HANDWRITING lmj mikejaqua@worldnet.att.net Saturday August 15, 1998 01:18:15 HANDWRITING: This article, along with most articles posted in this newsletter, springs from discussions on the CLASSED email loop (a group of mothers who classically homeschool children in the Grammar Stage, ages 5-12). We place a high value on neat handwriting. Even in the age of computers and wordprocessors, handwriting for a quick memo or a job application is still needed. Neat, handwriting gives a favorable first impression, and we strive for all of our children to achieve excellence in this area. Obviously, handwriting should be learned by the incremental approach. You start with the basic strokes, move on to form letters, copy words, sentences and finally paragraphs. We have found that practise, practise, practise is the key. With Charlotte Mason, we echo that short frequent sessions, are more productive than long, infrequent ones. Below are ideas for handwriting curricula, 3 lined paper, slates, copybooks and some have even found useful software in the Internet. CURRICULA mentioned by the loop members were: The Italic Handwriting Series by Getty & Dubay from Continuing Education Press. Italics makes an easy transition from manuscript handwriting. Likewise Bob Jones University Press transitions from their manuscript, called precursive, to cursive with relative ease. Three lined PAPER, is a MUST for beginning handwriting for grammar age children. -Walmart sells 3 lined handwriting tablets for $.99, you can have them bound. -Lined paper in various widths can be purchased through Bob Jons University Press. -Both composition books and looseleaf paper with center dotted lines can be ordered from Small Ventures, 11023 Watterson Dr., Dallas, TX 75228. The publisher of the books is Barclay School Supplies, Brooklyn, NY 11201, if anyone wishes to contact them directly. -Also, the Re-Print Corpporation, P.O. Box 830677, Brimingham, AL 350677 has a huge catalog full of school supplies, such as D'Nealian ruled pads and ruled newsprint with 3 lines. For initial handwriting PRACTISE and for perfecting letters, many loop members utilize slates either in the form of a small dry erase board using dry erase markers or a small black board using chalk. Lining can be done by getting a musical staff liner from a music store. Another member permanently lined the blackboard slate with thin lines of nailpolish. - Likewise, plastic sheet protectors on paper with dry erase markers will help with handwriting practise. AT the URL http://www.startwrite.com you will find software for a handwriting program, startwrite, which one member used with success. Many listmembers made use of COPYBOOKS. Basically, the child finds a favorite paragraph, Psalm, scripture or poem. He then copies it in his best handwriting into his copybook. He can then add a drawing to illustrate his writing. The COPYBOOK concept, borrowed from Charlotte Mason, gives lots of useful handwriting practise while copying well written literature. Recognizing that grammar aged children are still struggling with their fine motor skills, especially boys, we opt for short and frequent sessions. For COPYBOOK starters, write out the copywork, skipping every other line and have your child copy your words below. Later let the child copy one short sentence on his own, slowly move on to paragraphs. Ideas to make the COPYBOOK more fun include: Making up 3 lined fancy sheets on the wordprocessor, framing the paper with clipart pertaining to the subject at hand. Let the child copy the verse or paragraph and keep in a 3 ring binder. Other members use bound books and let the children draw and color around their writing. To motivate, one mother occasionally uses riddles from a riddle book, and keeps her son in suspense as to the answer to the riddle, till he finishes his work. Copybook is not meant as busy work to get children out of our hair for 15 minutes. It is valuable time spent over good literature while learning, spelling, syntax, punctuation and improving handwriting skills. -- lmj

MEMORIZATION: lmj mikejaqua@worldnet.att.net Saturday August 15, 1998 01:21:37 MEMORIZATION: The KEY to the grammar stage. There are three stages to the Trivium of Classical Education, the Grammar Stage, the Dialectic(logic) Stage and the Rhetorical(persuasion and style in communication) Stage. Memorization is the cornerstone of the Grammar Stage. It familiarizes our children with the FACTS and enables them to recall the FACTS with ease. Why rush understanding before the mind is ready to tackle logic. Sadly, modern education has elevated the Dialectic Stage to encompass all of education. As a discipline, memorization is neglected as boring and termed "regurgitation" in today's society. Rhetoric is all but gone. With only dialectic skills, we are raising argumentative monsters who have little knowledge of the facts. This article is assumes that you already are interested in the topic of memorization. Look for future Classed Loop articles (we hope) on the "apologetics of memorization" and the Trivium. IDEAS OF THINGS TO MEMORIZE Books of the Bible, Bible verses, Math facts (skip counting, tables), geographical facts (states and capitals, world countries and major geographical regions), foreign language conjugations, alphabets, phonics rules, human body parts, parts of plants, history dates, animals, famous speeches, Pledge of Alliegance, National ANthem, Hymns, spelling, planets, constellations MEMORY CARD ORGANIZATION A good way to organize your review of memorized material would be to use a recipe box with tabbed dividers. The Items which you are still learning go in the "daily" section. Then you use 7 dividers with the days of the week in which you store material which you only want to review once a week. The next section is for things to review once a month, with dividers for 1st, 2nd, et.c. week. You can even review things once a year, if you really have them down pat. This was outlined in Moody "years ago for Bible memory verse review, but can be generalized to any topic. MAKING IT FUN The Classical Education Loop has an excellent page on the Grammar stage. (http://www.verinet.com/~djgame/cch/grammar.html#wri) The section on MEMORIZATION includes many interesting memorization game ideas. Our family's favorite is to adopt the game Trivial Pursuit so that each category is one of our memory categories: Geography, Spelling,History/Poetry, Math, Phonics and Bible Memory. Each child has his own set of cards that he is working on and can participate in the game at his level. One member writes" My daughter is definately an audio learner. If she hears a song, she'll sing it for a week without any prompting. I also like the idea someone had about having the child record herself on a tape recorder reciting her facts". Put Bible verses and catechisms on tape for young children to learn. - Memorization right before bed is supposed to aid retention. There is a great website of tapes to use for memorizing Geography, Math facts etc. http://www.audiomemory.com/ Audio Memory. Also, a musical Tape called skip count kid which is supposed to be on the Sing 'N Learn website along with geography, math, grammar, et.c. http://www.singnlearn.com "Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you" Ps 119:11 NIV --lmj