New American Cursive 2: A Memoria Press Handwriting Review

Memoria Press is beginning to be a household name around here.  We have gotten the chance to review for them a couple of times before and this time we are trying out one of their cursive handwriting books, New American Cursive 2 (Scripture).   Most people have a love or hate type of a relationship when it comes to cursive handwriting, but we have really embraced it.  Even though J gets tires of it easily (he struggles with tensing up when he tries really hard), he is terribly proud of himself when he writes in cursive.  Either way, it is nice to find high quality curriculum to rely on if/when your students pursue it.

Memoria offers a complete New American Cursive penmanship program for Grade Levels 1-4 and we were given Workbook 2 with Famous Quotations and Scripture.  The book itself is spiral bound at the top so that left or right-handed students can successfully utilize it equally.  Workbook 2 begins with a 7 paged Teaching Guide that covers everything surrounding learning to write in cursive.  They discuss the value of learning cursive, posture and pencil position, testing, how to use the workbook, complementary exercises, and even the best type of music for handwriting practice!  If you don't have a clue about penmanship or teaching it, this teaching guide gives you more than enough to equip you. 



Since this is Workbook 2 in a series, it begins with a review of the entire alphabet in cursive, pencil grip, posture and correct paper placement.  The next section highlights the individual letters, two to a page, along with practice words to trace and copy.  Every few pages there is a fun or open-ended page perhaps with a writing prompt and encouraging the student to illustrate their response.  The next section focuses on the size of their writing, encouraging the correct placement of letters on baseline.  Here several creative writing, scripture and quotations exercises are introduced.  Near the end of the book there is a Handwriting Evaluation Checklist that helps you determine what your student needs to work on.  It would be a handy page to reproduce whenever you need to check on their progress.

What We Thought:
Since J is not brand new to cursive, this level was great for him.  The review reminded him of what was expected out of his handwriting and inched him a little further in refining some of his letters.  The variety of exercises was perfect!  From days of the week, relevant scriptures like obeying your parents and being kind, to the incorporation of journal writing and drawing, there was always something new to distract from the usual weariness of handwriting.  This is a great resource for strengthening  handwriting skills that have already begun, but it is even more useful for building that bond of pencil and paper with journaling, something I strongly believe in.  This program shows a lot of wisdom and forethought for various learning styles as well.

We highly recommend Memoria Press and Workbook 2 with Famous Quotations and Scripture. is worked very well for our needs.  The Crew reviewed other books in the penmanship series as well as Traditional Logic and Classical Composition.  Don't forget to check out what they thought about the rest of the products.

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Patriotic Penmanship: A Laurelwood Books Review

Handwriting and copy is an important and necessary element in education.  Of course it might not always be every child's favorite thing to do (certainly isn't my son's), but it is wonderful when you find curriculum that is both useful and well themed.  Patriotic Penmanship from Laurelwood Books is just that.  This workbook combines famous quotes, portions of poetry and Bible verses with handwriting practice to produce a well-rounded educational experience.  

Patriotic Penmanship is available in all grade levels, but for this review we received the 1st grade level workbook in manuscript style.  In the upper grade levels, cursive is an option as well as manuscript.  Grade 1 is divided into 30 two-page lessons and each lesson includes a quote or verse, a different letter of the alphabet and number for the first 26 lessons.  The remaining 4 focuses on key words.  All lessons have multiple tracing options and plenty of room to practice on your own.  At the beginning of the book are two pages of just alphabet practice and then a sample alphabet is present  on the bottom of every lesson.

We have used programs that allow us to print copy work off of the computer and that was convenient for multiple uses, but through using Patriotic Penmanship I realized how much I like the entire 30 lessons being in one bound book.  I guess because I often feel a bit scattered with the different hats I'm wearing, having just a thin book to pick up and contain was simple and nice.  These workbooks are considered consumable and intend for each student to have their own.  Thankfully, each workbook is $13.95, a reasonable price for 30 lessons of great quality handwriting practice.

The timing of when we started working on this was nice too because it led up to the 4th of July.  The quotes are an interesting mix of known statesmen like Abraham Lincoln, Robert E Lee and Benjamin Franklin, Bible verses and important authors like Robert Louis Stevenson and Christina Rosetti.  Each quote and author provide good opportunities for further discussion about history, poetry, character and daily living.  My son is very much a boy in that handwriting and copy work isn't his favorite thing to do although he certain does need the practice.  At first I was more hopeful that he would finish a lesson quickly and without any push from me, but I was disappointed.  However, when I broke the lesson up and also placed a larger emphasis on the quote or the author, he responded better.  One of my absolute favorite things about homeschooling is the encouragement to adapt to my child's needs of the moment!

Regardless of your curriculum or grade level, Patriotic Penmanship is a great supplement and tool to build other lessons around.  Laurelwood Books publishes many other resources that you might be interested in like State the Facts, Scripture Scribes and Olim, Once Upon a Time in Latin. Several Crew members reviewed these products too.  Click the banner below to read their reviews.

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