I AM right, I know I am, please will you all come and confirm it?

[LiegeAndLief]

Ds is learning to write and is forming his number 5 like an S. I have tried to teach him to do the downstroke first, then the roundy bit, then take his pencil off the paper and go back to do the top flat bit (all very technical, hope that makes sense). This is the right way, yes?

Dh says this is madness, and he should just start with the top flat bit and continue to the downstroke and the roundy bit all in one go, so writing it just like an S but making it look like a 5 by being a bit more angular about it. Surely this is wrong? I have vague memories of being severely chastised for forming a 5 like that as a child and being told it was lazy and would look like an S. Dh convinced he is right. Neither of us will back down. We are probably scarring ds for life. I put it to you (to tell me I am right).

And yes, the long winter evenings do fly by in our house

EllenJane, I do that too - think it's the maths A-level again. If using the letter x in a formula I used to write it like a back-to-front c and a c next to each other to avoid confusion with a multiplication x.

Am also wondering how you write a 2 not curly - surely that is a z?

It's not ponchy, Ellen, it's correct - I cross my zs too

You're right, definitely. Both DH and I write it that way.

(I did A-Level maths too btw)

OK I now getting divorce

DH does the one stoke

Freak

Am I the only person in the world who does the hat first and then the downstroke and the curly bit? (so I take the pen off the paper between the two because I do the hat left to right).

I cross Zs and 7s too though ...

I was taught your way liege, but write 5's your dh's way.

Oh, and I write curly nines. Am definitely not French.

You probably are ChristinndeP

Ya big wierdo

We shall now gang up on you and cast you off to a deserted desert island

Am imagining trail of broken marriages as hundreds of MNers discover their dh writes a 5 the wrong way...

Counting, Maryz. Now there's a thought. Maybe I need some kind of spreadsheet.

I hate to say this, and almost didn't, but in the interests of fairness - my DH does it same way as your DH. I've told him he's wrong though

Liegeandlief - I was just going to post that you were right about the way to write a 5 and about the best music, but you beat me to it with your post to Showy!

I think a curly 2 has a loop at its foot? Is that what they mean?

I do curly Xs as well, but I was always taught that crossed 7s were French and to be avoided (by my French hating maths teacher )

x post Leige.

I just said to my DH, all over the country men and women are writing 5s in the air and arguing about it . . .

I'm with the OP on this, in principal, but as I'm actually a lazy arse I do the all in one method and just suffer my 5s looking like Ss.

In my line of work, other people have to look at my handwriting a lot, and I often fret over whether I'll cause an error with my sloppiness.

Curly 2 has a loop at the foot?

Oh crud. Need an edit button

IMPORTANT NOTICE

THE CORRECT WAY IS A NON-CURLY 2

END OF IMPORTANT NOTICE

fairenuff no numbers don't join of course but I mean the principle of not removing the pen from paper unless you have to so doing any letter or numeral in 1 stroke is better than 2

also I am right, there is no right or worng way to do a 5

A 2 should look like this:

2

I have never seen a curly 2. Think I would like to though.

On the subject of 5s - back in the day, when people only had ink pens to write with, the nib would break/bend/splatter if you tried writing from right to left, or bottom to top at all.

So a 5 had to be done in 2 parts, as a straight r to l would damage the nib, so the top had to be r to l.

Ahh, 'but what about letters such as 's' with their multi-directional demands?' I hear you cry.

Well, curves were easier, as nibs could be slightly tilted to enable a curvy approach from r to l - which is why we see so many decorative 's's with thicker down-strokes & thin cros-strokes.

It's also why all letters begin at the top left, and are then formed.

kickassangel, that is really very interesting. And a good answer to ds's question of why you have to write a b beginning with the downstroke, but a d beginning with the round bit. (Someone is going to tell me that is all bollocks now aren't they?)

Ones are straight down.

lolol at Leave the Bastard

I do it a different way - I do the flat bit at the top left to right, then I go back to the left bit and go down into the straight and curvy bit. Maybe that could be your compromise?