Cursive Question: How do you know when it is "time" to

[Rebecca]

teach this? How do you know if your child is ready?
Thanks,
Rebecca

[one l michele]

We used Calvert and they teach script the second half of 1st grade, so that is when ds learned. I'm going to also use script with my youngest, but try teaching him when he learns to write next year using Calvert script, but in HWOT sequence.

[profmom]

Here I let dd learn during the 2nd half of 1st grade because she was asking and because she had started joining her printed letters to make her own cursive. (I didn't want her to get into bad habits.) I used Abeka for this because many other programs are geared toward older dc (height of lines and amount of writing required).

With ds, I meant to start the 2nd half of 2nd grade but life got in the way. So, he's learning this year in 3rd. With him, it was just because it seemed like the standard time that children are taught. (We're using Classically Cursive from Veritas Press this year for teaching, and I will either continue in this series or use A Reason for Handwriting next year. I like the daily assignments in ARfH.)

[Ann in IA]

We use HWT and I asked my son last yr (then 8 yrs old) if he wanted to try cursive. We did it for a few weeks and he got frustrated so we quit and went back to printing.
Now I think he's ready so we're starting in a few weeks after we move and get settled.

My 6 yr old girl is a lefty and tends to write backwards (not letters, just words like in a mirror). I'm going to start cursive now with her to see if this helps with her writing from left to right.

Each child is different. I say try it and see how it goes. You can always try again later.

[Strawberry Queen]

I' doing cursive with my dd in 2nd. It was her choice not mine. She is a bit delayed in fine motor, but she desperately wanted to do cursive. So, I'm using ARFH transition. We're progressing slowly, but at least we're progressing. If I had had my choice I would have waited until 3rd for this dd.(her printing is still inconsistent in sizing and quality:)

[Nancy in SoCal]

I' doing cursive with my dd in 2nd. It was her choice not mine.

Yep, this is us, too. My dd, 2nd grade, saw her older sibs doing it and insisted. When I said we were going to wait, she began "teaching" herself. I had to step in before she learned everything WRONG! :)

With my older 2, they had they're printing down very well and seemed eager, so we decided to jump into cursive.

[Plaid Dad]

Here I let dd learn during the 2nd half of 1st grade because she was asking and because she had started joining her printed letters to make her own cursive. (I didn't want her to get into bad habits.)

We're doing this now, same time - 2nd half of 1st grade - using HWOT Cursive. It's going swimmingly, and dd is so proud of her fancy handwriting. :)

[coffeegal]

I start when the child is printing comfortably. My goal is to require cursive only by 4th grade, so my third graders spend quite a bit of time working on their cursive handwriting. It doesn't make me a popular mom. :p

[JenneinAZ]

I switched my then newly 6 year old boy to cursive because it helped him with the reversals that he couldn't see in print. HWOT worked wonderfully for him. He is now 7 and I am not sure if he could print if he wanted to. And the reversals pretty much stopped too!

My daughter learned cursive at the same time. She was newly eight. She can write in either but greatly prefers to print and I don't have a problem with that.

So my daughter prints and my son does cursive. I never thought about how weird that really was...

Jenne in AZ
(dd9, ds7, ds3)

[K&Rs Mom]

We started when K asked. I guess it's 1st grade, based on my math & history/science programs, but she's 5. Her printing was legible, and I didn't want to discourage her. She gets frustrated & angry because it doesn't come easily right away, but when she sticks with it she does great. We're not using a "program" because I couldn't find one I liked (didn't use one to learn to print either). I did borrow a friend's Abeka teacher manual to see what order they teach the letters, because many groups of letters are made with similar strokes, and I kind of based my approach on that with practice pages I made up.

[Rebecca]

Thanks for these replies.
My son will be third grade(8) next year.
I wasn't sure if I should teach him cursive or let him have another year of printing.
Thanks again,
Rebecca

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

Most kids want to start by mid 2nd grade- 3rd grade is the big focus in Public schools. I don't understand what the big push is for it- but I am a print freak vs. cursive. I don't require, because some are just not comfortable. Both of my kids have learned it, but they both prefer to print! For what it is worth!

[Pongo]

We actually start with cursive, I don't bother much with printing. My 4th grade dd and my 2nd grade ds both write everything in cursive quickly and neatly. Neither of them are currently doing any HW programs. My Ker writing CVC words in cursive and knows how to write ALL the phonograms in cursive (we use SWR). I guess the style would be most like Italic Cursive.

[Diane]

We will be using HWT cursive writing this summer. It will be our summer project.

[Malenki]

This is us too; second half of 1st grade. We've done HWT all along so we did the pre-handwriting book when he was 4.5, the kindergarten book when he was 5.5, and then the 1st grade book at 6.5. So we're using the HWT 3rd grade cursive book; we actually own the 2nd grade printing book but we may or may not come back to it!

He started joining his letters together on his own randomly (which we had to stop as it was quite interesting). He *loves* it and asks to do it first each day. He's doing fine with it, btw. He'll be 7 next month.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I started "thinking" about cursive when each child asked to do it. I implemented it when printing became automatic -- when the child was printing without thinking about the formation of each letter. That's what I consider fluency.

We used HWT for both printing and cursive. Then, we switched to a more formal, slanted, classic style.

[freethinkermom]

My 6yo is asking to learn cursive. I think he is ready but I am making him wait until he gets his glasses next month and can actually see what he is doing clearly. We used HWT for ds10 and it worked well. He HAD great cursive handwriting until the one trimester of public school. They totally messed up his cursive. Not because they teach a different method, but because they did not teach any method at all. They would randomly say to do an assignment in cursive and then correct it inconsistently. He had 4 different teachers for different subjects and each would want the kids to form the letters differently... it was insane. I will probably have him go through HWT again with his little brother, or even have him be the "cursive" teacher. He loves giving his brother lessons and it is a good sneaky way to make him review something.

I am a big proponent of teaching cursive. It is not only quicker, but makes a person think more in whole words rather than individual letters. To me it is the writing equivalent to the leap one makes when going from sounding out words to reading the whole word by sight (assuming you were taught to read using phonics). It is a bit of a "soapbox" educational issue for me, but I am a woman that writes all of her extensive notes for everything in cursive with a fountain pen.... don't even get me started on paper to write on.