Cursive is a dying art. One which in our home school all my students had to learn. There are many schools of thought on learning to write in cursive and upon researching the topic further I discovered that there are many benefits to learning to write cursive as well as regularly practising it via copy work (including reversing Alzheimer's Disease)."For centuries, cursive handwriting has been an art. To a growing number of young people, it is a mystery." - Kate Zezima The Case for Cursive, New York Times.
Nathaniel and I reviewed the first edition of CursiveLogic a few years ago and were recently given copies of the new and updated CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive from CursiveLogic to use.
CursiveLogic started because one student wanted to learn to write cursive in order to sign his name. (Watch on YouTube). Linda believes that teaching / learning to write cursive does not need to be a difficult process. Her special needs adult student learned to write the complete lower case alphabet in 45 minutes using the CursiveLogic method.
What we received
- CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack 112 pages divided into ten lessons:
- Orange Oval Letters
- Second Letter String
- Third Letter String
- Fourth Letter String
- Upper Letter
- Upper Letter
- Upper Letter
- Upper Letter
- Upper Letter
- Upper Letter
- 6 month access to the 48 Min CursiveLogic Online Seminar - Presented by Linda Shrewsbury. This video seminar is clear and concise and will equip you with practical insights in how to teach your students and equip them for success. Linda gives you many tips and tricks to maximise your success as a teacher while giving you the why behind her suggestions and the method used to teach CursiveLogic.
- The Art of Cursive This book is aimed at older students wanting to learn cursive.
How we used it
CursiveLogic
The two key features of CursiveLogic is that letters are grouped by shape and secondly connected by letter strings. The 26 letters in the lower case cursive alphabet are divided into one of four letter shape categories (strings). Each category is colour coded and each is taught in a single lesson. Letters are not taught in singular disconnected letters.
The first shape that the student learns is called orange oval. Six letters share the same shape.
The student practises the main shape of over, back trace before connecting them and forming the letters. For example over back trace "A", over back trace "C", over back trace "D", over back trace "G", over back trace "Q", and over back trace "O"...
Along with the hand movement the students have a little rhyme to help them remember how to form the letter in the string. For example in the orange string they say: "Over, back-trace (letter name)".
- CursiveLogic uses colours to code each letter string. These are themed. (Visual)
- Alliteration is used to aid memory
- Specific catch phrasing (verbal description of manual task) (Auditory)
- Write the string (Kinesthetic)
- Lower case lessons are printed on one side of the page. (Navy Blue Corner )
- Once you have completed the lower case pages (2-56) flip the book to the mauve corner numbered pages for the upper case lessons.
- Throughout the book are light blue sticky note containing important teaching points about the letter or letter string they student is working on.
CursiveLogic works on reinforcing knowledge. Each time the student learns a new letter string these are combined with letters already learned to form new practise words. So through reinforcement and new keep learning moving forward. You can read more on how CursiveLogic works here.
We have not used cursive for the last year so I took Nathaniel back to the begining. I gave him a dark grey pencil so he could clearly see what he was writing. It has been so good to see him learn without effort.
The lessons are divided into four days. There are ten lessons all together. Four to learn lower case and six to learn capital letters.
Capital lessons are shorter. Each day the student first practise the lower case A to Z. Learn the capital letter string and then progress over four days from proper names to writing short sentences.
Upon completing the lessons the work book contains 14 extra pages containing quotes by famous people such as: Winston Churchill, Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin.
Should your student require more practise there is a dry erase page in the back of the book containing the letter strings with a practise area for each string.
The ART of Cursive
The ART of Cursive has been designed for the older student in mind. It combines two ideas into one. CursiveLogic and a relaxing adult colouring book in one.
The cursive lessons are divided into four brief lessons which are targeted at the adult learner. These lessons follow the same letter string lessons and method found in the student CursiveLogic book.
The lessons cover a double page spread. Upon completing the lessons there are beautiful pictures to colour in which reinforce the cursive you have already learned. The back of each picture contains a practise quote for you to write out in guide lines. Below this there are blank lines for you to copy the quote.
There are 27 beautifully illustrated images to colour. Each image follows a theme and contains a quote.
The book is beautifully bound for ease of removing the illustrations should you want to. This enables easier colouring in of the images. The pages are made of thicker paper to accommodate using markers and fountain pens.
- Using the CursiveLogic method students can master cursive in ten weeks.
- CursiveLogic has been set up in 10 lessons. Each lessons is designed to take one week with elementary age students. Depending on the student lessons can be taught over one day or over several days depending on the development of the student.
- The book is bound along the top to help the book lay flat and for ease of writing no matter whether you are left or right handed the binding will not get in the way.
- The paper in the book is a thicker paper making writing easier.
- Target age is 8 years old. This system works well with many ages including adults and students with special learning needs.
- Homeschool Review Crew 2015 Blue Ribbon Award - Best Writing Curriculum.
- The National Parenting Centre Seal of Approval Winner Spring 2015
- Presented in Psychology Today in: An Intelligent New Way to Teach Cursive
Over All I thought ...
I am very impressed with the improvements made to the book since it's initial launch two years ago. Once Nathaniel has completed learning the capital letters I will be using the suggestions in reinforcing his learning with writing out copy work in cursive each week. I like the simplicity of the layout and the quality of the book.
CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack is worth purchasing if you are teaching your students to write in cursive. Linda empowers you with her knowledge and insights in the seminar and the book is easy to use and work through with your students.
The Art of Cursive book is gorgeous and I look forward to working my way through the pages over the year ahead. If you have an upper high school student who likes to colour and needs to learn cursive this is the book for you.
Blessings
Chareen
