Penmanship Resources for Home Educators

Here are my favorite handwriting resources...

If you're looking for a good copywork curriculum to develop handwriting skills, check out our curriculum: Presidential Penmanship! It's a neat program because after purchasing ONE CD (a printable file), you've got handwriting/ copywork covered each year from K-12th grade. Pretty cool. We really like it and I'd highly recommend it. 

If you're just getting started with a beginning writer, here are some ideas:

• For variety, trace letters into sand, shaving cream, in the air, practice on a whiteboard or on the sidewalk with chalk. 
• Read "Teaching Writing at Home" by Wanda Sanseri (I got it from our library but didn't see it on Amazon.)
• If you use "ball and stick" letters for the lil guys, check out Donna Young's Handwriting Lessons  available to print off.  She gives links to download the Handwriting Fonts  she uses for free so you can make your own handwriting materials and worksheets. 
• If you, like me, find ball-and-stick writing slightly annoying, check out Bob Jones' "pre-cursive" style of print. It's easier for kids (and mom) because it's written the way we naturally write- with ovals and slanted lines. It addresses some of the basic problems of  ball-and-stick writing, and teaches the children to write most letters with a continuous stroke (which is both faster and easier), and makes the transition to cursive easier and more natural. Best of all, they are fabulous enough to offer their font as a free download! Just use the link (or if it's broken, google "BJU precursive) to read more about it and/or to download their precursive font. I used it to make my PreCursive handwriting chart, which I printed front/back and laminated, allowing us to practice tracing letters with our fingers as well as wet-erase markers. I also used their fonts to make my own copywork sheets. When you type a ____ it makes the handwriting lines (two lines with a dash inbetween them), so you can make hand writing sheets in any size. Can you tell I love this?  :) 
• You can also use Donna Young's Handwriting Paper  to print off, with lots of different options to choose from. 
• Here are some free printable copywork pages using bible verses for specific character traits.