This program is designed to teach children handwriting with a minimum of assistance. Eight black and white workbooks help students master the skill of manuscript writing, transition into cursive, and continue to build cursive skills using smaller and smaller lines. In the first workbook, students focus on writing the individual letters on wide lines with a dotted midline. The correct strokes are shown (and numbered) for each letter along with plenty of space for children to practice. The second book continues practice of upper and lowercase letters but adds words and sentences as well. In place of stroke guides, a dot on each letter shows children where to start forming the letter. The third book (Transition) reviews manuscript for 35 pages and then jumps into cursive handwriting for the remaining 60 pages of the book, where students learn the strokes for individual cursive letters and practice connecting them. The rest of the series allows children to fully master cursive writing as they continually practice by writing the letters and copying longer and longer paragraphs on increasingly smaller lines (rulings gradually decrease from 1/2" in Grade 3 to 5/16" in Grade 8). Paragraphs range from fun sentences to Bible verses to excerpts from essays on nature. Captions in the older grades provide additional interesting facts, and pretty border sheets to color are scattered throughout. ~ Steph

Customer Reviews

 
Leana K. from Bonney Lake, WA wrote the following on 02/24/2010:
I purchased the Pentime Transition book when I was looking for a nice transition for my son between manuscript printing and cursive. It is very easy to follow along, even without a teacher's manual. The practice pages are short,sweet and to the point, and there isn't a lot of flashy pictures to distract him. He really loved the dot to dots at the top of the page, it was a great motivating tool. For the money, this is the best cursive workbook we have seen. The paper is of good quality and the book has been durable in the hands of a seven year old.

 
Crystal O. from McAlester, OK wrote the following on 12/01/2006:
I have kids in grades 7 & 8 that have terrible penmanship! We've used a variety of programs, but two things I liked about this series are, they have a durable slant guide attached to the back cover that can fold over to be used behind every page on the right. That has REALLY helped my two kids to slant their handwriting correctly! There are also nice color pictures on the inside covers, with matching black-and-white line drawings on the actual pages, so the kids can color them accurately.