Review: Everyday Education (Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting!)
Handwriting is one of those things that we didn’t practice much with Super D. Confession: He’s in 4th grade and THIS is the year that I explained to him, step by step, the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters, and when to use them. Homeschool mom fail? Perhaps. But, we only had to talk about it for 15 minutes, and he’s pretty much got it down! Some things do get easier as they get older. But, there’s still a lot to be said for starting them off right. Sweetheart, my 1st grader, is still in the process of learning to read AND write. She loves to color and draw, so I thought this handwriting book, which is more like art-writing, might be right up her alley. Everyday Education, LLC sent us an electronic copy of their book, Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting to review.
The Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting ebook is both a reading and a writing curriculum in one. The first pages of the book are an introduction to reading and handwriting, including an interesting history of the evolution of handwriting. The next 15 pages are a guide to the alphabet, written in italics. The sheets are fun, and include both upper and lower case letters, as well as a matching animal to color.
Once the alphabet is introduced, it’s time to dive into the reading (and writing lessons). This is a phonics-based program, and so the lessons are divided up by sounds. Each lesson has a list of words that match the sound, written in italics. We sound out each word together, and then read the accompanying story. The copywork is part of the story; there is space under each line for Sweetheart to write the words too.
If your student (or you!) already knows how to read, then they can skip ahead and dive straight into the Handwriting instruction portion of the book. This section gives examples of different styles of Italic, and lots of handwriting practice. I love the attention to detail in the instruction, like guidelines showing you how much to slant each letter. After the student gets the hang of writing the letters, then they can practice joining some of them together. If you want to get fancy, Everyday Education even includes instruction on how to write with an edged pen.
This book is actually a reprint from an edition that went out of print. I appreciate that the author combined reading and handwriting practice together, and I do think that the italic writing is much easier to read than the block print.
I like that we only spend 5 to 15 minutes each day working on a lesson. That’s the right amount of time to keep Sweetheart’s attention! Too much longer and she’s staring out the window longer than she’s working.
Everyday Education, LLC offers a book, an ebook, or a print/ebook combo. You can learn more on Janice Campbell’s blog, Doing What Matters.
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