What is CSMP Math?

After being hung up with various illnesses and getting behind with math, we have finally finished! It was nevertheless a very fun and exciting first year with CSMP (Comprehensive School Mathematics Program). It is a very dull and boring name for a program that maintains that "the usual drill techniques are, unfortunately, dull, stultifying and sometimes even counterproductive." In other words, it designed to be fun.

I understand that CSMP was created during the "Space Race" era in order to help American students to better excel in mathematics. Apparently, some research was done to determine how children best learn math, and CSMP is what they came up with. The now defunct program has been made availabe on the Internet for free. That's right! It is absolutely FREE!

I began looking for a new program for Grasshopper when she was 5yo. We were using a worksheet-based math program, and all she could say about math was that she hated it. Yet I knew that she was good at. So why not do something to make it more enjoyable?

I was first introduced to CSMP at Mark's site. Mark has taken his first child all the way through 6th grade with CSMP, and he is nearly finished with the second. There were two things that really drew me to the program: (1) Its use of stories and discussion, and (2) its introduction of traditionally higher level material to younger children on their level.

Following is a description of the program:

1. It is a spiral program. But the spiral is a fairly loose one. And each time a topic is revisited, it is also built upon. So there is repetition built in to the program, but the child never has to repeat the exact same lesson or worksheet. Consequently, I never felt that I should skip an entire lesson. There were portions that I skipped if I thought it was overly repetitive, but there is new material in every lesson.
2. The manual is very well scripted. I always know exactly what to say, what to write and what to do. However, I never feel tied to the script. If Grasshopper wants to delve more deeply into a topic, we do. And if I feel that the material is too easy, we skip it.
3. The program uses the Socratic method, meaning that the teacher does not lecture the students or even demonstrate the material. Rather, the teacher guides the students to figure out the concepts on their own.
4. Mental math is very much emphasized.
5. CSMP seeks to integrate math with other subjects and areas of life. Each lesson contains suggestions for supplemental assignments, such as books to read, writing assignments, center activities, etc.
6. The program is teacher intensive. Every lesson is to be taught by the teacher. Worksheets are merely supplemental and cannot take the place of the lesson.
7. CSMP is adaptable to all types of learning styles--auditory, visual and kinesthenic. The stories and discussion are geared to the auditory learner. Their are lots of pictoral representations of math concepts designed for the visual learner. And their are manipulatives and opportunities to draw concepts on paper or on a board for the kinesthenic learner.
8. My favorite aspect to the program is that it presents higher level concepts at a younger child's level. In the first grade program, Grasshopper was introduced to concepts such as probability, adding negative numbers, multiplication, and fractions (even multiplying by fractions!). I highly recommend it for a child that is gifted in math.

Because CSMP has such a unique way of teaching, it might be difficult to jump into the program with an older child. But both the Kindergarten and First Grade materials assume no prior exposure to CSMP. But if you have an older child that hates math, I wouldn't be afraid to try it out. After all, it is FREE!

In spite of the nice pricetag, however, there are a fair amount of items to be printed, namely worksheets and storybooks. But I still think it is a great deal!

To get feel for the program, you really have to look at some lesson plans. Check out the First Grade lesson plans and just randomly read through a few. (Watch out, it is huge document. You want to go to Section Four.) It is amazing how they manage to touch to many different concepts, even within the same lesson.

If you have any questions, leave a comment, and I will send you an e-mail.

Duh!! My Scheduling Epiphany

For some time now, I have felt that I wasn't quite getting everything done. An art lesson skipped here, a science lesson skipped there. It seemed that we could barely get the basics done, which for us is just math and spelling. And I also feel a lot of guilt for letting piano lessons go.

Well, one morning over breakfast, I pulled out my math manual to look over the lesson for that day. Grasshopper says to me, "Let's do math now!" My gut told me to say, "No." After all, we hadn't even had our devotional yet, which is supposed to set the tone for the rest of the day. But Grasshopper persisted, and I relented--just this once. But then we got math done before we finished breakfast, and we were still able to start school around the same time--only with one subject already tackled.

I started to think about all time that we spend on meals. With littles, they are eating five times per day. And they are soooooooo slow! So I figure that is at least 4 hours per day minimum on cooking and eating. No wonder we had trouble getting things done! So now we are doing math every day at breakfast, and the devotional from the previous day is just going to have to cover it. And I am now adding in some read-alouds during meal and snack times. I have been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and I can't believe how much we are getting done!

And it took me almost two full years of homeschooling to figure it out.

Speech Therapy: What We Have Learned

I want to take a little time to write about our family's experience with speech therapy for Cricket as he approaches his 3rd birthday and ages out of our state's Early Intervention program. At Cricket's 2-year pediatric exam, we were referred for speech therapy. Shortly thereafter, his expressive speech was assessed at about a 15-month ability. (And that took into account about 50 ASL signs that we had taught him.) We were fortunate to end up with a fabulous speech therapist, but I am sad to say that the philosophy that she uses and teaches is rarely used in the Midwest, where we live. I write this with the hope of educating other parents seeking help with their speech-delayed children.

Our initial experience with speech therapy was not a good one. By the third session, the speech therapist was asking my 2yo to make his own schedule and mark off each item as they completed them. When she asked him what he wanted to do, he would tell her; but then she would tell him he couldn't do that activity. In other words, she already had her own plan, so I could not understand why she even bothered to ask him what he wanted to do.

My other concern was that she refused to use activities that were of high interest to Cricket. As a typical boy, he absolutely loved sports and vehicles. However, she never brought those sorts of activities. I also advised her that he really loved the alphabet and phonics. Although this may be an unusual interest for a 2yo, I thought it would be very easy to integrate this interest into a speech therapy program. But she made no effort to satisfy his needs, but rather, she kept to her own agenda. I also discovered later, that the sounds she was working on with him were not appropriate for his age.

We very quickly requested a new therapist, and we had the very good fortune of getting one that was Hanen-certified. We did not know then that is was good, but our experience has told us that it is. With this approach, speech is integrated into all of life--not just one or two sessions per week. This means that the speech pathologist becomes a trainer and teacher to the parents, which substantially speeds up the child's progress.

The first thing we were told was to stop asking the Cricket questions and telling him what to say. You see, when our children are learning how to speak, we parents get very excited and ask all sorts of questions to spur conversations with them, and we give endless commands to, "Say XYZ." But for a child that struggles with speech, this is a very heavy burden for them and usually results in the child "shutting down" and ignoring the parents or refusing to speak. Instead, dh and I were taught to model the words that Cricket might want to say.

So, for example, if Cricket were point to the milk to indicate that he wanted some, we were not to tell him to say, "Milk, please." Rather, we are supposed to say, "Milk, please," and leave it at that. If Cricket wanted to imitate, he could, but he had the option not to. The speech therapist promised us that within a week or two, he would begin to imitate words on his own. And she was absolutely right. Once we gave Cricket control over his own speech, we saw a huge leap in the frequency with which he spoke.

From this point, the speech therapist helped us to walk Cricket through each developmental speech step that he had missed, in the order and at the time that it ordinarily occurs in typical children. Some of the steps included putting the -ing on the end of verbs (I'm eating, I'm jumping, etc.), negation (I don't like, I am not, etc.), using articles (a/an/the) and practicing nasal sounds (/m/ and /n/). As the parents, we are never to require correct speech, even if we know he is capable of it. Instead, we train his ears to recognize how things are supposed to sound. We constantly model what he wants to say. When he says something wrong, we are supposed to model the correct way without requiring him to say it. But most of the time, Cricket will correct himself when he hears us model the correct way. He also often self-corrects before anyone identifies the mistake for him, so I know that this approach is working.

The speech therapist's help was absolutely critical. It was vital that I know at what point to teach each step. If you try to teach it before a child is developmentally ready, everyone will get frustrated. If you wait too long, then the child develops incorrect habits that are difficult to overcome. Cricket is now doing very well. He is still only at about a 24-month level in terms of intelligibility, but he has made about a year's worth of progress in about 8 months.

Before this experience, I was very cynical of speech therapy in general, because there is no way to know whether it is working, or whether the same progress would be made without it. I also had speech therapy in kindergarten, which I absolutely hated. It made me feel completely incompetent, and I wanted to crawl under a rock. After my experiences with Cricket, I am still cynical of traditional speech therapy, but I know that this particular approach works wonders. I would encourage anyone needing a speech therapist to seek out one that is Hanen-certified.

What Does Freedom Mean to a Home School?

As a citizen of Illinois, I am reeling in the wake of SB 136, which proposed to require every home schooled student to be registered with the State, and left all registration requirements up to the State Board of Education. Since my children are not yet old enough to be required to be in any school at all, I was really caught off guard. Now I feel that I really need to wrap my brain around what our educational freedom in the state means for my family.

My original intrigue with home schooling developed when I worked as a legal secretary (before kids) and met a receptionist from a neighboring office who was only 16yo. A young person attending a brick & mortar school could not have worked in a law firm at that age simply because of the hours. I saw that home schooling gives students the freedom to take advantage of educational opportunities that would not otherwise be available.

As I had my own children, my next thoughts were about all of the bullying and teasing that I endured as a public school student. People say that schools provide socialization and prepare children to work with others as adults. But as an adult, I have never had a job whose only requirements were geographic location and age. Furthermore, I have never had a co-worker make fun of me. Not for my clothes, my body, my hair, my lack of athleticism. Not for anything. Home schooling gives me the freedom to protect my children from bullying and assaults.

As my oldest grew, I could see that she was not going to be academically ordinary. She was reading by 4yo. And at 6yo, she can read years beyond her age. If she were to go to school, we would have to choose between putting her with her age-peers or putting her with her academic peers, or something in-between. Home schooling gives me the freedom to challenge her academically while allowing her to be a 6yo. That means that math can be done on a white board, because her handwriting has not yet caught up with her math ability. It means that I can let her make maps of each kingdom of ancient history by using typed up labels, again because of the writing issue. It also means that she does not have to participate in a reading program, because she is already reading quite well. It means that I can choose not to teach her grammar (even though she is academically capable of learning it) simply because 6yo's shouldn't have to worry about grammar. While b&m schools often have gifted programs, I don't believe that they can fully meet my dd's needs the way I can at home.

Then as I started home schooling a year and a half ago, I started to educate myself on the different educational philosophies. Home schooling gives me the freedom to teach my children cursive first (before manuscript). Home schooling gives me the freedom to teach history in a chronological order while integrating literature from the time period we are studying. Home schooling gives me the freedom to teach a foreign language to my rising 1st grader or Latin to my middle schooler. Home schooling gives me the freedom to teach diagramming sentences to support their writing and foreign language skills. Home schooling gives me the freedom to use the Socratic method in teaching, a method used almost exclusively in law schools, and a method whose effectiveness has been proven over many centuries. Home schooling gives me the freedom to abandon textbooks in favor of living books.

When I was in high school, I thought I was getting a good education. By my senior year, I was getting a 3.8 GPA while taking almost all AP classes in a suburban school that was considered to be a good school. Looking back, I can tell you that I took no history courses except for some 20th Century Modern History survey courses. (I am really glad that I took Art History, because it was the only exposure that I had to history before 1900.) I took one and one half years of literature classes and read the sum total of about 450 pages of classic literature. I took a dance class that counted as an English credit. I took four years of Spanish yet could not speak it. This is abysmal! And things are so much worse in the schools now. All you politicians out there that want to check up on me and my children, please rest assured that I can do a better job than was done with me.

"Why Do You Homeschool?"

As I watch Grasshopper's friends head to kindergarten, it gives me pause to contemplate anew the answers to this question. For it is not the same as it was a year or two ago, or more.

Eliminating Wasted Time and Taking Advantage of Opportunities

My original interest in homeschooling centered around the wasted time and the opportunities that could be taken advantage of if that waste were eliminated. I thought primarily of the high school years, during which a young person could have a chance to be employed in jobs that were only available during the school hours. As much as I personally got out of my job working at Kentucky Fried Chicken for three years, it never looked good on a resume and was never valued in the world. But when I met a homeschooled 16yo working in a law office, I thought that was a much more beneficial experience.


An Opportunity to Work at a More Advanced Level

After I had Grasshopper, it became quickly clear that she was gifted. While she is not the kid that will be attending college at 10yo, she is certainly ahead of her age-peers. As we have discussed schooling options with her, she has asked about why she can't go to public school with the other children. We have responded that in kindergarten, they will be teaching such things as letters, counting and colors--things she has known now for three years. She didn't complain, and I suppose she simply accepted the explanation. But recently, I was contacted by a friend of mine whose daughter is the same age as Grasshopper and attending public kindergarten. She wanted to know what she could use to teach her daughter to read, because she was bored. Grasshopper questioned me about it and was impressed that what we had told her about kindergarten was true. Later, as we were talking about future plans and goals, she asked, "You aren't going to send me to school, are you!"

So this is why we homeschooled kindergarten last year. At 4yo, there is no way that any kindergarten would have accepted her. But I was not yet committed to always homeschooling, because after she was old enough to go to school, there always would be a chance that a school would be able to accommodate her giftedness. However, over this past year of learning about my daughter and her gifts, I have also learned that the chances of finding a school that would accommodate her is very slim, at least in the early years when she is learning how to write.


Accommodating Asynchrony

You see, most people believe that an advanced child is equally advanced in all areas. But while a child may be advanced in all areas, it is very rare to find one that is equally advanced in all of those areas. And it is actually quite common to find that a gifted child is deficient in some areas. Handwriting seems to be the most common area of concern. And this is easy to see, as handwriting requires a certain degree of physical development. It doesn't matter how well one understands how writing is to be done--it still requires a certain amount of experience and practice to do it correctly. So a gifted kindergartner may be reading Harry Potter and doing multiplication and division on his own. Yet he may be barely able to write his name or compose a simple card.

For this reason, simply accellerating a child in school may not be a sufficient accommodation. And that is certainly the case with Grasshopper. While I think that she is a little ahead of her age-peers in her handwriting, it is not by much. I have also noted that her attention span is not much more advanced that her friends'. She still learns a lot through pretend, an activity that you may not see as much in the curricula of higher grade levels.

So let's say I am actually able to convince a school to accellerate her to first grade for this school year. She does her math worksheets every day but eventually starts to complain. But she is a good kid and keeps on doing that work, though it takes her longer and longer each day. Then one day she asks to learn multiplication. Is there really any chance that the teacher will agree? I don't believe so. But this is exactly what happened last year. I gave her the multiplication book, and she spent the remainder of the school year doing multiplication instead of her kindergarten math. She was happy as a clam.

Meanwhile, I knew that she wasn't ready to just move on to third grade math. So I searched for a curriculum that would be more interesting for her, both in terms of offering higher level content, as well as manner of teaching. We started at a 1st grade level this year, and so far we both love it. I have to compact it a bit since some of the concepts taught (like counting), she knows solidly. But it includes an introduction to a lot of other math concepts that we are really enjoying, such as the commutative property, probability, and charts and graphs.

We have done essentially the same thing with our other subjects. A school teacher would be unable to do this, no matter how well-informed on the subject of giftedness. It is much easier for me to use my time and energy to find, implement and tweak the right curriculum to fit my daughter's needs than to spend my resources getting others to do so.


Developing a Love of Learning and a Solid Work Ethic

I admit that there is a part of me that thinks that a child has to learn to work within a system and to do what others do and what authorities demand. I did it, and you probably did, too. And most of the time, I was okay with it. In kindergarten, I circled the dog that was bigger, even though I thought it was a joke that we were even asked to do it. In third grade, I wrote those spelling words ten times each, even though I already knew how to spell them.

But when I really think about it, I can remember some problems. In first grade, my teacher asked my mother to have my hearing checked, because I wasn't doing my work. My hearing was fine. But because I was in a split class with second graders, I was doing the second grade work instead of my own. Perhaps I was so involved in it that I really did not hear my own assignments. Or maybe I chose not to do them. I don't remember. But it was a clear sign that I was bored and insufficiently challenged.

My resulting problems were minor at the time. But the result was that all of my work throughout all of my primary and secondary education was easy. I learned that education was easy and not worth working at. In high school, I didn't go to awards ceremonies or even my graduation, because I believed that I should not celebrate that which I did not work for. I do not want my children to feel this way about education. I want them to love to learn and be willing to work at it. I believe they will be much better off in the world if they do. And I don't believe that my particular children will learn it in a public school setting.


Socialization

There are many that criticize homeschooling for its lack of socialization. I would contend, however, that any person is socialized simply by being around people, be they peers, teachers, siblings or parents. So the question is whether that socialization is the right kind. I suggest that the right kind of socialization is the kind that prepares a person to eventually be a responsible, healthy adult.

In order to determine the right kind of socialization for my own children, I first have my own socialization experiences to draw on. Throughout elementary school, I had just one friend. I was not interested in most of what the other kids were doing or playing, so I usually sat out. I craved in-depth conversation, and I couldn't bear the superficial conversations that other kids ordinarily had. If other kids had invited me to play, I might have participated more. But that sort of thing doesn't happen a lot in a school setting.

As an introvert, I would have been content to be alone most of the time. But I was easy prey for bullies. I harbored no bad feelings towards other children. I didn't understand why others would do and say things for the sole purpose of making a child cry. Yet it happened to me all the time. And because I thought that this meant that there was something wrong with me, I never told a soul. During my lifetime, although I have never questioned my intelligence, I have never really been able to rid my mind of those teasing, taunting voices. Whenever I plan to get together with a new friend, and plans get cancelled, I secretly wonder in the back recesses of my mind if they discovered what those kids from elementary school saw in me. I do talk myself out of it, and remind myself that I no longer live in that world. But the voices are always there, however faint.

I see all of those same characteristics in Grasshopper (hence her Internet name--a Kung Fu reference). I know that she would go to school, endure the teasing, cry in secret, and never tell a soul. And I am certain that she would grow up with those same voices telling her that there was something wrong with her. She is the most capable child that I know, academically, emotionally, socially. And I cannot bear the thought of a childhood of bullying erasing her knowledge and understanding of her gifts.

At no time in our adult lives are we grouped together based solely on age and geography. Yet so many people believe that this is what children need in order to become healthy adults. Right now, Grasshopper can play with children of any age and also engage adults in worthwhile conversations. But in school, playing with children in different classes is highly frowned upon. And heaven forbid if you openly enjoy the company of an adult! No, that is not the kind of socialization that I want for my children.

By the way, when I went to junior high and high school, that one friend of mine from elementary school started drinking, smoking and doing drugs. If friends had been more important to me, I could have followed suit and had many friends. But I declined and was left without friends for a while.

As a homeschooling parent, it will certainly mean more work for me to make sure my kids have friends. But it will be worth it if we can avoid the highly negative socialization that goes on in schools.


Family Bonding

A new friend of mine who was homeschooled as a teenager was recently recounting why her parents began homeschooling. They were concerned that each family member was doing his own thing, and their family was not operating as a unit. They wanted to foster love and unity in their family. As I listened to her story, I felt in my heart that this was also my reason to homeschool. My mother has a sister who will not talk to the rest of the family, and consequently, I haven't seen my cousins in over 10 years. My mother's brother moved to Florida and has not stayed in contact. I haven't seen my father's sister since my grandmother died about a decade ago. My sister will no longer speak to my mother. I believe that this scenario has become epidemic in our society, and I don't want it to happen to my family. My kids love each other and play so well together. In spite of the strong toddler urge to say, "Mine," and, "No," they share with each other and do not hoard their possessions.

Someone might contend that my kids are sheltered. But Grasshopper has three community classes per week, and is considered a model child. We formed a play group that meets once per week, and she has many, many friends. She easily and voluntarily invites new children into the group. She is appropriately wary of strangers, but she is quite comfortable and appropriate with those she knows. I have never had anyone who knows her suggest she needs any work in the area of socialization. For this reason and all the others stated above, I believe that we are on the right path for now.

Spell to Write and Read

Last year, I purchased Spelling Workout for Grasshopper on the advice of The Well-Trained Mind (TWTM), which cited it as the top-pick for spelling programs. As much as I love TWTM, I am afraid that following this particular suggestion left us looking for another program. I wanted to find a more strongly phonics-based program that we wouldn't have to alter to accommodate Grasshopper's age (5yo) and writing ability (about 5-6yo). (We ended up doing Spelling Workout orally. This would have been fine if she were learning something, but she was just memorizing the spelling words rather than learning how to spell.)

Because Grasshopper has a very interactive learning style, I was looking for something that we would be able to do together rather than an independent worksheet-type program. I had heard about learning spelling through dictation (Charlotte Mason style), and I started asking whether such a program existed. Well, as it turns out, we found Spell to Write and Read, which is not at all like what I originally was asking about. What drew me to this program was its strong emphasis on the rules of reading and spelling. (Grasshopper is very rule-oriented. If I don't teach her a rule, she will make one up. This goes for any situation.)

Spell to Write and Read (SWR) is just as its title says--children learn to write and to read by spelling first. I know it sounds backwards. But by teaching children 70 phonograms and 28 spelling rules, they can learn to spell, even if they are not reading yet. And doing so gives a new reader a solid phonics foundation. Now Grasshopper has already been reading for some time, so we are using it strictly as a spelling program. (Click here for a detailed description of SWR.)

We starting using SWR two weeks ago, and so far we are really enjoying it. Grasshopper is actually asking to do more spelling. As I have researched the program and prepared to teach it, I have come to believe that this method of teaching reading, writing and spelling concurrently is the best method. (However, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I have little experience with other programs beyond a little research.) While there are many programs that teach the same 70 phonograms and 28 spelling rules, SWR appears to teach them more thoroughly, using a multi-sensory approach that suits any and all learning styles. The child learns the phonograms and spelling rules by seeing them (visual), saying them (auditory), and writing them (kinesthetic).

Another great feature of SWR is that in one Core Kit costing about $100, you get everything you need for all years of spelling that they will take. SWR is often compared to All About Spelling, which costs $250 for the same amount of teaching material.

Despite my excitement for SWR, I must warn that SWR is not for the faint of heart. Following is a list of difficulties that I have found with the program.

1. SWR is very teacher-intensive. It requires planning ahead, dictating spelling words and playing games with your child. I can see that once we get into the program for a few weeks, it will be a little more open-and-go. But the upfront time investment is enormous. (I spent a couple of weeks just reading the book and another couple of weeks starting my own log before I started the program with Grasshopper.) For this reason, I would caution you against starting SWR when you are in the midst of a huge transition such as moving or having a new baby.
2. The SWR book is poorly written, making it very difficult to decipher what you are actually supposed to do. The fact that the chapters are labled "Step 1, Step 2, . . ." is very misleading. It is very verbose and written in almost a "stream of consciousness" format, as though someone wrote out everything they did but never went back to make sure it was in order and made sense. For example, Step 3 is "Read Aloud to All Ages," Step 14 is "Expose to Classical Literature," and Step 23 is "Assign Reading in Books." By themselves, each chapter is a good read. But these are things that most of us are already doing, and you have to read through these pages to get to the parts that you actually need in order to be able to implement the program. This is just one example of many, and it is unfortunate because it does not have to be this way.
3. My personal belief is that programs ought to be able to be modified for the individual learning and familial circumstances. Ideally, SWR should be implemented as written, as doing so will guarantee the greatest success. But we cannot always have "ideal." However, the author and trainers on the Yahoo group are so adamant that SWR be implemented as written that they are unwilling to help exasperated mothers to adjust the program to their families and individual children. I believe that this approach only drives people away from using a great program. So, for example, if you have a 4yo that is dying to read but is not ready for writing, requests for help will result in advice to not allow him to learn to read yet. If your family is struggling because SWR is taking too long, the advice will be to hang in there and perhaps divide each session into two sessions per day. You will get little assistance paring down the amount of work.
4. Similar to number 3, above, I have found it difficult to get assistance to modify SWR for a 5yo that is reading well above grade level. [I recently asked the list about how to answer Grasshopper when she was asking how to spell a word. (Should I answer with letters, or with phonograms, even though she is not learning the multi-letter phonograms, yet?) The author, Wanda Sanseri, gave me a great answer about moving ahead with the phonograms, even though we hadn't started the spelling lists, yet. Then a trainer offered me a schedule for older children. When I asked how I might modify it for Grasshopper, she told me I should only teach her the 26 letters of the alphabet. When I pointed out Ms. Sanseri's advice, the trainer was unable to offer any advice on how to proceed. I could have asked again on the list, but by that time I just didn't want to bother with it.]

In spite of all this, I still think this is a wonderful program. But I hope after reading this, you can purchase it with your eyes open.

Cursive First Review

I have been reading a lot about teaching cursive first, before manuscript. In theory, it makes a lot of sense. It is the fastest way to write, and when anyone needs to take notes from a lecturer, writing fast is advantageous. It also makes sense that we learn best what we learn first. Additionally, I have old letters written by my grandparents that date back over 80 years--love letters to each other from before they were married--that I want my children to be able to read. And I think it would be hard to read cursive if you haven't learned how to write it.

I started Cursive First with Grasshopper, now 5 1/2 yo, a couple of months ago. Grasshopper has been writing manuscript for 2 years, so for her, this is not her first writing instruction. I chose Cursive First, because it is integrated with our spelling program, Spell to Write and Read, and because I had hoped to use it for Cricket in a couple of years.

The various pieces arrived in a ziploc bag. I received a thin manual, practice pages, and flashcards printed 4 to a page, which needed to be cut apart. I am not at all impressed with Cursive First.

• It comes in loose pages. I suppose that this keeps the price down, but I then had to buy page protectors and a binder, so I was not able to organize the materials until I could go on a shopping trip. I would have liked to have a consumable workbook and just have it all bound. Of course, I can use my original as consumable workpages, but then there is still the issue of storing them.
• The assignments are half pages, but not exactly half. So when you cut the pages on the line, you do not have equal size sheets of paper. The worksheets look like they were made up on a computer and printer from 10 years ago and never updated. This is not a big deal, but it contributes to the overall impression of the program.
• There is very little actual instruction. The booklet that comes with it contains information about proper posture and pencil grip, as well as suggestions for lesson plans and scheduling. But there is little guidance about how to teach the child to write, except for some pre-writing activity suggestions (like salt boxes).
• For each letter taught, there are no arrows to show which way to write the letter. There are only a couple of letters to trace and then a lot of blank space for the child to practice on his own.
• There are a lot of assignments devoted to practicing writing the phonograms but very few opportunities to write complete words, and there are no complete sentences at all. The manual suggests having the beginning writer practice 2-3 lines per day. But Cursive First gives mostly just individual letters with 1-2 actual words on each assignment page--tedious and boring! Maybe it is fine for a child that can't read, yet. But there is no way that I can get Grasshopper to write 2-3 lines of meaningless letters. But she will happily write complete sentences, especially if they are interesting and meaningful to her.

After Grasshopper finished learning the alphabet, I purchased the StartWrite software and started giving her copywork. (The Modern Cursive font is the same one that is used for Cursive First. I like it because every letter starts on the bottom line, preventing confusion about where to start each letter.) Fortunately, writing comes pretty easily to dd. But I think that Cursive First would be lacking for the average child and entirely insufficient for the child that struggles with writing. If you don't anticipate writing difficulties, I would recommend just using StartWrite and making your own worksheets. Otherwise, I would look into something with more help for both the teacher and the child.

Concerning teaching cursive before manuscript, I was skeptical at first, and to some degree, I suppose I still am. The transition has been difficult for her, and for that reason, I am inclined to support the teaching of cursive first with younger children. Nevertheless, I still have concerns about teaching cursive first to a young child. (Grasshopper was 3yo when she started to write manuscript.) Cursive First is not designed for children younger than 5yo, and I am not sure what programs, if any are designed to teach cursive first to a younger child.