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That is a fine recommendation for people in the UK. It will be readable there. Americans aren't usually used to it. Americans normally use D'Nealian. It is sim

by burfog 8y ago

That is a fine recommendation for people in the UK. It will be readable there. Americans aren't usually used to it. Americans normally use D'Nealian. It is similar to the older Palmer Method, which in turn is similar to the older Spencerian script.

geomark 8y ago
Do you have any examples? I might have adopted one of those methods but don't remember where my style came from. Edit: Found examples on Wikipedia. That's not how I write. I guess mine is less cursive-y and more print-y.
jvagner 8y ago
Do you have recommendations for exposing/introducing/teaching some kind of cursive to an American home-schooled 15 year old? On the one hand, he's in college chemistry & physics on the side... on the other hand, we have funny gaps like this that we know we should do something about. [Or maybe not...]
- burfog 8y ago
  I did exactly that. I had kids studying for AP Chemistry ages 10 to 16, and I think that is when I sat them all down to learn handwriting. I hadn't planned to teach it, because I thought I never used it, but then one day I wrote a non-technical essay (something I hadn't done in many years) and felt a strangely strong urge to use cursive. I sat everybody down at a table and had them copy my text from a whiteboard. I wrote sentences about random crazy stuff. I would then go over their text, making them fix each spot that could create ambiguity. Explain the ambiguity so that they understand why it is a problem. (if your 'f' has a lower loop that is wide or doesn't descend much, it could be confused with a 'b', etc.) Most days we'd do a few dozen sentences. It wasn't long before they started to be decent at it. I sure know what you mean about the funny gaps. It is easy to forget something while focusing on other stuff. At one point I had a 14-year-old who couldn't really read. I threw him into AP Chemistry, making him read the book out loud so I could correct him. That worked! It was miserable at first, because he needed correction every few words, but now he reads well.

by burfog 8y ago

geomark 8y ago

Do you have any examples? I might have adopted one of those methods but don't remember where my style came from. Edit: Found examples on Wikipedia. That's not how I write. I guess mine is less cursive-y and more print-y.

jvagner 8y ago

Do you have recommendations for exposing/introducing/teaching some kind of cursive to an American home-schooled 15 year old? On the one hand, he's in college chemistry & physics on the side... on the other hand, we have funny gaps like this that we know we should do something about. [Or maybe not...]

burfog 8y ago
I did exactly that. I had kids studying for AP Chemistry ages 10 to 16, and I think that is when I sat them all down to learn handwriting. I hadn't planned to teach it, because I thought I never used it, but then one day I wrote a non-technical essay (something I hadn't done in many years) and felt a strangely strong urge to use cursive. I sat everybody down at a table and had them copy my text from a whiteboard. I wrote sentences about random crazy stuff. I would then go over their text, making them fix each spot that could create ambiguity. Explain the ambiguity so that they understand why it is a problem. (if your 'f' has a lower loop that is wide or doesn't descend much, it could be confused with a 'b', etc.) Most days we'd do a few dozen sentences. It wasn't long before they started to be decent at it. I sure know what you mean about the funny gaps. It is easy to forget something while focusing on other stuff. At one point I had a 14-year-old who couldn't really read. I threw him into AP Chemistry, making him read the book out loud so I could correct him. That worked! It was miserable at first, because he needed correction every few words, but now he reads well.