We were chosen by The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew to do a product review of the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive which are products of CursiveLogic. I chose two of my daughters to work on these books. Here is what we think of them…

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[ctt template=”4″ link=”efQ9g” via=”yes” ]We were chosen by The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew to do a product review of the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive, which are products of CursiveLogic. I chose two of my daughters to work on these books. Here is what we think of them…[/ctt]

CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack

This is a great program for left or right-handed writers because the workbook is bound at the top so that their wrist will never have to rest on the coil. To use the workbook, you go through using only the front of each page, then you flip the workbook over and come back through the other way.

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CursiveLogic teaches cursive writing in a special way. Rather than learning letters in alphabetical order, letters are taught based on shape. Each shape has a color theme.

Before I started teaching, I went online and watched and listened to the online webinar and I took notes on how to teach this course. I was able to do that through Vimeo. I was given access to watch the video for a year. The course was approximately 48 minutes. I learned that one of the key features of this program is that students learn to connect their letters right from the start. Unlike other writing programs I have taught my children over the years, this one teaches lowercase letters first. The online program reminded me to teach the three “p’s” of penmanship: posture, paper, and pencil. The vimeo seminar also instructed me how to talk about the top, middle and bottom line and how we are to stay in them, as well as paper guidelines and position of the paper.

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The CursiveLogic webinar taught me to have my child begin by tracing the letters with her finger for a few days before introducing a writing instrument. I was a little confused here because at one point the video and workbook were not matching up. The video was talking about page 14, but in my book it was page 15 that the information went along with. I finally realized I needed to turn the page.

cursivelogic day 2 trace the letter string page in the workbook

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I learned to use color association, verbal speaking (for example: “over, back-trace, letter name, dip”), logical pattern, concentrated practice, muscle memory, and repetition. All of these keep the brain engaged and prevents from habituation and boredom. I was surprised to see that she was to start using an orange marker, but she really enjoyed that! I learned from the video that we are to practice using a dry erase board once per week and she liked that a lot too.

I chose Miranda to do this review as she is the next in line to learn cursive writing out of my seven children. She just turned seven a few days before we received the workbooks. I am impressed that it went as well as it did considering that she is not a “sit down and do paperwork” kind of person. Also, she only did a little bit of writing letters in print in grade K and this year we started her first official handwriting course with printing letters in September. So cursive writing was completely new to her. We put a pause on printing to try out CursiveLogic the first week of February. So she is a new writer in general. And a reluctant one, at that. I was relieved to hear in the webinar that if your child is under age 8 that you should work more slowly as it takes more time to develop fine writing skills.

a young girl in glasses and bows in her hair writes left handed with the cursivelogic writing book — Save

Miranda’s Opinion

“Well, I want to be like the big kids and do the pretty kind of writing that the grown ups can read. Sometimes it’s hard work and sometimes it’s kind of fun. The fun parts are coloring the boxes, tracing with my fingers and writing on the dry erase board. I don’t know how to do it by myself yet. Like, I can’t remember what the letters look like without using the book very much.”

The Art of Cursive

You can improve your handwriting while you relax and color with this great cursive writing and adult coloring book all in one. The CursiveLogic method groups letters based on the shape of the initial stroke. Similarly shaped letters are taught together as a group. In this book, there are four short lessons that teach all 26 lowercase letters. Next, there are letter strings to trace, link and write. Each shape string has a short “catch phrase’ to repeat as you form each letter, which describes the motion you are doing as you are writing. There is a chart at the end of the lowercase letters to review or learn the uppercase letters. The rest of the book has tracing practice at the top and blank lines in the lower part to write on your own. The opposite page is an adult coloring page to color with the letter shapes and letters mixed in.

My Opinion

I was very nervous inside (hopefully it didn’t show!) about teaching my first left-handed child as I am right-handed myself and was worried I would mess it up. CursiveLogic made it easy for me to teach and I am very proud of how Miranda is doing with learning cursive writing. I think she does better with the tracing of letters than she is with writing them on her own and trying to stay in the lines, but it’s good for her to keep trying to do it on her own and maybe it will get better with practice as it has for my older children.

I am pleased to see that Marissa, who is graduated from homeschool, is still writing very nicely too.

I think CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack is a great program for right or left-handed learners and I like how easy they make it for the teacher with the video online. I also think the Art of Cursive is a really fun tool to keep writing well as an adult while having fun.