Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Tweet log

  1. 2 friends visiting today, but 5 boys is not enough-we just added a 6th for the evening. So far conflicts have been small and self-resolved.3:56 PM Sep 11th from TwitterGadget
  2. Spent all day typing about handwriting: http://trunc.it/1ni9k andhttp://trunc.it/1nip4.9:24 PM Aug 31st from TwitterGadget
  3. After creating a plan that has us seeing everything in the UK south of York, I've settled on three destinations. We'll take day trips.5:25 PM Aug 29th from TwitterGadget
  4. The boys have built a castle, following the directions in Macaulay's book. http://trunc.it/1k2mq2:52 PM Aug 26th from TwitterGadget
  5. Just booked a trip for five to Great Britain. Woo hoo!4:23 PM Aug 25th from TwitterGadget
  6. Where should I look for ideas for traveling with 3 boys in England and Wales?10:30 PM Aug 23rd from TwitterGadget

  7. I'm late to the Not Back-To-School party: http://bit.ly/vIDTjBack from a fab Mom's weekend away in Boothbay. Yesterday we watched moonrise over the Atlantic (sublime) and played Spoons (ridiculous).    11:01 PM Aug 9th from TwitterGadget
  8. 10:36 PM Aug 9th from TwitterGadget

  9. Ds2&3 noted the resemblance of Dvorak's New World Symphony to the SW score. http://trunc.it/151cg Music unit study?http://trunc.it/14krjFound it: http://bit.ly/24ryQG :58 and http://bit.ly/2KbmUZ 7:30    8:15 PM Jul 29th from TwitterGadget

  10. I'm painting outside trim (White Dove). Dh got ahead of me yesterday with the stain (Spruce Blue), and now I have to catch up.My oldest did paid chores all weekend 2 earn enough 4 the new HP game (4 PC), & they R now all 3 entranced by it. Patient w/ #3's playin, 2.    3:27 PM Jul 22nd from TwitterGadget

  11. I've seen a fox and a hummingbird in our suburban back yard today.Kids were inspired to make their own version of Mythmatical. Greek gods for oldest, and Norse for middle, and no silly math.    3:11 PM Jun 26th from web

  12. Interesting article about year round school with enrichment intersessions in the WashPo: http://tinyurl.com/n48988Back from our first camping trip. Beautiful site (Tully Lake). Canoed, ate, hiked, and listened to the rain all night.    11:58 AM Jun 13th from TwitterGadget

  13. Planted a variegated dogwood with my dogs ashes.New blog post on students' response to failure. http://bit.ly/cfY2    6:56 PM Jun 6th from TwitterGadget

  14. My 9 yo wants to create a website and use miniclip games on it. Anyone have a recommendation of how to get started?Planted: tomatoes in containers, squash (no zucchini available), nasturtium, peas, cukes, parsley, cilantro.    4:39 PM Jun 6th from TwitterGadget

  15. I have a new blog post on getting sucked in to homeworkhttp://tinyurl.com/p2y75g.My mother is having a hip replaced in 2 hours, and I'm flying to VA tomorrow. ??Go to the homeschool fair today to see what local hsers do?    9:13 AM May 22nd from web

  16. Planning more work for the boys during their week with Grandma than normal. Might keep them away from the screens.Had a tough trip to Staples yesterday - forgot my wallet. Leaving, my 5yo said, they should have a button that says "That wasn't easy!"    10:19 AM May 18th from TwitterGadget

  17. 2:58 PM Jan 13th     from web
    Oldest now obsessed with building a cardboard and duct tape boat. Currently, it's 30 F and due to get colder.I have a post in the Carnival of Homeschoolinghttp://jacquedixon.com/?p=3... Here's the post:http://tinyurl.com/pb4nqn    9:18 AM May 12th from TwitterGadget
  19. Just did a serendipitous bridge unit based onhttp://tinyurl.com/9evwd5. Read Javier Builds a Bridge.2:58 PM Jan 13th from web
  20. How the heck do I get my Verizon FIOS messages that people leave when I don't answer call waiting?10:27 AM Jan 12th from web
  21. I'm about to try the crazy honey/onion cough remedy.8:10 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from web
  22. I have blog posts on the ice storm and on our homeschool fair uphttp://www.everydaybest.blo....10:40 AM Dec 29th, 2008 from web
  23. I won #nanowrimo!2:03 PM Nov 30th, 2008 from web

  24. I think Write or Die is amazing. It's trained me to write without updating my words every 100 or so (which I'm not proud of!)    4:29 PM Nov 25th, 2008     from web

  25. I'm going to try Write or Die to get my #nanowrimo word count done for the day.
  26. 7:53 PM Nov 15th, 2008 from web
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Monday, August 31, 2009

Creating a handwriting curriculum

I have decided on teaching my kids to italic and cursive italic for handwriting. It is not what I learned, but it makes sense to me that it is an easier style and it's adherents can write both more fluidly and legibly. See here and here and here and here for explanations.

I have a number of resources I can use to teach them how to write, and there are a number of free or affordable (under $15) resources that you can use if you want to follow this path:
  • Get the Briem Handwriting font (Look for these links: The Italic Project>Teaching Aids>Software). It includes lines if you italicize it (type spaces to get blank lines). If you don't like that style of lines, get Learning Curve. It's a cursive handwriting font but it includes a symbol for the more traditional lines. Change the font sizes to change the size of the lines or the text. You can use the font to make huge letters for younger children and copywork samples for older children.
  • Download another Briem resource, Cursive Italic News. It contains lots of ideas for starting out with hand-eye training and includes many warm-up exercises that can be copied.
  • For more exercises and a step-by-step guide to each letter, see yet another Briem resource: Quick results, easy work (click that link and read everything, or click on the Model link to see the letter instruction).
  • Consider buying Penny Gardner's Italics: Beautiful Handwriting for Children. This book gives all the (unadorned) workbook pages that you need to teach the lowercase italic alphabet, and then works through the different types of joins. She also has YouTube videos to help teach handwriting (see the links at the bottom of the page).
  • In addition, blank lined paper is available from other places on the web including the Donna Young website (in the Handwriting section). Or you can just use a notebook from the local office store.
These are the steps I envision will work for anyone. This is not rocket science (as FlyLady would say):
  1. Choose the type of handwriting that you think will serve your children best.
  2. If you can, find a font that matches #1. If you have nice handwriting yourself, I see no reason not to make the exemplars yourself. There are free handwriting fonts available, so check those out before you spend money on a font.
  3. Consider making sheets (maybe even laminated) of warm-up exercises such as vertical lines, horizontal lines, zigzags with the first stroke straight down and the second stroke up at an angle, n-type humps, u-type curves. Finding a rhythm and writing consistently is the object here. These warm-ups could be used for years, and could be offered in smaller sizes as the child get used to writing smaller letters. (See the resources in the bullet section above for specifics on warm-up exercises.)
  4. Experts differ on whether to teach uppercase first or not, but it makes sense to me, and it's what my children have asked for. So I teach uppercase, and then lowercase.
  5. Start providing words to copy, and of course, assisting in spelling when the child asks.
  6. Continue with copywork, moving to longer passages, poems, etc. These can be printed out in your exemplar font if desired. Ambleside Online volunteers have created Word files of quotes from each years books for just this purpose. They are available in the Files section of the AOCopywork Yahoo group.
  7. Teach how to join letters.
  8. Continue with copywork, providing support and correction as necessary.
Using the resources I already have, I can make pages of copywork of various sizes, and of single letters or words using Microsoft Word and one of the italic handwriting fonts I already have: Lucida Sans italic or the Briem Handwriting font (which are free), or one of the Barchowsky fonts. (See my below for instructions on finding the Briem font, and see my first post on italics for a list of fonts.)

Penny Gardner's book Beautiful Handwriting for Children is a very useable resource and a good value. I wish it had warm-ups, and it needs to be accompanied by plenty of copywork.

New free resources:
  • I've found an additional font for italics. It's here on Briem.net. (Choose The Italic Project link and then Teaching Aids and then Software.) When you download the Briem Handwriting font, you also download a program to join the letters into cursive italics. Frankly, I don't see using the conversion program regularly once my students have the hang of joining letters, but it's a great resource.
  • Monica Dengo's mini curriculum. Lovely!
  • Nan Barchowsky's videos
  • Penny Gardner's videos: links here
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