with a 3rd grade English curriculum with a different textbook. They scrapped their plan, which is clearly an indication that the administration does not know what they are doing.

[wapiti]

I would ask the question of what is the purpose of a 5 year old learning cursive before print in preschool as opposed to learning cursive in second or third grade. This sounds like a marketing ploy to me. It seems this Montessori school is trying to compete with other private schools for more money and not following the philosophy that children should not be pushed, but need to learn at their own pace.
Actually, cursive can be easier to learn than printing, particularly for those struggling with fine motor skills, as it does not require lifting the pencil off the paper anywhere close to as much as printing does. Indeed, my son's OT highly recommended cursive over printing. Cursive is quite traditional for Montessori K, and it is the more modern montessori schools that are letting it go in favor of printing.

IMO, one of the difficulties of cursive at that age is the difference between the appearance of cursive letters and the appearance of printed letters in books, in other words, reading confusion, not the difficulty of learning to physically write in cursive.

Not all montessori schools are equivalent (some adhere more strictly to the philosophy(ies) than others), but the ones I've experienced pay very, very close attention to developing fine motor skills for handwriting. That's one of the most important purposes of many of the works contained in the preschool-to-K classroom, particularly for 3 and 4 year olds. Metal insets, cutting things out with pushpins, pouring, cutting with knives, it goes on and on and on.

In fact, my current 4 y.o.'s teacher is insisting that my ds do more of such work before she has him doing lowercase printing (nevermind that he taught himself uppercase printing a long time ago thanks to the Leapfrog DVDs ;)). He comes from a long line of poor handwriters :D

[Concerned Mom]

I agree that each Montessori school is different. They are not regulated. Anyone can put a shingle out to say it is Montessori.

[sleepymommy]

Ds4's M school teaches cursive initially, but then in the spring of the child's K year they teach them print so that they are able to transition to other schools for 1st.

I'm not too keen on this as I don't see my ds learning to write until his K year and then it would be too much switching. However, it has worked for the kids so far so I'll just have to wait and see.

I would reinforce what they are teaching at school, you could probably breeze through the HWT K program you have the summer prior to starting school elsewhere. I was able to get the HWT 3rd grade teacher's manual from a friend and think I will try to reinforce at home with that.

[cdgni]

[QUOTE=roxannex;2207903]Hi,
My son is attending a Montessori preschool during the morning. He just turned 5 and missed the cutoff for K by two months (which is fine with me).

Montessori is teaching the kids how to write in cursive first. My son totally hates this because he went to a previous preschool where they started them in print. Now he's confused. I'm not really sure I like the starting in cursive, but what can I do. His handwriting is terrible either way, so I wanted to give him some practice at home.

But now I'm not sure how to start. I ordered Handwriting Without Tears Pre-k and K, but those are in print. Now I'm wondering if I should start with cursive instead.

I do not understand why there is a rush in this country (perhaps it is only happening in private schools) for Preschoolers and Kindergartners to hurry up and prepare for college and ignore the development stages of children. I found that no time is given for handwriting practice at all in public and private school. Gone are the days of coloring and any activities that help with fine motor skills. Parents of our generation are taking our 3 and 4 years old to places like Kumon so they can "hurry up" and prepare for college. This is a mess. We need more educated parents and well trained qualified teachers in tune to the developmental stages of children in the classroom.
There are so many ways to teach math and language these days. It is boarding on the ridiculous. If we as a country want to catch up to other countries academically we must start using our common since instead of rushing around putting unneccessary pressure and stress on our kids. I would ask the question of what is the purpose of a 5 year old learning cursive before print in preschool as opposed to learning cursive in second or third grade. This sounds like a marketing ploy to me. It seems this Montessori school is trying to compete with other private schools for more money and not following the philosophy that children should not be pushed, but need to learn at their own pace.

My daughter attends a French school and has always done so. They teach cursvie from the very beginning. She's in 6th grade now and still writes as a matter of comfort. I remember reading articles on cursive vs print. When she was in kindergarten, I found an article about the different attitutes between the Europeans and Americans on writing. The Europeans teach their children to write on grid paper and each letter should be within 2 mm. American children have a much bigger space to write in during the kindergarten-1st grade time period. I'm not saying one is better than the other, it was simply interesting to read the different reasons. I did a quick google just now and found an article about why cursive first. It wasn't what I read 6 years ago, but interesting none the less:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2164109/10_reasons_to_teach_cursive_writing_pg2.html?cat=4