This is the next topic which will be added to the web page. As you can see, we now have a heading for this topic.
The subjects which will be included here are:
Penmanship
Grammar
Spelling The information on spelling is contained in its own page as it is quite long.
Writing
There are two commonly used forms for teaching penmanship to children: manuscript and D'Nealian which will be discussed here. Another form is Italic.
The manuscript form of teaching writing to children has been called the "ball and stick" form of letter writing which is what you and I were taught. I, personally, prefer teaching this form of writing to young children. I feel that the process of learning to write this way works on their fine motor coordination in a way the other forms do not. Most workbooks come with this form.
A sample of the manuscript form of letters
is below.
A B C D E
F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m
n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Another popular method for teaching writing is called D'Nealian. These letters do not havestraight up and down sticks as the manuscript form; but have instead curved tails on all the letters. Proponents state that teaching children to write this way provides a better transition to cursive writing. Some companies now publish workbooks with the D'Nealian form as it is popular in some schools and among some homeschoolers. Though it can be taught well, I have found, more often than not, the children using this method have sloppier handwriting than those who have been taught using the manuscript form.