Many schools today are forgoing the teaching of cursive writing to students, even though there are numerous benefits as to why it should still be taught. Not only is it a faster and more fluid way of writing, but it also encourages brain development and removes the confusion of the lowercase letters b and d, amongst other advantages. CursiveLogic, a new company, still believes in the power of penmanship. Linda Shrewsbury created this program to help a struggling adult student learn cursive. Her innovative yet intuitive method worked so well that the student caught on to forming the entire lower case alphabet in 45 minutes and was able to sign his name. From there, the CursiveLogic Workbook was born.
CursiveLogic is different from other handwriting curricula because it focuses on the inherent structure of the cursive alphabet, instead of relying on rote memorization. The program is designed around the following features and visual and auditory cues.
Letters Grouped By Shape -- Four foundational shapes underlie the entire lowercase alphabet. The letter formations are taught by shape group based on the initial stroke of the letter, rather than alphabetically. In this way, the natural synergy of the alphabet is captured, allowing each letter in the series to reinforce the proper formation of all the others.
Letter Strings -- All the similarly shaped letters are taught by connecting them in a string, instead of individually. Since the students are taught to connect letters from the very beginning, it helps them to internalize the flow of cursive handwriting even before they have learned all 26 letters.
Theme Colors -- Each letter string has a theme color that helps the student remember the shape.
Verbal Task Analysis -- Students learn a simple, rhythmical chant that describes the path of the writing instrument as the letter shapes are formed. The process of verbally describing a motor task while performing it aids the acquisition of new motor skills.
Jake (9) started learning cursive a while ago. He did all right with it, but quickly lost interest. I didn't make it a priority and the lessons were soon forgotten. Since I believe in the benefits of handwriting, I knew we needed to focus on it again. Fast forward to a month or so ago. His penmanship was sloppy and he had forgotten how to form many of the letters.
He flipped through the 96-page, colored CursiveLogic workbook and was immediately excited. Excited? My I-always-complain-about-writing boy? The method shown in the book with its colored letter strings grabbed his interest. Better than that initial excitement though is the fact that his penmanship quickly improved and that eagerness to learn more and write better continued. He enjoys using colored pencils to form the letters according to the theme colored strings. Who knew that my boy who isn't interested in coloring and doesn't like to write would be happy to combine the two, in a sense.
We are thoroughly enjoying using this book. The teacher's manual (with step-by-step instructions) and student workbook (with lessons, practice sheets, and 3 dry erase surfaces) are combined in this one book. The CursiveLogic method seems so simple, yet works so well. Sometimes we complicate things too much. This truly is a logical way of learning cursive.
He flipped through the 96-page, colored CursiveLogic workbook and was immediately excited. Excited? My I-always-complain-about-writing boy? The method shown in the book with its colored letter strings grabbed his interest. Better than that initial excitement though is the fact that his penmanship quickly improved and that eagerness to learn more and write better continued. He enjoys using colored pencils to form the letters according to the theme colored strings. Who knew that my boy who isn't interested in coloring and doesn't like to write would be happy to combine the two, in a sense.
We are thoroughly enjoying using this book. The teacher's manual (with step-by-step instructions) and student workbook (with lessons, practice sheets, and 3 dry erase surfaces) are combined in this one book. The CursiveLogic method seems so simple, yet works so well. Sometimes we complicate things too much. This truly is a logical way of learning cursive.
If you would like to see what other homeschool families thought of this book, please read the reviews on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.
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