Handwriting Without Tears

Most primary-age kids are busy in this high-tech age by multi-tasking, juggling the use of the computer for games and homework, and are fairly involved with extra-curriculars away from school, including ample use of gaming consoles and hand-held gaming devices. However, legible handwriting remains a concern for parents of these children, who would rather keyboard and do instant messaging than write traditional letters. Yes, teaching cursive still makes sense! And the more you nag, the less it works.

Depending on your school's district, chances are your child has already been introduced to a style of cursive writing, each method having its own mechanics and stylistic differences to form the printed word and cursive writing.

If you're a home school teacher, you will be pleased with the Handwriting Without Tears program. I believe it is the ultimate method for simplified letter formation and cursive writing.

On the other hand, if you're a parent or a teacher whose school district has adopted (adopted meaning reviewing, approving, and funding) another version (a few examples are D'Nealian, Zaner-Bloser, and Spalding), you might try to introduce this method to your school's staff and administration. An ideal plan would be to get this method adopted on the State level (by your State's Board of Education or similar agency). Your school's teachers (even on a district-wide level) could be provided with training, through flexible seminars held in your state. At press time, Handwriting Without Tears has been adopted by the State Boards of Education in Alabama, California, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

Teachers (and interested parents and occupational therapists) can take in-depth seminars to learn teaching methods in this wonderful program. Home-school teachers and parents can arm themselves with Teacher's Guides and Student Workbooks and help their child one-on-one. You can teach your child, through these workbooks, as if you are the child's personal handwriting tutor, and for much less money.

As a parent of a child who was introduced to another handwriting method, I found the mechanics of Jan Olson's Handwriting Without Tears flawless. Children learn to form letters very vertically and it is through this mechanism that the letters are easier to craft and to read. In fact, the finished cursive product is often very legible and corrects previous problems of possible of hand fatigue and cramping.

I started with the basic Cursive Handwriting book (the red book) and my child, a 4th grader at the time, would complete the review and mastery sections a little at a time (no more than five minutes). Essential to this approach is positive reinforcement and rewards when mastery is achieved. From there, we transitioned to the Cursive Success book (the blue book), which is where I saw the exciting results of the hard work achieved in the Cursive Handwriting workbook.

Not only is HWT an excellent practice approach, it spotlights which letters need practice on and which letters have been mastered. By the end of the book, the child will be writing fairly small cursive letters and words and will have implemented the necessary fine-motor skills, hand/eye coordination, and visual and cognitive abilities to successfully control cursive (including proper line placement and spacing).

The workbooks are a combination of work and fun. The teacher's guides provide a wide range of activities in the classroom and beyond. You can also buy supplies for the classroom including specially lined papers, posters, and more! The workbooks also are available in Spanish. Two pencil's up to Jan Z. Olsen's successful Handwriting Without Tears program. You've made our children's world a more legible place!