Is Handwriting Necessary in Homeschool?

Reading, writing, and arithmetic are what we know as the three R’s. Is it important to also teach penmanship? I know one homeschool mom who never taught handwriting to her children. I don’t know if they ever learned to sign their name on anything though.

I myself have tried to put off the importance of teaching penmanship to my children, and get embarrassed when other children their same age can sign their names in cursive. Yet there are so many other subjects that are far more important than what a person’s handwriting might look like. I would love my children to be experts in science. Can you tell me one doctor’s handwriting you can read?

I have decided though, that I will make my children proficient in cursive letters, so they can at least sign their names. When I was in grade school, I had to do the constant handwriting drills that never made sense. If I made the letters perfect one day, how could I make them the same the next if I weren’t in a good mood? It takes only one kind of person to write correctly every single time for those drills I had to do. I will never do that to my children.

My favorite handwriting curriculum is the “Draw Write, Now!” series. This is for any grade or any age level. It teaches how to draw first, giving the children an appreciation of perfecting their artwork. Drawing is an art according to this series. The Japanese culture has it right when they have to spend many hours perfecting their art in handwriting. Each lessen with “Draw, Write, Now!” has a few sentences that go with the picture that the student is expected to learn how to draw. Each picture is put into steps on how to draw it. A kindergartener can accomplish this task easily! If you have older children like I do, I grab a cursive handwriting chart and explain to my children to read what is said for each caption to each picture to be drawn, and write it out with cursive handwriting. This worked great with them! My children have finished one book so far, and already built up much confidence in drawing pictures, and I felt better that their handwriting is improving in leaps and bounds. I highly suggest you check this curriculum out. It might really work for you.