Classical Conversations Review – Homeschool Cursive Writing

This summer Samantha has been improving on her cursive writing skills with Classical Conversations PreScripts : Cursive Words and Drawing :Scripture . This book ($12.99) starts with cursive letters to trace and builds to simple sentences with lessons from the Bible focusing on the books Proverbs and James. It is designed with children ages 5-10 in mind. This homeschool cursive writing book has been a huge hit with Samantha.

This book also gives simple drawing lessons to help the student continue to build fine motor skills and to practice simple drawing techniques. They are simple shape drawings so no prior “art” experience is needed to complete them.

I love that this book has allowed Samantha to practice her cursive writing mostly independently. The beginning pages gave detailed instruction on letter formation and connection. She had “tried” cursive before but had never had any formal introduction to it. The book gave her space to practice her writing but often times she felt it wasn’t enough room. Once the writing was done she enjoyed the drawing lessons as well. Samantha loves anything with art so this made the PreScripts book an even better fit for her.

There are pages in the beginning where the student traces and then writes each letter to work on formation. Then the lessons move onto more tracing of one of the letters followed by a simple Bible verse that they can trace and then practice on their own. The art lessons use basic shape concepts and encourage children to build on these skills to begin drawing on their own. Overall, I love this book more than any other homeschool cursive writing book we have tried. I love that while she is copying it is words from Scripture and not just some random man-made sentence. The pages have enough practice to help a child improve but not so much as to be overwhelming to a beginner either. And with the art lessons sprinkled throughout the book there is a touch of fun to keep a child interested. After my first experience with Classical Conversations I must say that I am impressed and will be keeping them in mind in the future when Josiah is ready for cursive writing.

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