Comments on: Teaching Handwriting

By: Homeschool Curriculum: 4 Moms, 35 Kids | Raising Olives

Homeschool Curriculum: 4 Moms, 35 Kids | Raising Olives — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:42:54 +0000

[...] Getty Dubay Handwriting for 5, 6, 8 and 9 year old. (Unnecessary since the children do copy work or dictation each day, but I like the lovely italic style it produces. Hmmm, now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if this is something that we should allow the children to drop.) [...]

By: Tami

Tami — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:23:39 +0000

@Kimberly @ Raising Olives, Thanks for your help! A Reason for Handwriting is very traditional "loopy" cursive. The books are colorful and nice and the writing you practice is a Bible verse. At the end of each week, you write the entire verse in your best handwriting on a bordered paper. She would like that, but I think I might also be able to skip her one year and let her do that last Getty-Dubay book. I personally dislike that old loopy cursive style - I've never met anyone who actually writes that way who wasn't an elementary school teacher (my mother, for instance!)But Emily thinks it is sooo pretty!

By: Kimberly @ Raising Olives

Kimberly @ Raising Olives — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:09:08 +0000

@Tami, I haven't had anyone complain that Getty-Dubay was too plain. However, our third daughter (the one who would be most likely to) is counting down how long it will be until she gets into that last book that teaches some more ornate additions. I'm not familiar with "A Reason for Handwriting", so am afraid I'm not much help on that score. I would wonder if the transition would be hard, but of course if she WANTS to write in a more fanciful style, the work will probably be worth it to her.

By: Tami

Tami — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:26:07 +0000

I have also used Getty-Dubay since I started homeschooling. Well, almost. When my older daughter was in 1st grade, we just did copywork, but she became more and more imaginative with her handwriting, thus, the Getty-Dubay books. I like them, but this same daughter wants to do “fancy cursive” now. I’m thinking of getting her something like “A Reason for Handwriting” next year. What do you think? Have any of your kids ever complained that italics is just “too plain”? That last book sounds pretty neat, I’ve never looked at it, and she might like that one better. She will be a 5th grader in the fall (almost 11). I tell her now that she can write however she likes when she’s grown, but for now, she writes the way I choose.

By: Raising Olives

Raising Olives — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:54:16 +0000

Katie,
We have friends who have taught cursive first with good success. If we weren’t doing italics, that is what we would try.

If your husband doesn’t like cursive I suggest that you at least look into italic. It gives the children the ease and speed of connecting letters with the clean simple look of printing. Also the children do not have to drastically change their letter formation from print to cursive. Supposedly the reason that most adults don’t use cursive is because it has traditionally been taught after printing patterns and habits have already been established.

However, if you like cursive and your husband doesn’t mind it, teaching it first is a terrific idea!

By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:41:23 +0000

I also have been toying with the idea of teaching cursive first. Not sure if I will or not but I was listening to Gregg Harris’ homeschool seminar and got the idea. I will look into it more. And soon… My 2 1/2 year old makes me many pages of printed A’s, N’s, W’s, M’s, and Z’s to proudly display! I need to figure out what I’m doing and fast. She’s obviously ready to start learning to write and Mama’s got to get on the bandwagon here. Lol!

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:49:15 +0000

Do you or any of your readers have thoughts on teaching cursive first? I have been toying with the idea and reading up on it. This is the program I have been looking at: http://www.swrtraining.com/id17.html

My husband HATES cursive and even thinks we should not require it in our homeschool. I’ve always appreciated cursive (and do remember the days when I thought I would never get good at it) and want to teach my kids to enjoy it. I want it be something very natural to them and not the “trial” that it was to my husband during his homeschool years.

Any thoughts?

By: Tammy

Tammy — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:57:13 +0000

Our school uses Handwriting without Tears as well!

By: Jamie

Jamie — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:21:44 +0000

Wow! I thought I was the only one who did handwriting without tears! Guess not . We love it. So easy and laid back…

By: Tammy

Tammy — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:43:05 +0000

I am hosting a blog carnival titled “Encouraging Your Children’s Relationship with Jesus” and I would be honoured if you would write a post about your thoughts and ideas and what your family does. Those who participate before Monday morning are eligible for a giveaway, but if you don’t have time before then, I’d love it if you would still consider addressing this topic and add it to my list. Thank you!

By: Raising Olives

Raising Olives — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:04:30 +0000

Excellent point Aimee. Let me reiterate it, what works for our family and our children, may not work for you and your children. This is one of the reasons that I spent all that time posting about why we homeschool and even some of our basic how principles before I dug in and posted specifics of how we teach each subject.

If you read my post about our general “how” guidelines, you will realize that we tend to be very simplistic, laid back and loose homeschoolers. I have a hard time functioning with all those bells and whistles everywhere. We do expect excellent academics, but we hope to achieve that more simply. For example, by reading MomStarr’s description of “Handwriting without Tears” I know that program would fit well with our homeschooling style, it’s too complex and flashy for me. However, I am storing that in the back of my mind in case we have a child who doesn’t learn well with our Getty-Dubay books. Handwriting without Tears will probably be a good fit for those of you who have found our two curriculum choices (“100 Easy Lessons” and “Getty-Dubay”) boring or tedious. It’s why I love comments, I certainly do not have the corner on good ideas.

Kelli,
We started with Sing, Spell, Read and Write with our first because it was given to us. I didn’t care for it. Mainly for the reasons stated above, it’s too flashy and complex. We’ve found that our little ones do fine with our simple “100 Easy Lessons” and I don’t like making life any more complicated than necessary. That said, it may be a good fit for your family. Here are two reasons (beyond preference) that I didn’t like SSRW. 1.) They have the children learn all of the letter sounds before they start to actually read. (Well, I suppose that this is once again preference .) 2.) They do not have a good system for teaching the children how to blend the sounds. (Both of my brothers who my mother taught with this program got stuck at this part and so did Amber. It was at this point that I simply switched to 100 Easy Lessons and she flew through the rest.)

If you haven’t already, you may be interested in reading my post on teaching reading where I talk a little more about this topic.

By: momtofivekids

momtofivekids — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:28:39 +0000

I’m currently using the 100 easy lessons book with my 4 yo (started at age3) and I don’t have her do the handwriting. I did have one of my sons do the handwriting because he was 5 and I didn’t have him use lined paper. I had a sheet of blank paper and I let him make the letters as large as he wanted. We made giant “daddy” letters then “mommy” letters and “baby” letters. I used Getty-Dubay with my oldest son and he has the best handwriting out of all my boys. I wish I had stuck with it. I switched to handwriting without tears and it’s ok. Maybe I’ll go back to Getty-Dubay with my youngest two. we’ll see

By: Kelly

Kelly — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:21:19 +0000

We love Handwriting without tears.

By: Sheila

Sheila — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:13:18 +0000

I second “Handwriting Without Tears”, though we only use the books. Then, lots of copywork (Scripture). I’m a “better late than early” kind of educator, so I have felt like my children were definitely ready when they started with “formal” handwriting.

By: Mrs Random

Mrs Random — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:28:25 +0000

I made the exact same mistakes with my daughter when we first started out too! My daughter is older now (6th grade) and her handwriting is still, um…. BUT, she can type faster than I can and has gone from hating to write, to loving to write….provided she can write her essays and assignments in a word processing program!

By: Rachel R.

Rachel R. — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:20:16 +0000

You mean I’m not the only one who decided to skip over the handwriting portion of our phonics program because it was complicating the reading process? We use TATRAS phonics, but it, too, expects handwriting as part of the letter-learning process, and I find that it is just too overwhelming for a child to learn two completely separate new concepts simultaneously. I’m all for integrated learning in general but in this case we keep them separate.

(BTW, we also use Italic, but we don’t use the G-D books. I have a copy of Write Now, which the book intended for adults to teach themselves, so I have the instructions for proper letter formation, etc. and I just use that.)

By: Kelli

Kelli — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:35:27 +0000

Just want you to know I’m enjoying these posts. It’s nice to be able to read about some things that have worked for you- I know this will save some time on researching what to do. We’re starting reading in a couple of months just for fun, to see how it goes. I’m thinking about doing sing, spell, read and write, the preschool one….any thoughts?

By: aimee

aimee — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:12:51 +0000

We had the opposite experience with my daughter. She was writing letters and “notes” at age 3, but just was not ready to read. She is 6 1/2 and has just now learned to read. If I’ve learned anything at all homeschooling its that you’ve got to adjust to the individual child…they cannot adjust to you!

By: Anita Chamblee

Anita Chamblee — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:46:35 +0000

I also use the Getty-Dubay. I really like it and have transformed my old loopy style to match. We haven’t used the workbooks in a while as I had Start Write on the computer which allowed me to make models of copy work (scripture, quotes or poetry) for the children to copy. Now that my computer crashed I will have to order this again. I found it very helpful to have a model for the children to copy.

By: MomStarr

MomStarr — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:59:40 +0000

We have been using Handwriting Without Tears for about 5 years now. All my children love this program. It offers different activites to introduce letter formation. Chalk board, play doh, magnetic board, wooden pieces, etc. There is a CD with music too. Fun songs about handwriting. Next they began Veritas Phonics Museum which has handwriting exercises forming letters in a pre-cursive style with the lessons. Then they moved onto books that offered daily practice. I am picky about handwriting!! I have two left handed boys here at home and I have my work cut out for me.