Teaching Children To Write: Getty Dubay, American Cursive, Or...?

[e-beth]

My 3 year old daughter is starting to imitate writing (up and down scribbles for the moment) and it has caused me to think about starting to teach her handwriting in the next year or two. I don't see much point in teaching her to print since whatever school she attends will teach her that. But, many schools are opting not to teach cursive handwriting and I would like her to learn a cursive style (it's not clear what school she will go to at the moment, the public schools are a bit of a mess so it might be a private school, actually it makes me a little ill to think about trying to figure all that out). Even places that do teach cursive are not especially good at it. I know it seems early, but she's already drawing things that are recognizably people and animals and has some success tracing around objects and coloring mostly within the lines and is interested in the letters that spell her name (I swear I'm not pushing this, I find her doing these things when I've been ignoring her and she has to find a way to entertain herself*). So, I've been looking at various styles and programs a little at a time so that I can have something on hand when she really shows an interest in learning to write.

 

On the one hand, if she is taught cursive in school it will more than likely be a style of American cursive similar to Palmer or Business hand. On the other hand, I have heard good things about the Getty Dubay series which teaches a version of basic italic and italic script and I am more partial to that style, especially since I have been learning italic calligraphy.

 

My question is, what programs have people used for teaching handwriting and what did you think of them? Would it be counterproductive to teach a system that isn't likely to be taught in school?

 

 

*That is, I find her doing that some of the time, the rest of the time she's more likely to be getting into something she knows she shouldn't be into.

[akustyk]

The "American Cursive Handwriting" program by Michael Sull has been fairly successful in teaching kids how to write cursive. I am aware of the fact that parents who home-school their kids use this program, too. I am not sure any schools are using it, but perhaps some private schools do. I would email Mr. Sull and ask. Mr. Sull seems to have a lot of fans here at FPN.

 

Hope this is useful.