reassure me about cursive handwriting please

[Loobylou3]

hi
just found out my dds school is going to introduce cursive handwriting in every class as of September. my dd will be going into y1 and is a reluctant writer. we have worked hard this year while she has been in reception to help her with her handwriting. I have absolutely nothing against cursive and understand the benefits if it is taught from day 1, however, I am feeling a bit worried about the impact of having to relearn to write will have on the content and quality of her writing.
anyone have experience of this?
thanks

Stop worrying D's is going into yr 4 and still looks like spider across a page they will develop their own style of writing not uniform. As the cursive is .

DD1 started cursive in Y1 as well, now she is in Y2. It is not really relearning how to write - letters are formed the same way. It's more learning another step of connecting them.
To me it looked like her handwriting became somewhat illegible for a while - at times it was too small - but she must have been trying out different styles.
And it's not like they start from day 1 demanding everyone connects letters. They had HW lessons and, say practiced connecting O and A one day, other letters another. Some if them started trying to do it in heir writing right away, for others it took longer.
By the end of of Y2 most of them have OK, almost adult looking handwriting.
We are in a girl only school, thought, so don't know how boys get on with it.

I think it depends a bit what he learned so far. DD started with a pre-cursive version in reception so she just had to learn to link them together.

A neighbour sends her DC to a school who re-started with cursive in Year 2 after teaching printed the first two years. Lots of tears in autumn term as they had to finish 26 letters in 6 weeks and lots of additional practise at home.

DD1 was a very reluctant writer at the beginning of yr1, then they started cursive and she is flying. For some reason it has really helped her writing and she is willing to try so much harder when it is cursive.

Dds new school and her nursery do cursive, it stops kids having to relearn writing and is better for children to learn their own style apparently.

I childmind 2 older kids from the school and their writing is lovely, the 9 year old has better handwriting than me!!

Our school introduced cursive across all year groups last September... within a year all our Y6 pupils, previously writing in a variety of styles and many not joined, have well-formed letters of uniform size, beautifully presented.. has brought on our poorer writers in leaps and bounds as they now have great pride in their work. Spelling has improved too, particularly multi-grapheme phonemes. Teachers' handwriting has also improved!

My DD has recently started a new school where they are only allowed to write in cursive. In her previous school this was not an issue. As a result the quality and quantity of her work has diminished and she has also lost confidance. However the confidence may be as a result of her being the only child struggling with this particular issue as they would have learnt since the very begining to write joint up.

Louby:

DD2 started at a new school in January which had 'cursive writing' as standard practice session in the week. Ye olde 3 lines (middle line hatched) to help gauge heights and practice letter formation.

Personally - I think having a cursive policy and a plan on how to teach children to learn to write this way is very enlightened.

DD1 and formally DD2 were simply told to 'write joined up' without any explanation on how to form letters and a dog's breakfast ensued.

Learning to write neatly is also a skill - and taking the time to show how letters are formed and what distinguishes a q from a g - is worthwhile.

With DD1 (and DD2) we resorted to using the Collins writing guides:

print: Collins writing ages 3-5 www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Age-3-5-Collins-Learning/dp/0007517149/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1404998812&sr=8-3&keywords=collins+writing - there are other workbooks as well.

We also found jolly phonics workbooks helped with print letter formation as well for DD2 - and this was how she learned to write at first - whilst also learning letter sounds.

cursive: Collins Handwriting practice ages 5-7 www.amazon.co.uk/Handwriting-Practice-Collins-Easy-Learning/dp/0007301030/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1404998812&sr=8-2&keywords=collins+writing

there are also two workbooks.

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Finally you can sneak some cursive practice in.

I found this on Worksheet Works (BETA - which means in design)

www.worksheetworks.com/english/writing/handwriting.html

this isn't exactly what I used at the time - but the link to that site seems to have stopped working.

You can decide the style & type of practice lines you want to have and it will show the words you enter once. I tended to type in spelling lists and let DDs practice writing their spelling words out.

(The maths worksheets on here are fine - but beware - English worksheets are American English).

HTH

Fine as long as they're accepting of those who are unable to do cursive.

I'm biased as although teachers fought to teach me I have never been able to do joined up writing, I can only print.

However, examiners love my writing, I get endless compliments on it and am often asked to use my handwriting for publications... it is not an essential to life, and in my opinion is far better to have lovely print than to write like a drunken spider.

I am hoping that my daughter takes effortlessly to cursive as the battles are no fun if teachers decide to be inflexible.

pyrrah

DD2 had lovely print (beautiful) - and still does - but also wrote like a drunken spider.

a teacher telling her her 'joined up letters' were too small.

Then telling her her 'joined up letters' were too large.

But never showing her how to join letters up - direction of travel, what they should look like, the style she should follow - had a lot to do with it I suspect.

My father also only prints - so I take your point that for some learning cursive is too complex, it does require fine, precise, movement - but I suspect that if you have good artistic skills/ finger control there is no reasons you can't do cursive save that you choose not to/ don't like it/ don't respect the need for it.

I fear cursive now is reduced to only being necessary for a signature - the world has changed and computers reign supreme.

But I hope there will still remain room for a nice, legible handwritten note (print/ cursive both acceptable to me).

DS Y6 still largely prints - cursive when he has to.

Passed his Sats very well.

Do not worry! Gentle encouragement.

Ds learned cursive at the beginning of Y1. Initially it seemed that his writing had taken a step back but his teacher informed me it was to be expected. Now in Y2 his writing is lovely and I can only see the benefits of starting it so early.