For veteran moms - Cursive

[Patience]

Hi ladies,

I'm so torn between Handwriting Without Tears and Cheerful Cursive. I wanted to do a regular slant cursive with my younger son, but like the fact that HWT has workbooks all the way through fifth grade. I don't want to use several workbooks with different styles. What do you all do to keep the cursive teaching going after Cheerful Cursive? And basically no matter what style you use, do they end up kind of doing their own thing anyway? My daughter's handwriting with HWT was beautiful, almost perfect. But now that she is writing more on her own, it is getting less consistent and she is trying out a slant style, which is ending up not as neat. Does this happen no matter what you use? It's so silly that I'm stressing over cursive.

[water2wine]

Uh cursive. First I must confess that I have flunked this subject many times. Anyway I will not go through everything I have tried however I will say this. I put my dd who has CP and is affected on her rt side so I think she is left handed only by default into Cheerful cursive a while ago. I began to notice that hers is the best cursive in the house so I recently ordered it for my three oldest children and they are going to do the entire program. Really have had a hard time finding a program that works. I guess the problem is I have horrible handwriting myself and so I tend not to teach it well either. Anyway this is open and go and it works. My youngest two will benefit from all my mistakes. They are doing Italics for manuscript and will do Cheerful Cursive for cursive.

[my3sons]

Hi ladies,

I'm so torn between Handwriting Without Tears and Cheerful Cursive. I wanted to do a regular slant cursive with my younger son, but like the fact that HWT has workbooks all the way through fifth grade. I don't want to use several workbooks with different styles. What do you all do to keep the cursive teaching going after Cheerful Cursive? And basically no matter what style you use, do they end up kind of doing their own thing anyway? My daughter's handwriting with HWT was beautiful, almost perfect. But now that she is writing more on her own, it is getting less consistent and she is trying out a slant style, which is ending up not as neat. Does this happen no matter what you use? It's so silly that I'm stressing over cursive.

Well, back in the day when I taught ps they changed cursive programs several times, and Cheerful Cursive was different than those programs as well. So, I've had my fair share of handwriting programs to teach. Cheerful Cursive has been my favorite, most effective way to teach cursive to date. I have done nothing to teach cursive after doing Cheerful Cursive with BHFHG 2 years ago. Now, in CTC, my ds's cursive is still very nice, and he can switch between printing and cursive easily. His cursive is not perfect, but still up to my standards. I do think everyone ends up with their own cursive anyway. I taught 3rd. grade for many years (in our school district 3rd. grade is the year for teaching cursive), and when I moved up to 4th. grade to teach those same dc the next year, their cursive styles were all different after just one summer. So, I do think this happens to some degree no matter what you use, but I will say that Cheerful Cursive seems to be retained well. Oh, and we did A Reason for Handwriting K and A before doing Cheerful Cursive. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Patience]

Thanks ladies. I decided to go with Cheerful Cursive. My son tried a page and was just so, well, cheerful about it!

[Busymomma1]

We just started Cheerful Cursive, and I like it much better than another workbook I had purchased. Good instruction on the strokes. I'm using the other book just for extra practice. So... I think you've made a good choice!

[Patience]

After 3 days of using this program, I wanted to say I am pleasantly surprised at how much my son likes this. He is very interested in the different characters and wants to me mark where each new character start. He really likes it! He is 7 1/2 and he is doing great with the writing. I have him practice in cornmeal before he writes in the workbook.

[my3sons]

That's great to hear! Good for your little guy - my ds enjoyed the characters too!

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

That's great to hear! My second son enjoyed it so much, and we only needed one trip through cursive before he was able to write in cursive for the coming years. This was a much difference scenario than the one we had with my oldest son (who never used Cheerful Cursive), where cursive was a source of heartache!

We pray it will make cursive cheerful at your house too.

Blessings,
carrie

[mamayi]

I am glad to have found this thread as my oldest will enter the world of cursive next year.
He has a hard enough time with printing! I appreciate everyone's evaluation of Cheerful Cursive.
I am looking forward to it now!

[tiffanieh]

We LOVE cheerful cursive!!!!! I am curious if there is any formal program we are to do after we complete it or are we just to practice it with his copywork, etc???

[Patience]

I continue to be VERY pleased with Cheerful Cursive. For next year, I am interested in a new program called American Cursive. I don't know if this will be a good fit for us or anyone else, but I hope it will be! There is not much info available, but I do know that it should be out sometime in March.
http://www.spencerian.com/

[Carrie]

Ladies,

I'm so glad that you're getting a chance to use and enjoy Cheerful Cursive. The beauty of the Cheerful Cursive program is that it is designed to be a one year, all-inclusive introduction and practice of cursive handwriting. So, there is no need to use another program or workbook after it, because the kiddos are ready to write in cursive at that point for their schoolwork instead.

In Preparing Hearts we guide you in this endeavor, by assigning one short copywork assignment to be done each day in cursive. My second son in line used only Cheerful Cursive and progressed right into using cursive in his assignments the next year. We've heard the same to be true from many other moms who've used it too, which is a joy! Cursive shouldn't have to take years of workbooks to instill.

Blessings,
Carrie

[my3sons]

We just did the 1 year of cursive with Cheerful Cursive too, and that was enough for my ds. It is such a fun program - so much better than the way I used to teach cursive back in ps.
In Christ,
Julie