Begin with gross motor skills when children are young and muscles and tendons are not yet strong. What is “gross motor?” It’s the use of large muscles.

Fine motor skills indicate whether or not any hand and fingers are ready to be trained to write small letters. It involves the smaller muscles and tendons of the fingers.

Make use of the kinethetic properties of graphite in wood & mechanical pencils, chalk, markers, paint brushes, and more to emphasize good hand and brain connections to improve writing while sounding out spelling.

Feel the breeze outside. Sneeze at the chalk dust! Try different instruments, such as short golf pencils, fingers in a tray of shaving cream, scented markers, spongy water paintbrushes.

1ST EXAMPLE: the starting point for print letters begin in different places on the child’s paper. Notice the many dots. 2ND EXAMPLE: SWR author Wanda Sanseri demonstrates with the 1 dot that the starting point for cursive letters is in one place: the base line.

This worksheet set plus curriculum guide is useful for any level of cursive teaching, whether before printing or as a refresher! Booklet is out of print but is revived in 2026 as a digital download from the CF publisher.

Order 1 digital copy for each teacher or classroom or individual homeschool. https://swrtraining.com/cursivefirst/