CursiveLogic (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Cursive writing is quickly becoming a lost art form.  In a world where computers and emails are the norm and actually addressing an envelope to write a letter has fallen to the wayside, schools no longer take the time to teach cursive style writing.  However, many homeschool parents still see the importance of teaching this valuable skill and are always on the lookout for an effective way to teach cursive without tears and frustration.

CursiveLogic is an affordable, effective way to teach cursive quickly in short but manageable lessons that even younger students can handle.


For this review, members of the crew were given the Cursive Logic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive coloring book.

What is CursiveLogic?

CursiveLogic was founded by Harvard graduate Linda Shrewsbury a homeschool mother, teacher and college professor who developed the CursiveLogic way of teaching cursive in order to meet the needs of one of her adult special education students.

The CursiveLogic method of teaching works on the inherent structure of the cursive alphabet.

* Letters are grouped by shape:  Four basic shapes make up the entire alphabet.  CursiveLogic teaches all these similar letters together in one lesson, greatly simplifying the learning process.  Rather than teaching the letters in alphabetical order, CursiveLogic groups the lowercase alphabet into four groups based on the shape of the initial stroke of the letter.  Letters are also taught in a specific order that helps to reinforce that pattern.  By teaching similar letters together, CursiveLogic captures the natural synergy of the alphabet, allowing each letter in the series to reinforce the proper formation of all the others.

*Letter Strings:  Rather than teaching each letter individually, the program instead teaches all the letters that share the common shape together in a connected string, allowing the letters to reinforce each other and has the student writing in cursive from the very first lesson.

*Color Coding:  Each letter string has a theme color that helps the student remember the shape.  For example, letters that "Oval Over" are part of the "Orange Oval" string

* Catch Phrases:  CursiveLogic uses catchphrases to be used as memory aids to help develop muscle memory and give the students a mnemonic that they can return to over and over.  Students learn a simple, rhythmical chant that describes the path of the letter shapes being formed.

*Real Words:  Due to the fact that CursiveLogic teaches groups of letters instead of individual letters in each lesson, students can write real words at the end of the first lesson.


How We Used It:

Before we ever started the workbook, I took the time to watch the instructional webinar includes with the purchase of the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack.  This is a 48-minute video rental (rental is for 6 months of unlimited streaming from Vimeo and cannot be downloaded to your computer) that teaches the instructor how to teach the CursiveLogic method as well as what about this particular method makes it effective for teaching students cursive writing.  I found the video to be extremely helpful with many good tips on how to approach the lessons both verbally as well as writing on my dry erase board.  While it would be possible to teach the CursiveLogic method without the video, my opinion is that teaching would be much more successful after watching the video.

With the knowledge from the video in hand, it was time to sit down with Garrett and begin working on his learning.

Each lesson begins using the "Use, Start, Say" model.  First students trace the new letter string with their finger to help learn the proper letter formation.  They then trace over the letters with a writing instrument, with an arrow on the paper that shows the student where the letter starts.  Finally, they learn the catchphrase that goes with each string of letters.

Garrett finger tracing the letter string. 

Tracing over the letters with his pencil. 

After successfully tracing the letter strings multiple times, students then begin to write the letters strings on their own without any guides to help them.

And finally, they begin to write words using the letters that they have learned.

I have got to say, I have noticed a significant improvement in Garrett's writing since he has begun using the CursiveLogic program, both with his cursive writing as well as his print writing.  CursiveLogic has made him have to slow down and actually think about what he's doing.  Whether it's remembering to touch the middle line or bringing his loop to touch the top line, he's making a more conscientious effort to properly form the letters. I also hear him repeating the mnemonic phrases often as he's writing. The improvement has even been noticed by my husband who has found that he can actually read Garrett's writing now as in the past I had to "translate" for him.

One thing I will mention is that we had an older version of the CursiveLogic workbook which is significantly different from the new edition workbook that Garrett was using for this review.  I allowed Ashleigh to use the older workbook so that I could see the differences between the two side by side and in use to compare to one another.  What I found was that the new edition is much easier to use.  The lessons flow continuously in the new workbook - the student simply has to flip the page to the next consecutive even page in the book (Page 4 follows page 2, Page 6 follows page 4, ect.)  When they come to the back cover of the notebook, they simply flip the notebook over and continue with the "backside' of the pages (consecutive odd pages) until they reach the front cover and finish the book. However, the older notebook has the lesson printed on front and pack, meaning the notebook has to be flipped over in addition to turning the page.  The right-hand corner of the page is color coded as well, navy for even pages, mauve for odd pages, as a visual reminder to continue with the consecutive pages instead of flipping the book over.

While Garrett (and Ashleigh) worked hard with the CursiveLogic workbook, I had the pleasure of coloring in the coloring book, The Art of Cursive. While not part of the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack, this coloring book is available for purchase and includes 27 line art pictures that incorporate words and letter chains to help reinforce the skills learned during the CursiveLogic Workbook.

The pages in the coloring book are printed on heavyweight paper, making them ideal for markers, although I highly recommend a set of very fine point markers for the many teeny tiny spaces created by all the beautiful looping letters.

The CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack, which includes both the CursiveLogic Workbook and a 6-month subscription to the CursiveLogic instructional webinar can be purchased for $49.  The Art of Cursive coloring book is available for purchase for $15.95.  Both items can be purchased from the CursiveLogic website.   Additional workbooks can also be purchased from the website.  However, if you use the code CREW2018, you can save 20% on the Quick-Start pack (code is active till the end of March 2018)

You can get more information about CursiveLogic by visiting their website. You can also find them on Facebook.

Everyday Education, LLC (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Garrett hates reading and Garrett hates writing.  These are things been focused on specifically as we get full force into our third grade year. When we were given the opportunity to review Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting  a elementary curriculum from Everyday Education, LLC, I figured it was something worth trying.  After all, if I can combine both reading and writing into one, it might be less stressful on Garrett.  For this review, we were given an ebook digital copy of the book to use with both kids.

About Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting

Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting is the work of Caroline Joy Adams.  Janice Campbell,  a homeschooling mother, had in the past used the book in an earlier edition years before to teach her own children to read and write. However, when she tried to purchase a second copy of the book to use with her second child, she found that the book was out of print.   Through her own labor of love, she worked hard to bring Caroline Joy Adams original book (along with some of her own copywork sheets) by updating and re-releasing Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting to a new generation of homeschooling families.  

Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting can be used with a young child who is just learning to read and write, older students who are struggling with either, and even adults who would just like to improve on their handwriting skills. 

The beauty of the book is in it's simplicity.  Students are introduced to the "phonic method" where emphasis is placed upon blending letter sounds together to form words.  Then students are given a page of silly sentences to read and then to copy which both re-iterates the reading portion of the lesson as well as allows practice for handwriting.  Over the course of 60 lessons, students progress through the lessons, they also progress from using basic straight lettering often used by younger students, to slanted letters and on to joining letters as used in cursive style writings.  Also included in addition to the 60 lessons are various copywork sheets to use for handwriting practice.

How We Used It

I've been using Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting with both Garrett and Ashleigh for the last few weeks and we have managed to make it through to lesson 12.  The first lesson took a bit longer than others as it concentrates on teaching students to properly form the 26 letters of the alphabet. Starting with lesson 2, students are introduced to a particular letter sound or phonetic blend, such as Short A or ST.  Each of these lessons start by giving the student a list of words which uses the targeted phonetic sound.  

For each lesson, I would simply print out the two pages that correspond with the days lesson. The first page of words we would read aloud , concentrating on proper pronunciation.  so that they could understand and master the targeted blend. Earlier lessons focus more on basic CVC words such as "cat" and "hat" but they soon progressed to harder words such as "dwarf", "twin" and "wisely". Once the first page was read, we would move on to the second page where together we would read the silly sentences provided that used many of the words covered in the lesson along with words previously covered.  After the kids read this page, they would then work independently to write the sentences to the best of their abilities. 

I would love to say that Garrett's handwriting has improved leaps and bounds using this program.  There has been some improvement, especially in legibility, but there are still times that his writing leaves a lot to be desired.  That is to no fault of the book, however, and I think has more to do with the fact he's a 10 year old boy who rushes through writing just to get it over with.  However, I have seen a major improvement in his reading abilities just in the 12 lessons that we have completed so far.  I have seen far less of him simply trying to guess the word and instead he concentrates on actually reading the words and pronouncing them properly.  

Ashleigh is far ahead of Garrett in her reading abilities and she finds the reading to be quite easy but I have no doubt that she has benefited from the review of the phonics.  I have noticed a mark difference in her writing as she tries to properly form her letters exactly as they are shown in the book.  Her writing has become much more legible compared to the scribbled hen scratch she originally started with.   

We have really enjoyed using this curriculum.  Since Garrett does struggle so much with reading and the fact he absolutely loathes writing, we have used MANY other reading curriculum that are on the market and while we have had some degrees of improvement,  I can honestly say that using Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting has probably had the most impact with Garrett.  Where we use to have fights and tears anytime it was time to read, Garrett now quickly grabs his Forbrain and his pencil and is all smiles when it's time to do these lessons.  This book has been a game changer for us in our homeschooling day and I can understand why Janice Campbell wanted so badly to once again make this resource available for homeschooling parents everywhere. 

For more information on Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting and Everyday Education, please visit their website or one of their various social media pages. 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/janicecampbell/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/janicepcampbell

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinlit/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janicepcampbell

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JaniceCampbell

Twitter: https://twitter.com/everydayedu

Members of the crew were given the opportunity to review three different ebooks from Everyday Education, LLC. These books range in grade level and topics so be sure to click the banner below to read about the different products that were offered to us from Everyday Education, LLC. 

CursiveLogic - (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

Many (MANY!!) years ago when I was in school, we began learning cursive writing in early elementary. I want to say it was roughly around 3rd grade and by 5th grade, all classroom assignments were no longer allowed to be printed in manuscript and instead had to be in cursive. Today, with the prevalence of computers and technology, learning to write in cursive has fallen to the wayside in favor of computer classes.

We were given the opportunity to review the CursiveLogic Workbook produced by CursiveLogic. Since my youngest daughter was already doing another cursive program, I decided to instead use this particular program with my oldest daughter who is in the 11th grade.  She already had the basic understanding of writing in cursive, however, the process was extremely slow for her and the outcome lacked a lot to be desired. I felt she would be a perfect candidate to try this new cursive formula and see if it would work well for her.

What is Cursive Logic?

"CursiveLogic is different from other handwriting methods because, instead of relying on rote memorization, CursiveLogic relies on the inherent structure of the cursive alphabet."

CursiveLogic was founded by Harvard graduate Linda Shrewsbury, a homeschool mother, teacher and college professor who developed the CursiveLogic way of teaching cursive in order to meet the needs of one of her adult special education students who wanted to learn to sign his own name.  From there, Shrewsbury along with her daughter, Prisca LeCroy, also a Harvard graduate and homeschooling mother, have put together the CursiveLogic style of learning cursive to help educators teach their own students cursive in an easy method. After a successful Kickstarter.com campaign, CursiveLogic became a reality.

What Is CursiveLogic?

The CursiveLogic method of teaching cursive works on the inherent structure of the cursive alphabet:

• Letters grouped by shape: Four basic shapes make up the entire alphabet. CursiveLogic teaches all of the similar letters in one lesson, greatly simplifying the learning process. Rather than teaching the letters alphabetically, CursiveLogic groups the lowercase alphabet into four groups based on the shape of the initial stroke of the letters and teaches all of the similarly-shaped letters in a single lesson.  Letters are also taught in a specific order that reinforces the pattern.  By teaching all of the similar letters together, CursiveLogic captures the natural synergy of the alphabet itself, allowing each letter in the series to reinforce the proper formation of all the others.

• Letter strings: Rather than teaching letters individually, CursiveLogic teaches all of the letters that share a common shape in a connected string. This allows the letters to reinforce each other and means students are writing cursively from the very beginning. CursiveLogic captures the flow of cursive by teaching all of the similarly shaped letters in a connected string rather than as individual letters. 

• Color coding: Each letter string has a theme color that helps students remember the shape.

• Catch phrases: CursiveLogic uses “verbal task analysis,” or saying an action verbally as it is performed  manually, to aid the development of muscle memory and to give students a mnemonic they can return to over and over. Students learn a simple, rhythmical chant that describes the path of the writing instrument as the letter shapes are formed.  The process of verbally describing a motor task while performing it aids the acquisition of new motor skills. 

• Real words: Because CursiveLogic teaches a group of letters in a single lesson, students can write real words at the end of the first lesson. For some students, this immediate success is a huge motivator.

How Did It Work For Us?

As mentioned above, my oldest daughter had a basic understanding of writing in cursive. However, for her it was a long process and for her to do any sort of copy work took a lengthy amount of time if she cared for it to be legible.  A simple sheet of copy work with two or three sentences would take her nearly 30 minutes to complete.  With SATs right around the corner for her, I hoped that learning a more efficient system of writing that would both speed up the process as well as increase overall legibility might help her.

Her speed and efficiency has noticeably improved.  She doesn't seem as if she's got to think about the formation of each letter.  The same sentences that I asked her to write prior to the start of CursiveLogic took about half the time the second time around.  The legibility of the writing has also improved over what it was when she was forced to write quickly - before it barely legible when she was rushed and now it's pretty similar to that of before when she would take her time.  With both the increase in speed and efficiency, I will say that the CursiveLogic method indeed made a marked difference in her penmanship.

This program would work well for both the beginner writer as well as the older student who's penmanship needs improvement.  In my own opinion,  I would recommend it for either/or.   The CursiveLogic Wookbook can be purchased from the CursiveLogic Website for $29.00 and includes all lessons and materials needed to teach/learn the CursiveLogic Method.

CursiveLogic can be found both on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.