Disclaimer: A Reason For graciously provided our handwriting materials for the year in exchange for this post. This in no way alters my opinion of this curriculum.
How I’ve always taught handwriting
I’ve always taught handwriting the Charlotte Mason way with my kids. I’m talking about my 3rd and 5th grader. See this post to see how I do handwriting with my kindergartner.
At the beginning of a new school year we go through the alphabet over the first 2 weeks making sure they know how to properly form each letter.
After those 2 weeks, I’ve always used copywork to work on their handwriting. As they copy, I expect them only to do as much as they can make perfect. This is the Charlotte Mason way of handwriting.
Why teach cursive?
Many states no longer require public schools to teach cursive writing any longer. I think this is a shame. There are many reasons our kids need to learn to write in cursive.
Read in cursive
Most of our historic documents are written in cursive. If a student isn’t taught to write in cursive then they more than likely won’t be able to read in cursive. They need to be able to read these documents as they are.
Strengthens motor muscles
Writing in cursive uses different motor muscles than writing in print does. This allows for stronger motor muscles, better handwriting, and better art skills.
Writing a signature
Our kids need to learn how to write their name in a signature rather than in print form. This is extremely important since most legal documents REQUIRE a signature as well as a printed name.
I know that some people think of these reasons as outdated, but I’m old-fashioned and disagree wholeheartedly.
Why I’m teaching handwriting with A Reason For Handwriting this year
I’ve had a little trouble adding a kindergartner into the mix this year along with all my other household and work duties. If you want to read about that read it here. Time has not been on my side.
My 3rd grader needed to learn how to write in cursive and my 5th grader needed to brush up on his cursive. So, I decided to outsource and save me a little extra time.
What I think of A Reason for Handwriting
Level C
Ok, Savannah, 3rd grade, is using level C. Level C starts them out by teaching each letter in cursive before it moves on to forming words. There’s a whole page dedicated to each letter.
If you think your child needs to learn a letter a day this can be a bit much for a young child. I’m in no hurry to get her writing cursive, so I’m letting her finish a page a week. And making sure each letter is perfect. 3 perfect letters is much better than a whole page of sloppy letters.
After she learns her letters she will move on to stringing words together and forming sentences. Each lesson will be a week long and it’s much more gentle than the beginning weeks.
The first 3 days of the week she’ll copy a letter and three words a few times each. On the 4th day of the week she’ll trace a memory verse using the words she wrote previously in the week.
Day 5 is my favorite part of this handwriting. On day 5 she’ll take a beautiful border sheet from the back of the book and copy the verse she wrote on day 4 in her best writing. If she wants she can color it and make it pretty.
Level E
Royce, 5th grade, is using level E. This level works the same way the 2nd half of Level C does. They work on a letter and 3 words the 1st the days of the week. On day 4 they trace the memory verse. And day 5 the write the memory verse on the wonderful border sheets in the back of the book.
I believe a Reason for Handwriting is a great handwriting program to teach your kids handwriting and to keep their handwriting beautiful. And I love that it incorporates copywork with biblical verses to teach handwriting.
Do I need the teacher’s manual?
The company did send me the teacher’s manual, but I’m not using it. The teacher’s manual covers all levels of this handwriting program. So you only need one manual for the whole time you use this program.
Inside it gives suggestions for forming letters, which would be extremely helpful if your teaching kindergarten, it also gives handwriting tips, a vocabulary list for the words they write, and most importantly it gives you Godly topics of discussion to talk with your kids about.
I hope this review was helpful for you. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments or shoot me an email. rebecca@homeschoolontheranch.com
Although I have terrible penmanship, I think that cursive writing is still an important skill that everyone should have. This method is similar to the way I taught second graders cursive when I was a teacher.
I’m pretty sure it’s the way I did cursive too. Of course we learned in the second grade then and by 3rd grade we were writing in only cursive.