I think I understand what you are saying. My dd admits she has a bit of trouble with b and d at times. I've tried to tell he that the little b can become a big B. When I hear that "cursive prevents letter reversals" it seems to me that you could still read and write with the b's and d's mixed up.
I think because of the motion of cursive...generally speaking all the lowercase letters start at the same point, the point where you leave the previous letter and start the new one. So there's not an issues of reversing or starting letters in the wrong place. I personally hate cursive, but I can really see the benefit of it when teaching handwriting. Forming letters is sooooo confusing. I like HWOT but I certainly see the advantages of doing cursive first. I especially like the business about the muscle memory. That makes total sense to me as I also write printsive as I like to call it I'm going to check out cursive first and see what thats all about.
I've just tried to find www.donpotter.net which was his blogsite with TONS of great information, old books, essays........ and it's NOT THERE! And all links seem to be broken! I wanted to point you to what he had to say about cursive-first.
Mostly just that it was the way to go... that for "forever" kids had been taught cursive first and didn't seem to have any particular problems between reading and writing... I've tried to email and see what he says about the blog being down.
IT'S BACK UP!!! http://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/ There are ABSOLUTE TONS of FREE RESOURCES here for reading, spelling, English, handwriting, and MATH!
Here's a quote: Here is a comment (lament) from American Magazine on the decline in cursive handwriting. I taught Spanish in junior high for two years. Although I have very good chalkboard cursive, probably half my students were unable to read cursive. This is for a school district and in a state (Texas) that supposedly requires all students to learn cursive. Evidently many elementary teachers have jumped the gun and taken it upon themselves to eliminate cursive, which act I consider a serious attack on academic achievement and the important continuity of our rich cultural heritage. Yet, this same district uses cursive to help the student that didn't get cursive to overcome dyslexia. If it is good for dyslexics, why isn't it good for everyone? This is toward the bottom of a very looooong page filled with links about handwriting, and books and videos about teaching cursive.
Thanks for the great resource. I will def look into it more when I have more time. I did order cursive first. Here's hoping he likes it. Since most of my Abeka stuff is hand me down I get all confused because I think I'm missing materials. I like the Abeka approach but we'll see. From what I could see in samples of cursive first I liked the idea of reach the major strokes and going from there. It seems very HWOT-ish in that way. We'll see (hopefully soon).
Try this: Have her hold both her hands in front of her, with the index fingers pointing up. Now make a circle out of the other fingers. The left hand has a "B", the right a "D". She knows the "B" comes first; now anytime she gets confused she can make the letters and see which way they go. (This helped my Phillip!)
I did something similar with DS and now with DGS. I had them put their fists together, palms up, with thumbs extended. With my finger I traced down the thumb and around the folded fingers for b, and around the folded fingers then down the thumb for the d, while making the sounds and saying the letters (or the chants that follow). I call these the "clues" -- so I'm often heard to say "use the clues" when DGS is writing or reading and mistakes one for the other. Writing the stick first and then the ball, recite "First the bat, and then the ball, B" Making the ball first and then the stick, recite "First the doorknob and then the door, D". Or say it while you trace on their fists (as above). Print the word "bed" and spell it. Then draw a stick figure lying in the bed with his head on the b. Emphasize how the b comes before the d, just like in the alphabet, and the /b/ and /d/ sounds. Show how b comes before d in the alphabet. First b - then c - then d by turning the c into a d by adding the stick.
I have been inspired to start DGS on cursive NOW (since the big kids are doing it anyway) instead of waiting until CLE gets to it at midyear. At the rate we're going we're going to be way behind by that time, since we're still finishing LA 100. We're going to use I Can Write Cursive, which is where I've started the big kids before getting them into Pentime 7. He's only a few pages behind them at this point. They'll move into Pentime after doing all the basic strokes and letter shapes, but he'll continue with I Can Write.
