How can I teach my son to cursive?

Question

I taught my son how to print when he was in pre school. I bought a book with the printed & cursive letters in it for him to practice. He taught himself how to cursive when he was 6 yrs old. He did well. He had to print while in school because that's the way the teachers wanted it. He is in 6th grade now & has always been printing. Last night I was helping him with his spacing & I asked him to write the sentence in cursive & he started to cry. He said that he didn't remember how to cursive anymore & is embarrassed at school because other kids do it & he can't & is slower at printing & the other kids get their work done before him. I told him that I would work with him every night to help him with cursive. I know he can learn because he taught himself years ago. But he has trouble with attaching the letters together. He wants to keep picking up the pencil/pen. And when he can't do something right the first time, he gets angry & throws the paper or pen. How can I teach him cursive?

Answer 1

yes. You should help him with his cursive handwriting!! It never hurts to educate a child. Just make sure that you are very patient with him and help him to understand that it is okay to make mistakes. It's a good thing to want to do things correctly and to want to do things the "right" way but he seems to have a little bit of a perfectionist attitude. Reassure him that you have confidence in his abilities and that with a little hard work and determination he will learn how to do it. Tips: Buy a cursive training mat that he can practice on. I think you can buy them at Wal Mart or at a large bookstore like Coles or Chapters/Indigo....or try online. They are very helpful and the best part is that kids can use washable markers and can trace the letters or write side by side with already written cursive letters. Practice with him. Make up a story together about something that interests him. Have him print it, and then have him write it out in cursive the second time. Be sure to be helpful, but let him make mistakes and find them on his own. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

I agree with teacherfriend. My son just started kindergarten this year and they are teaching the students the D'Nealian style of writing to make the transition from printing block letters to writing cursive letters that much easier. They haven't started learning cursive writing this year, but my son has already started to pick up on how it's done.

Other than that, be patient and practice with him every night. And keep in mind that though it's frustrating for you to see your child having difficulty, it's equally as frustrating for him to not to be able pick this up again so easily. Maybe you can make things fun for him so that he's not feeling so frustrated--like making up a game so that he's having fun and learning at the same time?

Answer 3

be patient, buy a cursive writing book, practice with him...you do a letter, then he trys. Do about 5 letters per week
30min everyday

Answer 4

The important thing to remember when teaching a child to write with fluency is that letters have to be formed in a certain way to allow for them to be joined, so check that your son is writing his letters correctly then show how this leads to joining them together. One of the ways of doing this is to dot write words in lower case letters for him to draw over. Start with large writing which will enable him to follow the letters carefully.

Answer 5

I suggest that you get different sentences and letters and words for him to trace. Then after he has traced a word sentence or letter, let him try to write it without tracing. You can get on google.com and find some words for him to trace there. If that doesn't work then you hold his hand in place and move the pencil so he can get the feel of the letters and things.

Answer 6

Does your child write in D'Nealian or Zaner-Bloser? As a teacher, I think D'Nealian makes the transition easier. Check it out on their website. www.dnealian.com

Best of luck.

Answer 7

practice. practice. practice; get him some large sheets of sand paper and let him practice "writing"words with his finger until he gets the idea that he needs to keep his pencil (finger) down to complete the word; the tactile feel of the sand paper will be a reminder to him;

Answer 8

buy him the cursive writing books and then let him practice on his own

Answer 9

I would just buy a book or a video tutorial that he can watch ono how to do it...maybe he'll feel more confident seeing others who can't do it themselves and then he might pick up! Good luck

Answer 10

Do the same steps you did before by showing him, if he learned them when he was younger he could learn it now that hes older