Category Archives: Beginners
Playful Activity for Good Pencil Hold
A Small Video
This small video is not mine. It has a LARGE message: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWvHwU6BsZA It is my great good fortune that Dr. Sassoon is both a friend and a valued mentor.
A New Video
Handwriting for Children: Developing Motor Memory http://youtu.be/Od7PGzEHbu0 It would help older persons who are improving their handwriting. It’s all about learning the feel of your hand and pen as it travels through letters to achieve the look of the writing.
Paper Placement
A recent blog came my way about children with left-hand dominance being forced to use their right hand. I hope this is not a practice in the United States, but the article reminded me of a related problem. Teachers are … Continue reading
Why Cursive Doesn’t Work
Advocates of the cursive that joins all lowercase letters within words say it helps fine motor skills. That’s not what I see in recent media images of children practicing their cursive, some even winners of handwriting contests! Students are hunched … Continue reading
We Are Always Learning
I am beginning to grasp a piece of the controversy that is driving manuscript, or cursive, or keyboard instruction in schools. I am a self-taught italic handwriting instructor. I still work with italic because I believe in the success of … Continue reading
More Comment than Review of The Missing Ink by Philip Hensher
The book is certain to have an impact on those who fret over the fate of handwriting. I especially appreciated the last chapter regarding our very human reasons for putting pen to paper. As one who has taught an italic … Continue reading
Cursive in the News
Should we or shouldn’t we teach cursive writing in schools? Here is one of the very few news articles that makes reasonable sense: http://www.philasun.com/news/3604/34/Goodbye-cursive-writing.html The graphics that accompany the article implies a bias that cursive belongs to our past, but … Continue reading
NeuroScript and Handwriting Methods
The following is a quote from Hans-Leo Teulings, who is researching handwriting and its instruction. Also the word “cursive” is multi interpretable. In Dutch printers’ terms “cursief” means: “slanted font”, what in English is called “Italic font”. So cursive and … Continue reading
Reading and/or Handwriting
The letters at the top teach handwriting recognition. But do they teach the fingers and hands to form the letters? If a child has a good look at the letters below, finger traces them, and then closes the eyes and … Continue reading