During the first week of the Write course, the child will learn how to write the lowercase letters in cursive. Yes, cursive.
We have heard people say they do not like to teach cursive because it is harder or even that “everyone’s cursive looks different.” However, everyone’s handwriting looks different regardless of whether it is cursive or print (manuscript).
Here are the reasons we teach cursive first:
1. Cursive is designed for the human hand. Print (manuscript) is designed for the printing press.
2. Cursive connects the letters within words, thereby helping the child to space their letters correctly and to understand when to have a larger space between words.
3. All lowercase letters in cursive begin at the same place, the baseline (bottom line). Print lowercase letters start in several different locations.
4. Cursive helps to reduce wrong facing letters such as b and d.
Another aspect to remember when teaching handwriting, whether it is print or cursive, is that the letters are not just one whole symbol. They are, in fact, a series of strokes that form into a complete symbol.
Some children do better learning the whole symbol, but many do better when learning the individual strokes. Many letters share strokes, so they are grouped together. That is why the letters are not taught alphabetically.
As the course progresses, the uppercase letters will also be taught, but since 95% of letters that they will see in their reading will be lowercase, lowercase is naturally taught first.
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