I'm really confused. I'm teaching my Kindergartener manuscript, but I recently came across the argument that cursive is easier to learn (less demand on fine motor skills). Now, I just thought all kids learn manuscript first. In my own experience, I didn't learn cursive until the 3rd grade. But, I rarely even write in cursive now. My husband does. Is it useful to learn cursive first? Thoughts?
Until the Dick and Jane series, all children were taught cursive first. At the time the Dick and Jane series came out, it was thought that it would confuse children to learn cursive since their readers were in print (sight reading). So everyone moved to print and cursive in around 2nd or 3rd grade. Personally, I wish I would have taught cursive first as it helps with motor skills more. It is fluid and easier to learn. Penmanship is more legible. At the least, we move to cursive end of 1st grade beginning of 2nd. I think there are many benefits from learning cursive first such as no letter reversals. To me it is easier for a child to learn to write within the lines as well with cursive than with print.
I am using Abeka workbooks, just for my girls to learn cursive. We don't use Abeka for anything else.
I agree. Cursive is best taught first. We started that way only to realize my son's fine motor skills were more delayed than his gross motor skills (he has multiple neuro-motor delays), so he was switched to print at his therapy office. They use Handwriting w/o Tears. My younger son knows print better than cursive simply because "everything" out there for 4-5 year olds is done in print. We do work on cursive, though. I prefer it. As for curriculum, I like Abeka and Pentime for traditional cursive. There are a lot of newer fonts out there, but I prefer the classic, loopy style.
I don't much care about print first or cursive first, BUT I started my DGS with cursive in 2nd grade and his cursive is neater and more legible than his print. He's in 3rd now and practicing cursive in his LA although he still prints most of his work. I think that whenever it is learned, it is important to learn cursive. I'm teaching my SN 4th grader cursive now, which is quite a task considering that six weeks ago he was reversing many letters, writing letters and numerals from bottom to top, couldn't write on the line, and mixed capitals and lowercase in the same word. He's still learning individual letters, but is certainly coming along, and his print is improving too. Old habits are hard to break, however.
I started my daughter on both in Kindergarten, with little confussion. She is now in 10th grade and prefers cursive. It is also more legible than her print. We used A Beka.
I never taught my daughter to write in cursive. I figured it was pointless in the computer age. Instead, I taught her to keyboard very young. She prints, and has a good enough understanding of cursive to read it and sign her signature, but she really won't use it in life, so I didn't spend a lot of time on it.
We also use Abeka here. I like their style of cursive and it happens to be what I used in private school as a kid.
I prefer "traditional" cursive, too. With the curliques. Abeka, Pentime, Instruction Fair Traditional, and CLE all are similar to the old Zaner-Bloser cursive I was taught back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Certain letters have differences, but most are pretty similar.
