Cursive: Is it Worth Teaching in Your Homeschool?

There’s an ongoing debate on teaching cursive. Do we teach it? Many have dropped cursive instruction altogether. Even printing on paper is often minimized after elementary years. It is tempting to drop cursive. But before we give up on this skill, let’s take a moment to consider some surprising benefits. Then we’ll chat about ways to sneak cursive into more of our daily lives.

Many kids struggle with the dexterity needed. It takes time. Surprisingly, it’s physically demanding—which can lead to moans and pleading. Some days, honestly, it seems like “just one more thing to do.” I’ve heard such reasons against cursive: “We’re teaching so much already”; “You won’t need that as an adult”; or, “They can learn cursive on their own—if that’s what they want to do.”

If you’ve already decided for cursive, but you’d like more ways to make it palatable, skip to the end of this article. You’ll find some simple ideas to help integrate cursive in your daily routine. Let’s continue the conversation on our social media. We’d love to hear your ideas!

The modern cursive style we’re familiar with was designed by Austin Palmer to expedite and simplify the handwriting process in business. Standardizing cursive improved time efficiency, legibility, and message clarity. Cursive strengthens hand muscles and significantly improves hand-eye coordination. Sarah, HomeschoolOT shares how handwriting is directly connected to building coordination and core body strength.

Arguments against cursive often overlook these. Yes, handwriting is comparatively slow and messy next to typing, for example, but we aren’t seeing what’s simultaneously happening in the brain.

Handwriting combines tactile with the neurosensory. Studies have shown that writing by hand activates networks in multiple areas of the brain: eye movement and orientation; motor function; short- and long-term memory; concentration; and more. Cursive integrates focus of the whole self: mind, body, and brain. There is a closely woven link between fine motor skills, manual dexterity, language processing, and reading. Poor handwriting can weaken composing skills since a large gap grows between the production of ideas and getting them on paper. I’ve spoken with many parents whose children have great ideas but getting them down on paper is “just too hard.” Composing is tough and slow handwriting just exacerbates the challenges.

Let’s take an example of note taking. When taking handwritten notes during a lecture, we are listening, interpreting what we’ve heard, evaluating the message, determining what’s most important, and writing it down quickly. Cursive is the most efficient method to expedite that process. Type your notes, you say? Yes, that can be efficient. Since typing is faster, we tend to type exactly what we’ve heard. However, summarizing, evaluating, and interpreting is saved for later; you must actively choose to do so. Having a method for note taking helps you analyze more quickly and not fall behind the speaker. Check out the Cornell Notetaking system as one option.

Opportunities to use and read cursive are not as common now. How can we integrate this skill easily into our homeschool life?

Often, children will see the benefit if they see cursive used in normal life. Here are a few simple ideas.

For all students (including you):

• Make opportunities to practice. Have them read letters from family. Write grocery or chore lists or regular notes to your children. Give them opportunities to see YOU writing in cursive.
• Read picture books in cursive. Books like Starry Messenger or the Dianna Ashton Sylvia Long Nature Series model beautiful handwriting and provide cursive and oral reading practice.
• Find relatives or friends who might write notes or letters to your children. Have your students make time to write back. Pen pals, anyone?
• Take a minute to copy and paste short stories, poetic passages, or short reading assignments into your text editor. Change the font to a cursive style. Print it out and give your students opportunities to read.

Go beyond the cursive workbook:

• Let each student choose their own fun writing instrument and use it only during “cursive time.” Warning: There may be an ensuing debate about “The Best” writing utensil. I say that’s a worthy discussion! Here’s my current fave.
• Set a timer for 10 minutes daily. Have everyone (including you) write in their own special journal without stopping. If nothing comes to mind, write long, continuous doodles with your pen until an idea comes. Don’t take the pen off the paper. When time’s up, don’t evaluate what you’ve written. This “freewriting process” opens the floodgates of thinking. If you must evaluate, take time days later and highlight any ideas you want to keep or write more about. 
• Introduce your family to the idea of a Commonplace Book, which serves a different purpose than a journal. Many individuals (such as Mark Twain, George Washington, and Virginia Wolfe, to name a few) kept such a book to record anything they found interesting. Each person will need a book of their own to record what interests them: interesting quotations; a personal ranking of famous athletes; what they’d like to learn more about; unusual insects… the sky’s the limit. Collect these in a notebook of your choice.
• Practice drawing as a family. I hear you saying, “But I can’t draw!” And thus, we are echoing exactly what our children say when it comes to handwriting. Now we can empathize. Drawing and handwriting provide similar benefits (try Drawing With Children or Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain for some encouragement in this area). Draw-Write-Now Cursive combines both skills for younger students to use on their own.

For older students (including you):

• Write a Charlotte Mason–style narration or write a summary of what you’ve read in an assignment or book. 
• Take notes in cursive. Use the plethora of podcasts, sermons, videos, and free online lectures available. Let each family member take turns on the topic selection. Afterwards, discuss what each person wrote down. What’s valuable about what was said? Do you agree on the key points? What other questions do you have? Save your notes and bring the topic up later in the month. You may be surprised at what’s remembered or what general curiosity leads to. Do this periodically to refine skills. 

When trying these activities, I recommend not using pencils. There’s such a temptation to stop and erase. Stopping writing means stopping the brain/hand connection. Stopping writing means the ideas stop and more effort is needed to start again. If you must pencil (yes, that’s a verb), try one without an eraser. As you continue to practice fluid writing, the need for that eraser will diminish. (Aren’t erasers the first thing to go, anyway?)

Whether taking notes, freewriting, summarizing, or writing letters, keep your pen moving and keep expressing yourself through the written word!