New American Cursive StartWrite Software

New American Cursive teaches your child cursive skills beginning in first grade. There are fewer strokes, a natural right slant, and the strokes are simplified. The program’s philosophy is that students have the motor skills to write cursive at the first grade level, but when we wait to teach them at about third grade, they go back to the speed of first grade writing as they transition from print to cursive.

Mr. Meerkat guides your child through each book as he shows the way to draw each letter and encourages creativity. Each lesson includes 3 different types of practice pages. The first page is the instruction page on which students follow a 3-step process under Mr. Meerkat’s direction. Students first say the letter followed by feeling the letter. In this second step, students trace large format letters with their finger and are also encouraged to write the letters in the air or draw them on a table with their finger. The third step is to write the letter, both upper and lower case, first by tracing and then by forming the letter freehand.

The second page of the lesson is a practice page, and the third page contains fun exercises and artwork. Students will practice letter connections, words, and short sentences and even have an opportu­nity to draw something fun. A reminder for proper paper placement and pencil position is placed at the bottom of pages throughout the book.