Easy Peasy Cursive: A Channie's Workbook Review

Handwriting can be a sore subject sometimes.  To kids it can feel so tedious.  Parents and teachers are continually debating the validity of learning cursive.  Especially when it might take your child an excruciating long time to finish a simple sentence or paragraph, it could be tempting to toss the whole subject.  J is somewhere in the middle on the subject.  He doesn't love handwriting for handwriting sake and can complain about it a lot, BUT he's always been very interested in cursive handwriting.  Since new stuff (books, curriculum, etc.) is always motivating to J, the Easy Peasy Cursive Workbook from Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks looked like a great way to light a new fire in his handwriting.

Channie's was born from a mother filling a need in her son's education with a visual guide for handwriting.  Her son's teacher noted that many other students could benefit from the sheets she was creating for her son and so she decided to share with the world!  Typical handwriting sheets are just dotted lines - usually one example only - and a lot is expected from little brains to visually remember what it looks like before really learning what it feels like to write the different symbols.  Even noting the difference (in location) between uppercase and lowercase is usually a big challenge, but these workbooks shade in the area for lowercase making it very easy to follow.  In addition to cursive, Channie's also offers workbooks for print handwriting for preschoolers and up, sight word practice books, and a whole set of math workbooks too.

One of the big things with handwriting that we struggle with is getting overwhelmed.  This workbook contained 3 pages for each letter - 2 tracing and 1 on your own.  There was plenty of work that it made sense to break it up.  In his mind, completing 1 or 2 rows at a time was much easier than a whole page.  Having it all contained in a workbook was much more convenient than lone sheets of paper scattered around.  However, if you prefer single sheets, all the pages were able to be torn out if necessary, like a typical pad of paper.

Over the review period, there were many instances when he would experiment and try writing out  words on his own.  Without me even asking to evaluate, he provided me a chance to see how his writing was improving and he was retaining the cursive lettering.

If handwriting or managing visual spaces on paper is a struggle in your house, Channie's Visual Handwriting and Math Workbooks is a great place to start.  They are versatile, cheap, and effective! 

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