Handwriting - please help me!

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I live abroad and (have to) homeschool our DC. DD is now 8, and we've not started proper handwriting yet. When we return to the UK, she will be rejoining in Y6, so will need good skills.

I've looked at some workbooks online (Letts, Collins,etc), but all seem to offer different styles. Indeed Collins seems to offer two different styles in the same series of books. (For ages 5-6 it was much 'joined up printing' kinda style, and for the 7-8 if was all 'curly f and g' kinda style. I hope that made sense.)

I am myself utterly hopeless at handwriting. (I touch type like the wind, though!) Please someone just tell me what workbooks to buy/ what to do/ why the handwriting seems to start off more like print and then morph into proper cursive.

I am defeated. I shall do what you tell me.

Some schools start with printed letters (DS) and then start to encourage linked cursive from about Yr 2 / Yr 3. He is now 10 and his writing is not that neat and often not joined.

My DD has been taught cursive from reception. The writing in that school seems to be much neater for the vast majority of children from Yr 1 upwards. It's also faster!

In Yr 6 your DD will be expected to be using fully joined or cursive so I would definitely go with age 7-8 books.

What is her writing like now? I don't understand what you mean when you say you haven't started handwriting yet?

By no handwriting, I mean she is using printed letters. None too neatly. I think cursive will improve neatness and speed and probably help with spelling. Not to mention it will, as you say, be expected of her in Y6.

Is there a difference between 'joined up writing' and 'cursive'?

I don't think so. At least I've always assumed it's the same.

I think cursive is a particular style of joined handwriting - the one with the curly capital Es and Ds, g' and zs etc.

If your dd is going to be joining Year 6, then I don't think it will matter too much which actual style you use as long as she is fluent and has the basic letter formations and joins accurately. If you know she will be attending a particular school, you could ask them for a copy of their handwriting policy and follow that, but if you are not sure what school she will be attending, just make the decision on what will be best for you and your dd as many schools will adopt different joined styles.

If it helps I use precursive style 6 from here www.cursivewriting.org/joined-precursive-fonts.html to make worksheets for the children I teach as it is the most similar to the style that most of them learn. For about 15 pounds you could get this on your computer and make as many worksheets as you like for your dd to learn!

Joined and cursive are the same and yes she would be expected to be able to use cursive/joined handwriting in Y6 zero. The problem with workbooks is you don't know which style of cursive the school uses far better to ensure that she is forming her individual letters correctly

Great link Sarah, thanks, think I will be using this too

Joined pre-cursive fonts? Unjoined cursive fonts? WTH is a break letter?

Sarah, it is indeed a very comprehensive link. But you have frightened me. Really quite a lot.

I have no idea what school we'll be going back to. Whichever will have us when we pitch up. (There's another thread right there.)

Hmmmm. I'm quite partial to joined cursive font 1.

Mrz, if she rocks up in SchoolThatHasOpeningsAtShortNotice, with her joined cursive font 1, but said school teaches unjoined cursive 6, will that matter? They must be able to cope with that? (Hopeful)

I think in year 6 it won't matter too much if she comes with a different style to that which has been taught in the school as long as she is fluent and can join and form the letters correctly. I wouldn't worry too much about which exact style. You can't second-guess what the school will do! I think most schools will be delighted if she has a neat fluent joined script even if it is not exactly the same as they teach.

As I am tutor, I see children from different schools and Joined pre-cursive 6 is the best match I've found for what most of my local schools are doing (and may well be a decent match for many primary schools - in my experience the state primaries tend to go for the less "curly" versions whereas the independents may go fora more "old fashioned" curly styles), but I'd say go for one that your daughter will find easy to learn and that you like. Joined cursive 1 seems fine to me but do note that it does not have a join after the x onto the next letter. (If you want to have an x that joins with that style of f then you'll have to scroll down to joined cursive 13 I think). Because it is cursive rather than pre-cursive the first letters of each word will have a lead in stroke from the line. If you want to avoid this, you need to go for a joined pre-cursive font (compare the letter a on the cursive and pre-cursive joined fonts to see what I mean).

A break letter occurs with some of the fonts but not all. In some fonts (and styles of handwriting), not all the letters join to others (eg joined pre-cursive 2 does not join q, y or z ( which is why I went for joined pre-cursive 6 because it does).

It really isn't as complicated as it looks from that site, its just that they have catered for every different possible permutation and combination of style and join preferences. I'd just decide what you want your dd to do and stick with it. As long as it is consistent and legible and your dd can write with correct letter formation, reasonable fluency and speed you will have done a great job!

Don't worry about the unjoined cursive fonts on that site. These are for starter writers where you do the letters separately still but include the lead-in and lead-out strokes. Some schools start children doing this from Reception.

It will definitely be joined of some kind but the style depends on the school. If it is our school we have our own unique style (based on the DHs handwriting)

It does matter is lots of schools Sarah. My daughter spent a couple of weeks in our Y6 class (with her schools permission) and learnt our style and was in big trouble when she used it in her own school. We expect all our pupils to use the school style

But would you still expect that of a pupil that had only joined the school in year 6 mrz? I don't think I would if their style was well developed and formed correctly.

I can't see what else the op can do there than deciding for herself what would be the best style and teaching it as she doesn't know what school her daughter will be attending.

yes we would sarah

Thank you both for your advice, I appreciate it. Frankly, as sarah says, we can't second-guess what a school will teach, so will simply have to pick one and run with it. If the school really turns out to be that instransigent about cursive styles, wait until they realise that she's never seen a book band and hasn't learned ANY of their curriculum in preparation for SATS.

If a school has a writing style it is better to stick to correct un-joined letter formation rather than teach a different style. It's quite a simple matter to teach good handwriting if a child knows how to form letters.

Bit shocked a school would be prescriptive on which script to use in Yr6. My dd is learning cursive from reception and it looks very much like No8 on the link. Her handwriting is already very neat at 4. There is a chance we'll move in the next few years and I would not expect her new school to criticise her handwriting style as long as it is fast, neat and legible.

Mrz:
That means the op's dd will spend 2 years aged 8-10 not doing joined script. I think this will mean she is slower at writing than she needs to be for these years which could cause frustration and make it harder for her to write longer pieces of writing. Also when she joins a school in year 6, her peers will have had at least 3, if not more years practising joined script and she will not have had the advantage of achieving this level of fluency. It may not be possible for her to catch up with that level of fluency that quickly, again making it harder when writing longer pieces of work.

I'd be surprised if too many schools were that fussed about a difference in style for a child joining in year 6 especially since many schools I know of seem to do precious little about teaching handwriting properly anyway

I do see your point, Mrz. But I feel her writing, neatness and spelling will all improve with cursive. And I just have to hope that the school she ends up in will be so overwhelmed by the number of things that she does differently, they won't be able to focus on the handwriting.

There is nothing to be gained by insisting that Y6 child change to the school style, so hopefully the school will see sense.

Sarah, I will have a look at the precursive styles, and see which comes most naturally to her. I always found the curling styles easier as they did not require me to go up and the same line, which I found difficult. She may not.

Perhaps we just have very high standards and expectations and every class teaches handwriting but so do most of the schools here.
It would be easier if we used an off the peg style but our children produce such high quality work it is enhanced by beautiful handwriting

Well mrz to be honest I wouldn't rate a school highly if as a parent I got complaints about my child joining Yr6 and doing the 'wrong' loops on g,f,z etc.

Mrz I think in this case your expectation would be that DD has somehow learned your school's one-off cursive style without ever setting foot in the door of your school. That's not a high standard, just a rather daft one.

To be honest SocietyClowns I would be less than impressed with a school that had lower expectations for new pupils than for pupils who had attended from reception.

Of course we wouldn't expect a child who hadn't set foot in the school zeropinterest but they would be taught it along with everything else and most new pupils are more than able to produce beautiful presented work within a couple of weeks of starting with very little effort.
Would you think it was stupid if the school insisted on children learning other literacy skills or would you expect them to teach accurate punctuation, spelling and grammar?