Cursive Logic - Schoolhouse Crew Review

Do you print or write in cursive?  Do you remember learning one before the other?  Do you teach your children one style over the other?

When my oldest was little, cursive was still the thing to teach.  As a matter of fact, some people out there were even encouraging teaching it before print.  Then all of a sudden there were more than a handful of different styles of cursive to teach.  Now, it seems it has become a lost art form.  And somewhere in the middle of all that confusion and change, my oldest, at age 21, was unhappy with her cursive writing.

When CursiveLogic showed up as a possibility to review, it was my 21 year old (believe it or not!) who said "I would like to try that!" And the day the CursiveLogic Workbook arrived in the mail she began the quest to improve her handwriting.  After all, her 8 year old brother told everyone his writing was better than hers!

This 94 page, top spiral-bound workbook includes all you need to know to learn cursive in a quick and logical manner. Created by Linda Shrewsbury, a student can learn the 26 lower case letters in 4 lessons.  You can deccide how quickly of slow you wok through each lesson, depending on the age of your student.

By learning four distinct patterns that Linda calls ovals, loops, swings, and mounds, learning cursive can be easy for students of all ages.  It was developed to help a young man learn to sign his name, a skill that everyone should know regardless of how they choose to print in the future.  By making the process as simple as possible and using color codes and verbal chants that tell you what you are doing as you do it, Linda has taken the tedious work out and left only the necessary steps!

Did it work?  We think so!  See what you think-

With such a simple and efficient way to break down cursive writing, we highly recommend CursiveLogic!

CursiveLogic is intended for students from 7 years old to adult.  Free downloadable practice pages can be found on the CursiveLogig website.  You can choose from Psalms, The Declaration of Independance, or The Gettysburg Address.

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Memoria Press Cursive Penmanship- Schoolhouse Review

There has been much controversy about whether or not to teach a child cursive.  Add to that the debate of what age to introduce cursive to a child and you can leave a parent pretty confused.  I have to admit that our family has fallen on all sides of this debate and I was really not sure what to do with our youngest and last homeschooler, age 7.  When we found we had the opportunity to review New American Cursive: Penmanship Program Workbook 1, intended for 1st grade and up, by Memoria Press I was so excited to give it a try!

Memoria Press contends that if you can teach a child cursive writing at an earlier age, as early as first grade, the child is more likely to embrace that style.  Their habits are less set in stone and less "unlearning" has to take place.  By third grade, a student's printing is pretty fixed and it makes the transition to cursive more difficult.

Why teach cursive?  According to Memoria press-

• Cursive improves the continuity and fluidity of thought in written communication.
• Cursive improves neural connections in the brain.
• The hands-on process of learning cursive develops the mind and fine motor skills.

After seeing the examples of several first graders' work, I was sold on the idea!

New American Cursive is a slightly different style than I grew up with learning but fairly easy to pick up.  With the help of Mr. Meercat, your child is taught one letter of the alphabet at a time.  When the letter is first introduced, the child is encouraged to say the letter, feel the letter, and then write the letter.  Little arrows are used to show where to start and how to correctly form each letter.  The next page has your child practice the upper case and lower case letter with an occasional word thrown in. At the end of the page, Mr. Meercat tells your child to circle their best letter.  The following page is a "Fun Exercises and Artwork" page.  This page has words to trace and copy using the letter you just learned as the beginning letter.  There is also a large blank space at the bottom of the page for your child to draw.  Each daily practice session should take no more than 15-20 minutes, oftentimes being shorter.  After three letters are taught, there is a page for just review.

As a parent, you can help your child in this process.  Memoria Press teaches you to remind your child of the three S's (size, slant and spacing) and shows you correct pencil hold and paper slant, even for the left handers out there.  Memoria Press also offers a StartWrite/NAC software that enables you to create your own review pages.  We have not used that product at this time.

How did we use this product?
Simply put - daily!   I believe that there is no better way to learn than by practicing, so that's what we did.  Each day I introduced a new letter, with Mr. Meercat's help of course, and then, under my watchful eye, Colby did the three associated pages.  On review day he did just one page.  At the end of each week, I wrote his name for him and had him copy it so I could visibly see the change in his ability!

The first name on the second and third picture are mine!

What do we think?
I have to admit, I really like this program!  While I am having to relearn a few letters that I write differently, I am pleased with the letter style taught and how it is done.  I think Memoria Press has found a good balance between enough practice to make a difference and not boring a child to death. The first few pages of the book are for a parent to read and include instruction on the ins and outs of the program, making it simple to open up and start without a ton of instruction.

Mr. Meercat entertained Colby.  Really, he did.  The cute illustrations capture a younger child's attention and make things a little more fun without being too silly.  The blank artwork space is a good addition for children who like to be more creative.

While I really wanted to teach our youngest cursive I have been hesitant, thinking it would be a painful process.  In reality, this 15-20 minutes of each day has been a fun and relaxing time for us to have together and I am thrilled to see progress being made.   From my experience, I would highly recommend you start this as early as possible, as old habits do die hard and can occasionally cause frustration with an older student.

Speaking of older students, Memoria Press does offer a program called Teach Yourself Cursive: For Adults and Older Students.  The workbook is designed to correct bad habits and instruct an older student in the elements of legible handwriting.  Guess what is now on my wish list?

You can purchase New American Cursive: Penmanship Program Workbook 1 by Memoria Press for $22.95.  Three levels are available as well as lesson plans and Cursive Visual Aids.

You can find Memoria Press at the following places-

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The Rhythm of Handwriting- TOS Crew Review

Handwriting used to be an easy subject for me to teach. That was before my left handed BOY!  Maybe it is just me, but all of a sudden handwriting just got more complicated.  Reviewing The Rhythm of Handwriting Manuscript, Complete Set  from Logic of English made it simple again.  Thank goodness.

The complete set comes with:

• A Quick Reference Chart
• Student White board
• Student workbook
• Tactile Card Set

The Rhythm of Handwriting, for ages 4 to adult, is a pretty straight forward program to use.  This 236 page workbook is laid out into 2 main parts, lowercase letters and uppercase letters, as well as a quick review of writing numbers at the end.  Each of those sections is broken down into a few smaller pieces, grouping certain letters together based on the particular strokes that are used to form the letters.

First the strokes are introduced and practiced, and then the letters are introduced and practiced one at a time. After a few letters are reviewed, the child writes words that use those letters.  Then the process is repeated with a new set of letters.  Eventually the practice writing expands to sets of words and sentences.  The whole thing is repeated when the upper case letters are introduced.

There are several highlights to this program.  The first is that it comes with a whiteboard that has white space for writing as well as a lined area.  On one side of the board the lined area is large and can be a good place to begin with new writers as well as those with fine motor limitations.  The reverse side of the board has slighter smaller line spaces.

The practice pages in  the workbook are similar, as they offer four different sized lines for your child to choose from to write on.  The pages are also perforated so they can be easily torn out and laid flat for ease of writing.

You can choose to buy the manuscript, like we did, or the cursive writing program.  Both come with a handy reference guide for the teacher's use.

Another neat part of this program is the set of tactile letter cards that are included.  Each letter is raised and  feels like sandpaper.  The perfect tool, especially for tactile learners!

How did we use this program?
Daily!  I originally taught my 6 year old son to write his letters a few years ago.  It was on a wing and a prayer.  One, because he is left-handed and two, because he is determined to do things his way.  It resulted in a pretty messy print and not correctly formed letters.  By using The Rhythm of Handwriting daily, I was able to fix many of the problems and mistakes I had allowed to slide under the radar.  Because he was already writing, we completed anywhere from 2-4 pages a day.  If you were just starting out with the process, I would recommend 1-2 per day.

What did we think?
I like this program.  Because I personally feel handwriting in an "extra" but needed subject that I do not want to spend a lot of time on.  This worked well for us.  It allowed us to see how each letter should be formed, correct mistakes my son had been making, and neatened things up a little.  There is no preparation required, just open the book and go.  Easy, quick, and a success!  We are just now reviewing the capital letters and already I have seen a huge improvement in my son's writing from when we first began.  He is more aware of his neatness and will quickly correct himself in his letter formation if he gets sloppy.

You can purchase The Rhythm of Handwriting, Complete Kit from Logic of English for $65.00.

Other Crew members reviewed additional products from Logic of English that have gotten rave reviews, including their Foundations and Essentials of English programs.  If you are in the market for a well-rounded English program, I would encourage you to read some of the reviews being posted.  We were blessed with the Logic of English program in the past and highly recommend it!

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