Teaching Cursive Handwriting: Worksheets I Plan on Using

Well, before we knew that we were moving my 7 year old had expressed an interest in learning to write in cursive . So, I had starting searching for some effective (and hopefully painless) ways of teaching him. 

Teaching Cursive: Worksheets Work

Worksheets are tried and true. So I plan on going that route. I learned Zaner Bloser and that is the style that I taught my oldest. So, why change now? Below are some useful resources that I found.

Cursive Alphabet Chart

Here is a Zaner Bloser alphabet chart. I am strongly considering printing this out and laminating it. That way I can pass it down to my 2 youngest children.

Cursive Practice Sheets

I will definitely print out these cursive handwriting worksheets that have all 26 letters, upper and lowercase, written on various sized lines. And I will turn it into a handwriting notebook.

Cursive Animation

Donna Young cursive animations are a good way to make sure that your children are taught the proper way to form their letters. I must admit that over the years I have adopted a style of handwriting that is partially cursive and partially manuscript. So, the animations serve as a good reminder on the right way to write cursive. Donna Young also offers a plethora of handwriting worksheets as well.

Cursive Writing Generator

If you want to make your own worksheets then make sure to check out my post on making your own handwriting worksheets for free. Two of the sites listed there has cursive handwriting generators.

So far, manuscript writing has not come easy for my son. I am hopeful that cursive will be less stressful now that he's used to the proper way of holding a pencil; and, he has become used to the idea of writing.

I will definitely use Charlotte Mason's advice of assigning a little bit of handwriting at a time. I don't want worksheet after worksheet after worksheet to cause frustration and burnout in my son. I've learned the hard way that isn't the best approach for us. So, we'll take it slow, just concentrating on a a letter a day, or whatever my son is comfortable with.

My daughter is a year younger but she and her brother seem to be in the same "grade". They are on slightly different levels in reading and math. But it is so slight that currently they do all of the same work. So, I'm sure that she will want to take up cursive as well when the new school year begins.