For our new semester, I’ve decided to switch from our New American Cursive handwriting practice to something else, mostly because I was raised on the old style of handwriting and New American Cursive bugged me. It took me 2-3 days to research. Never knew that it’s so complicated.
Though we’ve only started learning the curriculum and I don’t know if it works, I must document what I found out lest I forget all I learned.
Handwriting is not cursive
Before I start, some nomenclature. I had thought that handwriting was synonymous with cursive, but apparently it isn’t how the people who sell curriculum use it. Handwriting is just writing with a pencil, they seem to be saying. Otherwise, why would a curriculum called Handwriting Without Tears teach how to print first? Then there’s manuscript, which is a fancy way to say print. Finally, there’s cursive, which is what I traditionally thought of as handwriting.
Tangent. I was talking to my high school teacher friend about how long it took to choose my curriculum, and she had stories to tell. One of her high school kids writes in all caps. Most of her kids print. Some don’t seem know when you’re completing a sentence, you start your word with a capital letter. I’d heard that many kids grow up nowadays without knowing how to write cursive. It really hits home when you hear it from a teacher you now.
Montessori starts with cursive. One could argue that it’s not useful now adays. But since both kids still are doing mostly hand writing, I personally find it useful that they can write faster with cursive than by printing. It also seems easier for me to teach cursive and then go back to teaching manuscript, because you see print all around you and it’s easy to pick it up.
I have never taught Thumper manuscript personally, so I really don’t know how she learned it. Astroboy has the tendency to write in all caps because it’s what he’s seen all his life in the toys around him, and he fights learning cursive.
In any case, I won’t go on and on about how research shows there’s a connection between writing (physical movement) and learning. Every other day Facebook shows me a new article on the subject. The Montessori curriculum dictates you start with cursive because she observed it was easier on the children to write in loops and with movement instead of straight lines; as in, it mimics more with drawing, which is the precursor to writing.
I don’t necessarily agree after observing Astroboy. I can see why preschool children love writing in all caps when their hands are not ready. It’s mostly a bunch of straight lines, which is, technically the first thing kids learn to draw.
So many different types of cursive scripts
So why is researching cursive complicated? Because of all the various scripts. Zane Bloser apparently was introduced in the early 1900s. Chances are, people of our and our parents generation learned this loopy handwriting script.
See how the capital E loops? Or how the Q looks like a 2?
There’s also a simplified, modern version of Zaner Bloser.
Kids now days learn manuscript in first and second grade, and pick up handwriting in third. So to help make that transition easier, people came up with script, like D’Nelian, where the manuscript version and the cursive version are very similar.
Many Montessori school starts their kids on D’Nelian since the state standards dictate print first. And it’s easy to make that transition.
And now, the complicated part. The problem is you have to research each curriculum to figure out what font they use. They don’t all just use Zane Bloser or D’Nelian, there are other fonts in between like the ones used by New American Cursive.
and Handwriting without Tears, which, like many of the new modern fonts, like to write their cursive non-slanted so that it’s an easy transition from print. Not my idea of pretty cursive writing.
I looked at others like Abeka, which is Zane Bloser-Like, but religious.
Plus others that are software so you can print out your own worksheets easily and save money that way. The curriculum are all very similar and run along the range along the Zane Bloser and D’Nelian/print line.
How to decide which curriculum to use
The thing you look for is how they write letters such as Q, Z/T, and R when you decide. First grade fall, Thumper had actually done two booklets of New American Cursive. I liked the way they taught cursive, having children write each letter only 2 times after each example and circling the ones they think look the best. I felt it made her aware of what makes a good looking letter.
However, I did not like the way they wrote their R’s, K’s, Ps, Zs, etc. Since I grew up on Zaner Bloser, it seems kind of strange to not lead a capital letter with a little curve. I also realized this year that we can’t just spend 3 months on handwriting and call it a day. Their hands are constantly developing and they have a short memory. So handwriting is something we need to continue to practice, though not at the intensity of that first year.
On the other hand, if I think about how I now write my F, R, E, I know I don’t write in the Zaner Bloser style anymore even though I learned it that way. I tend to just write it as a print capital letter.
Now, there is no reason Thumper has to learn cursive the way I learned it. But, knowing that I will not be able to help myself and critique her handwriting when it doesn’t quite look the way I expect, I knew that I needed to find a cursive style I am okay with and have both Thumper and Astroboy learn that style.
Zanner Bloser
Ultimately I picked Zane Bloser simplified, for two main reasons. It’s not a religious curriculum, so it doesn’t have to copying scriptures. Two, I like the font the best when I looked at how they write those B, R, F, Zs. It’s not super loopy like old style Zane Bloser, but also not so simplified and starting to look like print like the other modern fonts.
So far I’m liking it. There are 6 books. I started Thumper on book 4, which is a review of cursive, and Astroboy on book 3, which is an intro to cursive. The book spends some time on the 4 different curves that make up handwriting (down stroke, up stroke, etc). Most importantly, they spend some time telling you to put in some spacing between letters, words and sentences. That is my biggest pet peeve with Thumper, how she leaves no spaces between her words!
I bought the curriculum from Rainbow Resource.
We tear out a page or two at a time to practice once a week. This year, I’m no longer trying to save money and doing strange things like making photocopies of curriculum books. It takes way too much time. I will just buy another book when it’s time for Astroboy to move up to book 4.
Here’s to hoping we continue and Thumper’s handwriting improves and Astroboy actually learns how to write cursive by the end of the year.
Resources
Here are all the handwriting fonts/curriculum I mentioned in this post. You can buy a lot of these on Rainbow Resource or Amazon. (affiliate links)
- Zane Bloser
- Zaner Bloser
- New American Cursive (similar to Zaner Bloser but not exact)
- D’Nelian
- Handwriting without Tears
Here’s the English cursive and print reference sheet I made for the kids. There are 4 sheets total. As usual, please don’t just upload onto groups. Feel free to point people to the website to download.
