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Cursive Writing


ClaudiaCosette

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ClaudiaCosette

My DS (8) is struggling with learning cursive at the moment. He can write just fine in printing, but he's been refusing to do his homework lately because he really doesn't like cursive. He did it a few times in printing, and the book came back with a note from his teacher to do it in cursive, but he refuses. He's good at writing, spelling etc but he's reluctant (at school as well as at home) and I feel this is just making a difficult situation even worse.


I remember feeling the same when I was at school - I hated learning cursive! And of course I don't use it now (nor does any other adult I know, except my MIL).


So I kind of agree with DS, but I do still want him to do his homework, and his writing at school.


Do your kids still learn cursive? Any suggestions?

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  • Julie3Girls

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My kid's primary school doesn't care. They just want it to be legible. Honestly they barely seem to spend any time focusing on handwriting. Actually I think they might have touched on cursive in grade 4, but I certainly haven't heard anymore about it and my kids are in grade 5 & 7... (We are in WA though and handwriting seems state dependent).

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My kids never did cursive (SA). In yr 3 or 4, they briefly got shown how to link some letters together to make writing quicker, but never forced in to it.

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Hills Mum Bec

My kids never did cursive (SA). In yr 3 or 4, they briefly got shown how to link some letters together to make writing quicker, but never forced in to it.

This. My DD is in year 4 now and is learning link script but it's not compulsory to do all her work in link script. I have too older kids and they did the same.

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Kiwi Bicycle

I have grumbled before about kids learning Victorian cursive from Prep. I learnt real cursive writing when I was 12 in NZ, with all the fancy f, z etc. Until then we just either did printing or linked together sloped writing. I know the strange looking p and z make it quite confusing for a kid just starting out.

My suggestion is talk to the teacher and explain it's really causing issues and see if you can get a compromise. Maybe for long pieces of writing he can print or type out his work, but for short pieces like a half a page, he has to use cursive.

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Julie3Girls

My kids only did the linked up stuff that seems to be the thing now. Yes, they had handwriting in class for a while, but it never enforced for homework, or any substantial writing at school.


They actually find my cursive fascinating - they say my writing is so pretty.

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We were made to use slope cards under pages if ones slope wasn't correct. Now you could use a ruler and draw along the slope of my writing!


We had to use dip nibs in year 5 and i've written near to copperplate with a fountain pen ever since. We weren't taught that - it just looked nicer.

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Like [mention]Lesley225[/mention] I learned with a slope card and then moved on to a nib pen with ink and then to ball point pens in year 6.


I would be lost without cursive. Once proficient at it, it is soooo much faster than printing which is a real advantage at HSC time. One of DD's teachers in year 11 and 12 insisted that all assignments submitted to him be handwritten to practise writing at length during exams and although accepted in either print or cursive, encouraged cursive due to speed of writing.

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VeritasVinumArte

I was told to print for my year 12 exams as my cursive is illegible. My printing is not much better but at least able to be deciphered.

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I don't know what it was called beforehand, but I was the first class in our school anyway to be taught Cursive script (late 1950s), whereas my older sisters used a more old fashioned style with the fancy f etc. I see [mention]Kiwi Bicycle[/mention] is saying that was Cursive, so maybe it was just a new style of cursive.


I was so jealous of their fancy writing compared with mine that I added in the 'f' etc wherever I could get away with it. As a result I don't have very nice handwriting!

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My older sister's (older by 12 years) cursive handwriting was so beautiful - and many of the letters completely different to the ones I learned. The style I was taught here in NSW in the late 60's was called 'Modified Cursive'.

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Julie3Girls

Cursive actually varies a fair bit. We moved from Qld to NSW when I was in yr6, and my new school did handwriting lessons. I was horrified when my book got returned to me with red crosses all through it, and I was told to redo it all. It was all perfectly neat, but a lot of the letters were “formed incorrectly” because qld cursive was different. Felt horribly unfair.

One of those silly unimportant things that has always sticks in your mind.

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My older sister's (older by 12 years) cursive handwriting was so beautiful - and many of the letters completely different to the ones I learned. The style I was taught here in NSW in the late 60's was called 'Modified Cursive'.

 

Maybe that was it. I just googled an image of cursive and their style of writing came up. Mine was more like joined up letters that were similar to how they were printed, except for the b & p. Me learning the way you did ten years earlier in Vic fits in with the time frame for your sisters, although I'm not sure the states ever co-operated that much on things!

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Does he find cursive easier if the page is at an angle? I print with the page fairly straight but really struggle with cursive if the page isn't almost sideways.

I wasn't given my pen licence because I couldn't do cursive writing well enough. A different teacher suggested I move the page and see if I found it easier and hey presto I could write cursive much easier. I still sprawl over a desk when writing cursive.

My writing looks like it has different authors depending on the angle of the page from gets compliments pretty through to completely illegible. I'm an FBI writing analyst's worst nightmare 😂

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Yeah i did modified cursive in the early 70s in NSW. But it was a bit ridiculous that every state had their own version but even sillier is that the NSW style changed every few years. Poor teachers having to learn new styles.


After i got past learning to requirements i just copied my parents - a modified copperplate style.


Problem is when correcting reports at work some of the young can't read it.


When i talked about the slope card above and a ruler i meant i could rule down the whole page and the up and down strokes all the way down would all be on the same line.

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Winter frost

Mm. I think legible handwriting is important but that schools.put waaayyy too much focus on it.


We have deliberately incl in my daughters learning plan that she is not be reminded to have neat handwriting.


Far more important that they get the work done than they stress about handwriting and fall behind in the substantive learning.

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Sancti-claws

My daughter loves cursive writing! She is 11 and her friends and her prefer it.


With their homework, they are required to do their spelling 1 column printing, 1 column capitals, 1 column cursive and 1 column vowels in red - across the whole week.

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If the purpose of the homework is to improve handwriting then fine. Otherwise, I'd have a chat with the teacher because the message will be lost if the handwriting issue is forced.

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