Methods and age to start writing cursive

[praveshpushp]

Hi,
My son is almost 4 and he started school in April and our mother tongue is not English. He started writing letters at home and school. I'm very keen that he can write cursive letters. We are practicing him to writing both print small and capital letters. We are using black-board & chalk, note-pad with pencil.
Now, my question is at what age we can start him? We have to use both methods and he should start small or capital first?

He is almost 4 ! He should be learning through play, problem solving in activities and making friends . Why is it important to you that he develop joined up writing ( as it referred to often in the UK!!)
If he holds the pencil properly and can form letters legibily that’s good enough age.
There u so much more he should be doing with his time than developing a handwriting style!

They can't really join until they can blend and spell simple words fluently.

I think it's a good idea to teach a child "pre-cursive" from the start (basically, separate letters but each one written as a single penstroke with beginning and ending flicks. Although obviously "i" and "t" etc. cannot be written with a single penstroke). This means they have time to write each letter individually as they learn to spell, but also means that the move into full cursive is an easy one.

The Jolly Phonics Activity Book series is a good research and the British version uses pre-cursive script.

It is strongly recommended with young children that you stick to lower case ONLY in the very early stages. I personally believe that the upper case letters should only be introduced AFTER a child is already sounding out and spelling basic words. Otherwise you risk creating one of those kids who constantly sticks random caps into the middle of words etc. Primary school teachers beg parents not to get their children into these kinds of habits.

Don't stress too much--your child is really young. If he is holding a pencil correctly at this stage, that is already pretty advanced!

Did the school give you a sheet to practice letter formation? At some point in nursery class we were give a laminated sheet with all the small letters on that our dd could trace with a whiteboard pen. You could make your own sheet with a laminator or buy some similar material. Our dd started with print letters and the jolly phonics material but many schools now introduce leading strokes from the beginning which would be my preferred choice, but I would go with what the school teaches and support them as not to confuse dc.

Cursive writing is usually started in year 1 or 2, so around age 6, depending on the child. There is no need for your child to even be attempting this yet.

There is a lot of research to show that teaching writing too early is actually detrimental. Concentrate on his fine motor skills through play.

He’s only young! Plenty of time for learning letter formation. Absolutely don’t push it!! If he actually enjoys writing - great - concentrate on having interesting materials to write with & “write” for a purpose - birthday cards, shopping lists etc. Don’t take all the fun out it and turn him off!

As ThreeAnkleBiters says, concentrate on play & fine motor skills.

(I’m a nursery class teacher in a school, my children write during play all the time but I’m absolutely not sending home laminated sheets or making them practice. They all learn to form letters no problem when the time comes ☺️)