I need advice on which cursive handwriting curriculum to use for a 12 yo boy who has learning issues. What has worked well/not worked well for you?
We used Pentime this year for cursive. It is through Christian Light. Technically it was for 3rd grade and DS is in 4th, but we didn't do much cursive last year. I have heard the A Reason for Handwriting is good, as well.
I love Pentime! There's a page of practicing letters and words, and a page of copywork that might be a paragraph or a poem, with black and white illustrations you can color if you like, and a coloring guide. Paragraphs are usually descriptive of some creature or natural feature of the world. There's also a page with slanted lines that is attached to the back cover, that you can place under the copywork to help you get the right slant. Every now and then there's a page with a border that you can remove from the book to share or display. It's the "traditional cursive" with curlicues, though -- don't know if that will be an issue for you or not. Christian Light sells them, and so does Rainbow Resource. If your boy doesn't write well, you can start with second or third grade, or any grade.
The two I like most are "A Reason for Handwriting" and also the Horizon's Penmenship. What I like about AR4H is that it is short and sweet. Each day is a half of a page, 4 days of practice and the 5th day is writing it all out on pretty paper. My 1st Grader and 5th Grader use this. My 5th grader HATES handwriting, so this is the only way I can get him to practice his penmenship!!! I like Horizon's for older students because, although it is cursive, one day a week is manuscript practice as well. For my oldest (when she did formal handwriting work), this worked best because when she first started doing cursive, her manuscript got really sloppy! This kept her practicing at both. Now she has very neat handwriting. She prefers manuscript, though. I only make her do cursive in one subject....the rest, I let her decide. I know that both systems are geared towards elementary grades (K-5), but you could call them "levels" instead of grades, and have him start where he's most comfortable. Hope this helps!
I am using pentime as well. I didn't know Christian Light sells it. I got it from Rainbow Resource. We haven't started cursive just yet, but I like the layout of the book.
I used printables and Scholastics, my boys write poorly my dd well, youngest boy has chosen to improve himself so we practiced a bit last year in 8th grade too, and now he is into writing tiny letters lol, so I am working on it again. They all did great in early years but got lazy as teens it seems. I am going to check out Horizon iInever knew they had cursive.
We used Handwriting Without Tears. It has a very simple style which is easy to learn. You can find it at their website www.hwtears.com.
