What home school handwriting curriculum do you use?

Question

I am going to be home schooling my children. I am struggling with what handwriting curriculum to use for my K4 & K5 kids. I know that what I decide to start using I need to stick with for all of elementary. What do you use? if you have time can you explain what you like & dislike about it. Thanks!

Answer 1

D'Nealian I believe is what my children were all taught in school as to my 1st grader now!

Here is a site to compare D'Nealian with other handwriting...It is easier and less strokes!

http://www.dnealian.com/compare.html

Good Luck To You!

:o)

Answer 2

serious question though? Does any of your children have any learning disablities? Like dyslexia? I homeschool our osn, becuase the schools here dont beleive dyslexia dosnt exists!! So we homeschool him. My son is goign in 6th grade, & the only thing I plan on teaching him for cursive is his name, my husband too is severly dyslexic, & has told me the ONLy time he uses cursive is for signing hsi name.

NOT everyone writes in cursive. I do however, but, its NOT something I feel is really a nessicity as people think it is!

Not only that, but when you have a LD like that, its so much HARDER to read what your grading, so its much easier for everyone to just print.  

Answer 3

Homeschooling is a great choice.  I would go to ask.com  and see what they have.  You could pick up a reference at Walmart or a teacher store or online that has modern writing.  That would be your best bet.  And check to see what all is online.

Answer 4

I've never heard of K4 and K5. Here are a couple of websites that have handwriting worksheets. Also check with

the school they would be going to and ask to talk with

a curiculum(sp?) specialist. The school might have some

textbooks you could borrow or worksheets you can use.

www.primarygames.com (the print zone)

www.abcteach.com

Answer 5

We used some practice books from Evan-Moore.  Their products are written for classroom teachers, but we found the handwriting books helpful.  

All the best.

Answer 6

What's the point in homeschooling. You are depriving you children of a key contributor to society, as well as sabotaging their social skills

Answer 7

Defiantly Cursive, print is way to average  

Answer 8

wat i would do is take a ruler and make three lines. one strainght one dotted and  then another one straight. all in a row so they can line their letters up. just show them how to draw them. thats all really. i mean any book would work as long as they understand it right? it doesn't matter wat we or u think but wat THEY think. POWER TO THE LITTLE PEOPLE!!! :)

Answer 9

We generally like Zaner-Bloser, either traditional or simplified.  [This year we're going to try Palmer cursive for practice, but we don't yet know how it's going to work....]  K4's don't really need to HAVE to start writing formally on lined paper, unless they just want to.  K5's can start with pretty much anything, just not too much writing unless their little hands are really ready.  You don't really have to stick with one for all of elementary just because you started with it in kindergarten -- kids are adaptible, and if you start in print, they'll begin cursive in like second grade anyway.  For that age, 4 and 5, I like learning letter shapes on a whiteboard with a dryerase marker, or one of those slick-paged books that you can use wipeoff crayons or dryerase marker on.  Fingerpaints -- or chocolate pudding on a clean smooth countertop -- are great for practicing with chubby little fingers....

Some people love GettyDubay Italic -- better than d'Nealian, and the cursive is just the print joined up.  It's supposed to be a very legible, speedy (for taking notes later on), and easy to do style.  Personally, I haven't tried it, but I've always wanted to.  My preferred language arts curriculum has the Z-B handwriting included in the workbooks, so we won't be doing two different ones at the same time.

Answer 10

For my kindergärtner we used Handwriting Without Tears. For our older one we are using A Reason For Handwriting.

Answer 11

We have A Beka workbooks for handwriting. I love that they start cursive right off the bat* and the books are quite good.

*Why cursive right from the start? It used to be that people only did cursive, no printing. Then somebody had the "bright" idea that if we want kids to read better, we need them to start writing print first, since all books are in print. That meant, though, having them struggle with something that's actually physically harder on their hands and visual skills, to spend a few years on that, then switch to cursive--if you're going to learn both, it actually makes more sense to learn cursive first, then print. I could say lots more about this, but I really highly recommend cursive first!

Answer 12

My son has really gotten a lot out of Handwriting Without Tears; he has finished the cursive sections of those and is now moving on to BJU Handwriting.

HWT starts out in the early ages (like K4/K5) with manipulatives and other goodies to help the kids get the hang of writing.  It then eases them into a modified cursive that's a lot easier to work with.