ABC's and Sweet Tea: CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive by CursiveLogic ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

I have heard through the years that a lot of the public school systems no longer teach cursive. I guess with all of the computers taking over, then maybe it's a lost art to some. I however, believe that it's extremely important to learn cursive for many reasons. So, for the last few weeks, we have been working on Gavin's cursive with the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive by CursiveLogic.

I'm going to be honest, we have tried another cursive program in the past. In fact, it was the same company we had used to improve his handwriting after quitting public school. As much as he loved the handwriting program, the cursive program just wasn't a great fit for him.

With Gav being older at 12, I knew that the program would have to be something he enjoyed because otherwise he wouldn't really "want" to do it. I was pleasantly surprised that he was eager and ready to get into this program. He has always had issues with his handwriting, and I am really hoping that mastering cursive can give him more confidence in himself.

How does CursiveLogic work?

The entire program is based on shapes and having the student learn those shapes to form the letters and letter strings. The student will start making connections from the first day that they start. Each letter string they learn, will have a different "catch phrase" to help them memorize how that shape connects to the letter string itself. In all, there are four different letter strings for the student to learn, but they will start writing real words the very first week! It's honestly a very simple but extremely logical and effective method!

One thing that grabbed me from the start is that it's not just a humdrum boring set of letters thrown at the student to remember. They use a multi-sensory approach that uses a number of things including color, movement, verbal and auditory tools. When all of these different tools are used it will trigger your child's memory each time. This is one of the reasons that this program is great for a wide range of different styles of learning!

Before starting the lessons, there are a few things that you might need to know to help teach your child this program. When you order the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack, you will also receive an instructional webinar. The video is about an hour long, but is full of information to insure that your child is successful with this program! She gives information on everything you need to know from why they use the letter strings to how your child should be sitting and holding their pencil. She goes over every aspect of CursiveLogic so that you can have all of the tools you need to help your student along the way.

How did we use this in our school?

Like I said, Gav was eager to get started so we jumped right in. I watched the webinar that I spoke about above, and we were on our way. Before we ever got started we worked through the intro and talked about the proper way to hold our pencil, and also paper placement.

The first lesson, Orange Oval Letters, will give you an idea of how CursiveLogic uses the shapes and letter strings.

The lesson starts explaining what the basic shape is that your student will be working on, and in this case it's a right-slanting oval. The catch phrase that goes with this letter string is "Over back-trace {letter name}." Each Lesson is then broken down into 4 days. Each day will offer another skill to tie into the shape and letter string for that lesson.

Here you can see Gav working on the oval letter string for the first lesson.

I also wanted to mention that the workbook is designed so that it works perfectly for either a left handed or right handed student. I can definitely appreciate this being a lefty myself. The spiral is at the top of the notebook rather than on the side, so the student works through one entire side before flipping it to the back.

Your student will work through and learn all of the lower case letters first, and then will flip their notebook over and move on to capital letters. We have gotten through almost all of the lower case letters so far in the short few weeks we've been using this program.

What do we think?

I think this is the best cursive program we have used. I didn't have a good picture of Gavin's before handwriting and after, so I am just going to show you his print writing, which he's always struggled with and still does. The next picture is his cursive progress in just the short time we've been using this program.

I really feel that knowing cursive is going to give him an advantage in his handwriting. He won't get as frustrated with all of the writing he has to do because it will go faster if he's using cursive. I think that anyone wanting to teach their child cursive will be happy with this product. Since it caters to all styles of learning, pretty much anyone can use it!

I also want to mention another beautifully illustrated product that they offer. It's called The Art of Cursive, and it's an adult coloring book that goes right along side the program! It uses the skills that they've learned and turns them into beautiful pictures that can be colored. Gav is going to get the coloring book as kind of a reward for finishing the program. He loves to be creative so it will be right up his alley!

Again, if you are looking for a solid, easy to understand program, I highly recommend the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack by CursiveLogic. I definitely think you will be happy with it!

Last but not least, CursiveLogic is offering our readers a limited offer of 20% off so take advantage while you can! Use the code CREW2018 at checkout!