Live Cursive Handwriting Lesson | Homeschool | October 2018

I'm pulling this out from the Pepper and Pine Archive! Never posted. If you are enjoying this at the time of release in 2025, know that this video is 7 years old. Much as passed since that time.

Here's a live homeschooling lesson for cursive handwriting for my 12-year-old son. Handwriting has always been a struggle for my boys, but with practice, they've definitely improved. I've teetered on the fence of whether or not to teach cursive handwriting and insist that my students master this skill. While I've presented and taught cursive handwriting to each of my students so far, I have not insisted that they master it or use it in their dictation, copywork or narrations. Because they've struggled with it, I left it off until they were better at handwriting and more willing to try. With my 12-year-old son, that time never came. He always complained and disliked it. With other lessons that were more pressing, I didn't choose this battle, and rather dismissed the lessons before mastery.

This year, I've approached cursive handwriting differently, as so far it's been hugely successful. First, I made DIY handwriting paper with one of our 'mini' chalkboards we got from Waldorf Supplies. It's 22"x32", so not tiny by any means, but certainly smaller than my mounted 4'x6' chalkboard. These are small enough to be portable and light enough to be mounted with mounting tape. I drew in lines for him and gave him a piece of white chalk to practice our copywork which consists of Islamic Dua from the book The Accepted Whispers. By writing complete sentences, or rather just words, my son has learned cursive handwriting in a more enjoyable format. Rather than toil through lines of H's and R's, he can write whole words and sentences. The other thing that has made this more successful than past attempts is using chalk. While some may disagree on the use of chalk to learn handwriting versus becoming accustomed to using a pencil or a pen, it was the preferred method for centuries. Using chalk allows for a smoothness that easier to achieve than with pencil. You can also easily erase simple mistakes and keep going and it's environmentally conscience.

Our chalkboard rests easily on my son's desk and with a mini erasers, he can practice as much as we needs. The limited lines and large format also eases students into mastering the cursive handwriting skill.

Since the introduction of cursive handwriting in this way, not only has my son dramatically improved his handwriting, he willing does his lessons and even asks to do them!

We used chalkboard that can be found at Waldorf Supplies:
https://www.waldorfsupplies.com/?s=ch...

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