DAILY WONDER
  • Home
    • About Us >
      • The Creators
      • Waldorf Connection
  • ABOUT
    • FAQ
    • Gallery
    • Testimonials
    • Press
    • Newsletters
  • PARENTS
    • Purchase Lesson Plans
    • Supplementary Courses >
      • Purchase Ukulele Course
      • Purchase Pentatonic Flute Course
    • Learning Pod Support
    • Homeschool Coaching
    • Homeschool Planning
    • Samples
    • Supplies
  • TEACHERS
    • Purchase Lesson Plans
    • Purchase Ukulele Course
    • Purchase Pentatonic Flute Course
  • CONTACT
  • Blog

Tips & tools to support your homeschooling program.

Teaching Cursive Writing

9/24/2021

1 Comment

 
Teaching cursive is fun, easy, and has great pay-off. Cursive can be especially supportive to those that struggle with forming print, reversing letters, eye-tracking, or reading. Not convinced it’s worth it? Check out these articles that explain some of the benefits of teaching cursive.

Literacy Benefits: Scholastic.com
Biological and Psychological Benefits: PsychologyToday.com

Daily Wonder recommends teaching cursive as soon as grade two, when your child knows all the letters, knows their sounds, and is beginning to understand the rules for encoding (spelling). We recommend that the archetypal forms are brought in order of difficulty rather than letter by letter. Below is a step-by-step guide to bringing the forms that are the basis for the letters. Remember, any new skill needs daily practice to become a capacity. We recommend that once you have brought all the forms/letters that cursive then becomes your expectation for all written work. It can take a whole year to become a natural at cursive but just think of all the brain pathways you will create and strengthen in your child, what a gift!

Lesson 1: loops

You’ll teach your child all the letters/forms in lower case first, they can print the capital letters until they have mastered all the forms, then you’ll bring the upper case. The looping letters are the first lesson in cursive. Have your child practice creating the loops, big for l, small for e, across several lines of a lined book. You don’t need to tell your child that these are the letters, just have them practice the form of the loops. Remember to show the areas for placing letters on the page as in the example. You can have your child join the tall and short loops all together to practice the size of them on the lines for today. They can try eeeelllllll or elelelelelelele across the page in cursive.
Picture
Lesson 2:  points
 
Make sure you have practiced the looping forms for a couple of days before you move on to this second form.  The second form is the pointing form as in the letters i and t without the dot or cross.  They’ll be practicing the motion and size of coming to a point, unlike the loop.  They can try iiiiiiiiittttttttt or itititititititit across a couple of lines.   Be sure to indicate the height of each line or loop using the imaginative image of the sky, earth, and sea.
Picture
Lesson 3:  bringing letters
 
Take this day to practice cursive that you’ve brought so far.  Show your child how the e loop is an /e/ the l loop is an /l/ the i point only needs a dot to be an /i/ and the t point only needs a cross to be a /t/.  Support them to cursive write all the words they can think of with these letters:  let, lit, tell, till, little, lilt.  Give feedback about the size of the letters in comparison to each other and their form and starting place.    
Lesson 4:  wave
 
Today you’ll bring a new form, the wave.  Guide your child to practice the wave letter form like for ‘c’.  This curving line makes up the base for ‘a’, ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘g’, ‘o’, and ‘q’. Have them try just cccccccc, then switch to cececlclcl and cicicictctctct.  
Picture
Lesson 5:  wave, point, loop
 
Today guide your child to practice the wave and point together that form the a in cursive.  They can do a line of ‘a’ and ‘d’ and then combine other practice letters such as ‘cat’, ‘tall’, etc.  Take your time.  If the ‘a’ isn’t making sense, don’t go ahead to adding other letters.
Picture
Lesson 6:  down and loop
 
Before beginning, make sure that your child has had plenty of practice with previous forms.  The next lesson is to guide your child to practice the down and loop line, as in j.  Remind your child the difference between: sky, where letters reach way up; earth, where letters always begin; and sea, where some letters reach way down.  Show them the ‘j’ without the dot and notice how your child crosses the line to loop, this can be tricky.  Practice as much as is needed, combining other practiced letters as is appropriate.  
Picture
Lesson 7:  point and hump
 
For this lesson, you will guide your child to practice the point and hump as in the h, m, and n.  They can combine skills now to try words such as ‘line’, ‘men’, ‘hen’, etc.  The point of the ‘h’ can transform to a loop if that is the style you choose, either a point or loop is acceptable.
Picture
Lesson 8: wave, point, and down loop
 
Remember to ensure you give lots of time for practice before moving on to the next form.  This lesson will have you guide your child to practice the ‘d’, ‘g’ and the ‘y’.  They can create words once they master these two that are a combination of the ‘a t j’ lines.  
Picture
Lesson 9:  point
 
Time for practice, then guide your child to try the ‘u’, ‘v’ and ‘w’ lines that are point lines.  Again, they can take some time to practice any words they can spell with letters they know
Picture
Lesson 10:  loop and backwards wave
 
Today you will guide your child to practice the ‘b’.  This is a tricky one that is a loop followed by a backwards wave.  Provide some time to practice any words they can spell with letters they know.  
Picture
Lesson 11: point and curve
 
Today you will guide your child to practice the ‘o’ and ‘p’ which include point and curve lines.  As always, once they have practiced and feel confident, they can take some time to practice any words they can spell with letters they know.  
Picture
Lesson 12:  double loop
 
Today’s form is another tricky one, the double loop.  The letter ‘f’ can be formed with a double right side loop or with a reverse at the center.  In our experience the double right is a bit easier for some children.  You choose what is right for your child.  Once they have the hang of it they can take some time to practice any words they can spell with letters they know. 
Picture
Lesson 13: wave, point, loop
 
This one is my favourite!  The full wave followed by a point on the earth, followed by a waving loop!  The letter ‘z’. When they feel confident, take some time to practice any words they can spell with letters they know. 
Picture
Lesson 14: point table, point curve
 
Your next forms make the letters ‘r’ and ‘s’.  Again, they can take some time to practice any words they can spell with letters they know.  
Picture
Lesson 15: final forms
 
There is no easy combo for the remaining letters x, q, and k so we’ll practice them as the final and most challenging letters.  The x requires a lift of the pencil, the k requires a switch in direction, and the q also requires a switch in direction.  Take it slow, follow your child’s lead.  If you need to do one each day to avoid confusion, take that time.  After these final letters, they should be able to form all the lower case letters and will need lots of support to keep practicing.  You can bring the upper case letters as needed when your child is writing.  If you embrace cursive as the way to write, they will too:)
Picture
Picture
1 Comment
Alma link
10/27/2022 01:32:53 pm

An astounding post with incredible tips as usual. Anybody will see as your post helpful. Keep doing awesome.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Blog

    Explore schedules, rhythms & routines, songs, music, festivals, free play, meals, projects & more to support your homeschooling program.

    Author

    The Wonder Squad

    Categories

    All
    About Daily Wonder
    Activities
    Calendar Of The Soul
    Curriculum
    Festivals
    Holidays & Celebrations
    Instructional Videos
    Meditation
    Nurtured Heart
    Parent Education
    Pentatonic Flute
    Rhythm & Routine
    Songs & Poetry

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020

    RSS Feed

You might be wondering...

Purchase
Supplies
Courses
About

FAQ
Contact
​Home

​Terms & Conditions
PURCHASE

Visit us on Teachers Pay Teachers

© COPYRIGHT 2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Serving your worldwide educational needs from Comox Valley, BC, Canada.
  • Home
    • About Us >
      • The Creators
      • Waldorf Connection
  • ABOUT
    • FAQ
    • Gallery
    • Testimonials
    • Press
    • Newsletters
  • PARENTS
    • Purchase Lesson Plans
    • Supplementary Courses >
      • Purchase Ukulele Course
      • Purchase Pentatonic Flute Course
    • Learning Pod Support
    • Homeschool Coaching
    • Homeschool Planning
    • Samples
    • Supplies
  • TEACHERS
    • Purchase Lesson Plans
    • Purchase Ukulele Course
    • Purchase Pentatonic Flute Course
  • CONTACT
  • Blog