Our family had the opportunity to choose a resource from Laurelwood Books to review. After much debate, we chose the Patriotic Penmanship Transition (manuscript to cursive) book from the Patriotic Penmanship series. This series has these workbooks available at different levels, from kindergarten manuscript all the way up to high school cursive.
In the Laurelwood Books Patriotic Penmanship series, they do manuscript through 2nd grade and then begin with cursive in 3rd. This was when we dabbled in cursive with my son, but I’m considering finishing this workbook well into his 4th grade year.
There are 20 lessons with two pages each. The workbook begins with students practicing both manuscript and cursive handwriting on dotted lines. I love this, because it gives a real visual on how each letter should be formed. It also provides a side-by-side view of how the different types of writing look and are the same and different.
Within each lesson, there are famous quotes and Bible verses. Students are doing copywork, but are also being exposed to exceptional wise words that follow the patriotic theme. Since this is a book to transition students from manuscript to cursive, you’ll notice that the lessons include both mansuscript and cursive in the lessons.
If students are really starting to get the hang of writing in cursive, you could always make the executive decision to let them just write the rest in cursive. You might also choose to purchase the grade level workbook for them and move on from this workbook. I feel, though, that it is best to just finish through the whole consumable workbook to get a good grasp on cursive.
We were able to start using this a bit, and my son is dreading doing the writing. That is of no fault of this program. He really just doesn’t love writing.
However, my son Michael is pretty much a perfectionist. That’s actually why he doesn’t like writing, I think, because if he can’t do something perfectly, he doesn’t really like doing it.
This workbook is an awesome tool for him. Not only is he able to complete the handwriting practice that I desire for him to do, but he’s being shown a terrific model of exactly what his should look like when he is done. That’s huge for him, and much more effective in this format since the copywork quote is on the same dotted line as the empty dotted lines he is supposed to write in below.
Instead of having to come up with his own idea on spacing, letter height, and all of that, he can simply copy what was written above. So many handwriting curriculums we’ve tried before just have the words typed above and the student has to work from memory as far as the actual letter formation and spacing.
I love this little workbook! I have been having my son work on 3 lessons a week, which seems to be a good amount for him to get his practice in without overwhelming him or taking away from his main studies.
I’m thinking about purchasing the 1st grade book for my middle kiddo. I’m sure he would enjoy this as much as his older brother, but on his level.
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