Review: CursiveLogic

We have been fortunate enough these last few weeks to be able to be working on our cursive through a great program the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack.  We've also had some wonderful coloring fun with  The Art of Cursive. Both of these great products are available from CursiveLogic. I think cursive is very beautiful and it makes me sad that so many schools are choosing not to continue teaching the program. When I was growing up we were taught that our signature was cursive, plain and simple. We'd need that signature to get a bank account, buy a car or house and complete any major transaction. We are working on teaching our third child to write cursive.  Our youngest child is 10 years old and has dealt with fine motor issues his entire life.  Learning to write was extremely difficult for him and honestly he's still struggling for others to be able to read his writing. Several therapists have recommended over the years that cursive might be a better method for him. The way the letters flow together and connect might be easier for him to manage they thought. We've tried a few workbooks and printouts, but nothing seemed to click.  The CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack was really the first official program that we tried for cursive. 

While we were awaiting the arrival of our books we received a webinar to watch that taught the basics of the program.  That was where I learned that their letters are grouped by shape and they all have connected letter strings. In this program your student will never write a disconnected letter.  There are several groupings that the letters fall into. 
 The first is Orange Oval and those letters are a/c/d/g/q/o. This is where we spent the most time working in during this review period. 
Grouping these letters together helps start this program off in the most successful way possible.  The program also includes "sayings" that the student should repeat each time they are writing. This verbal cue helps the student to write the letters correctly.  For Orange Oval the students will repeat Over Back Trace.  For many children these verbal cues help them to be more productive. It's also suggested to try and write the letters in the group in the color that their group contains. For Orange Oval the student could write in orange while repeating over back trace. This gives them a visual as well as auditory cue while working on their letters.  The student is said to be able to master the program and cursive in ten weeks, but again with any program you can adapt it for your child if needed. 
Issac has had a love/hate relationship with the thought of cursive writing. He's really wanted to learn to write cursive, but felt it was very hard when he tried. I was very optimistic and excited about this program for him.  He really liked that the groups were color coordinated and I think that's because he is a child that often needs those cues to help him be successful. I recommended he write with a marker, but he found that too hard. I tried to suggest he use an orange pencil then, but he really only wanted to use a pen. I have to admit that as early on as I could get away with it I would chose a pen over a pencil any day. He is one of my children that follows my footsteps in that area :) We worked on the "mantras" as I'll call them for the auditory cue in the writing, but he didn't care for them. He said he didn't want to say them aloud, but said them in his "mind", but I can't really say if he did. I usually tried sitting with him and saying it because I really do feel it is helpful.  At the beginning of the book there is an area for your student to write, so that you can later compare their progress. I have to say that we didn't have a ton of progress. That's not to say this program isn't great, but we didn't progress on the level that others might. I feel that Issac needed much more practice and if there were a way to log into an account and print additional pages for practice that would be great for a student like him.  We won't be able to complete this program in ten weeks, but we'll continue to work through it on our level. We often have to slow things down and more often than not need quite a bit more practice and review than the average child. I'll be honest that I'm not sure Issac's cursive will ever look great, but I do want him to be able to sign his name for those important documents that he'll need to sign. 

 This is Issac's starting writing. The program likes the student to write their name and letters. They feel this helps the student see their progress when they finish the program. 

One thing I really love about this program is the spiral spine is on the top. This is great for my lefty. 

Cursive writing doesn't have to be just writing letters over and over again or pages of words.  CursiveLogic has given us a beautiful way to practice our cursive writing without ever thinking of it as work! They have come up with an amazing book, The Art of Cursive, that gives a student or parent a wonderful way to practice cursive while making beautiful art! Issac really doesn't like coloring much of anything and these pages were pretty "busy" for him. I was pretty excited about the book though and thought it was something my sixteen year old would like as well as myself :) I colored several pages in this book and was amazed at how the practice of cursive writing was put into pretty artwork. These are the type of pages you could frame and people would have to look very hard to realize there was cursive writing included in the picture.

CursiveLogic really has worked hard to create the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack as well as the The Art of Cursive. They've tried to include things like the webinar as well as a Blogger Guide that was sent to us. They really want parents and teachers to know that this is a multi-sensory approach to cursive writing. They have included the groupings, the auditory and visual cues to help students be successful.  They also want parents/teachers to be successful in the way they teach their students and that's why they've gone out of their way to add all the helpful advice and tips. Here's a little VIDEO that gives some insite on the program and how it was founded.

 Cursive Logic has graciously offered all readers a discount through the end of March.  Use the code CREW2018 and you can save 20% on the Quick-Start Pack, which is the webinar and workbook combo.  

Don't forget to follow CursiveLogic at the following social media sites as well as read how the other crew members used this program. 

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