CursiveLogic Speeches and Writings in American History: Review Cursive Upper Grades

Whether your child is right-handed or left-handed, the simple shapes, finger tracing, color-coding, catchy phrases and lots of practice make this single handwriting instruction book quite unique. Use it with big kids to littles. It's not juvenile looking, but it is also without a complicated design. The book has a horizontal format with a top spiral, and your student works through the pages from the front, then flips the book over and works through the back sides. The four basic shapes are color coded: orange ovals, lime loops, silver swings and mauve mounds. Finger tracing builds muscle memory. Saying the task steps of a task as you perform them helps reinforce new motor skills. And of course, there is pencil work tracing: inside bubble letters, writing letters, and connecting letters followed by sentences. Each lesson reviews the 4 main shapes. Additionally unique, the letters are grouped by the 4 basic shapes, not in alphabetical order - a good option for visual learners. It's just well done. Whether your child would benefit from these methods, has never mastered cursive, or is a more traditional learner, this is a good fit. Writing lines are .75 with dotted midline. Each lesson (10 total) can be completed in one 45-60-minute session, or in (up to 4) shorter, weekly lessons spread apart. 11"x 8.5", 111 pgs, pb. You could stop at this point, but if you want more practice, check out the two books below.

Poems, Rhymes and Songs is a bridge to cursive level 2. It features the same format as the first book. For the first exercise, a few pages of targeted practice remind you of the shapes you will use (over, back-trace, loop left, downstroke, swing right, & mound round). Then you have a 5-line quote from a poem by R.L. Stevenson where student trace inside the words (they are outlined, not solid). These hollow-type letters are used in the first half of the book. When you flip it over, the student is now seeing an example and copying it onto blank lines. Self-assessment at the bottom of the page (in the form of checking boxes) reminds students to apply the strategies learned in the first book. 78 pgs, pb.

United States Presidents and Citizens is level 2. Similar to the bridge book above, students trace inside the words and copy passages on a page. There is a small review of the shapes you will use at the top of each page, but not the actual exercises to do. Each page offers interesting knowledge of historic Americans. Again, there is a self-check at the bottom of each page. This program is just so well done! 78 pgs, pb. ~ Sara