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.

Making Your Own Handwriting Worksheets for Free

A few months back I started teaching my five year old to write. So, I started looking for some handwriting worksheets and I quickly discovered Start Write.

It was exactly what I was looking for. And the software really is reasonably priced for all it does. However, I ALWAYS try to find a frugal (code word for free) alternative. I haven't found anything that does everything that Start Write does. But I have found a few free handwriting worksheet generators that suit our needs.

Soft School's handwriting worksheet generator is my favorite. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. But I can save the pages I create in PDF format. Love that! I am in the process of creating copywork pages for the Swinton's Primer. Once I've typed up all of the copywork I am going to print the pages and compile them into a notebook for Dil. And I can just print out a new notebook for my two youngest when they get to that stage.

The ESL Writing Wizard would be my favorite if I could save my pages in PDF. That's huge with me. But other than that this free worksheet generator is the best. There are several writing styles, line patterns, and letter sizes to choose from. And there are also some good instructions on the homepage of how to make a paragraph style worksheet. I used those instructions for the Soft School generator, with great results. You used to be able save the links to the pages you created. But that feature has been temporarily disabled.

Kid Zone also has a handwriting wizard that produces what the site calls "custom tracer pages." What's great about this one is that if you choose the cursive font then the letters of the words on the page are actually connected. The other two sites do not have this capability. Soft School doesn't have a cursive option at all. The ESL Writing Wizard does but the letters are separated. So I will definitely use the custom tracer pages once my younger ones start learning cursive.

Despite it's name, I'm not that impressed with the Amazing Incredible Handwriting Worksheet Maker. (I wonder if I could say that quickly three times.) But the one feature that I believe comes in handy for a brand new writer is the starting dot that is generated on each letter on the worksheet. That's a definite plus for little ones who are at the very beginning stage of writing.

By utilizing the sites listed above, I can pretty much produce the type of handwriting worksheet that I need.