CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive Review

My family had the privilege of trying the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive from CursiveLogic for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Why use CursiveLogic? CursiveLogic varies from other handwriting and cursive teaching methods by emphasizing the structure of the cursive alphabet instead of rote memorization (repetition). Cursive letters are grouped by shape and written as a connected string, not individually. There are 4 types of these letter strings each with a differing shape group and color. This reinforces proper formation and makes sure students connect the letters correctly from the very beginning of the lessons. Since CursiveLogic uses the connected string of letters method, kids learn how to make real cursive words within the first week of lessons.

Additionally, CursiveLogic uses visual, auditory, verbal, and kinesthetic elements in teaching cursive letters. With color themes, mnemonic devices, verbal cues, and finger tracing it is truly a multi-sensory approach. The 5 steps of  the CursiveLogic method are: color, movement, catch phrases, logic, and real words. This approach helps students understand how to form the cursive letters better.

CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack is a webinar and workbook combo. The webinar is a 48 minute online seminar presented by Linda Shrewsbury. You get 6 months access to this when you subscribe. This helps the parent with teaching the CursiveLogic cursive curriculum. There are tips, tricks, and step-by-step instructions on how to use the program in this webinar. The newly redesigned consumable workbook is an introduction to the CursiveLogic method and teaches the student cursive using this, from the ground up. It has a total of 112 pages plus three dry erase pages. It is spiral bound at the top so the pages flip easily for both left and right handed students. The spiral coil will also never get in the way of wrists while writing. When using this workbook you first use the pages in numerical order that have the navy blue corners (pages 1-56), then you flip the whole book over and use the pages with the mauve corners (57-112) all the way to the end.

The Art of Cursive is an adult coloring book that targets the adult learner or one who has completed the CursiveLogic workbook. This workbook/coloring book doesn't go through as much detail in the teaching of the CursiveLogic method. It only has 4 short lessons in the front of the book and then 27 decorative images to color that have similar shapes as the lessons. Marker or fountain pens won't bleed through the thick pages either. This is a great book for use after completing the CursiveLogic workbook.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

I believe that cursive is important for children to learn. It is sad that many public schools do not teach cursive anymore because Common Core State Standards do not think it vital to learn. They instead believe that cursive is antiquated and in our advancing computer-centric age typing is more important to learn. I am glad that with homeschooling we get to pick and choose what we want to teach our kids. If homeschooling wasn't done in my home I would still teach cursive myself to my children because the public schools probably wouldn't.

Researchers have found that writing and taking notes by hand benefits the brain and helps you understand, retain, remember, and recall those things better. Handwriting also creates better language and critical thinking skills. The benefits increase with cursive writing.

Cursive script handwriting is essential because...

• cursive activates and stimulates both hemispheres of the brain and encourages them to work together...thus increasing comprehension and participation (printing doesn't do this).
• it brings out the creative side and lets the student express their individuality.
• once your child learns to write in cursive they will be able to read cursive writing easier too.
• it makes you think more about your writing making it more legible, neat, and better composed.
• it helps your child have confidence and pride in their penmanship because they will write more legibly.
• it is fancier looking and more graceful looking.
• academics seem to improve when cursive is taught.
• with it you can sign your name.

I found the CursiveLogic webinar very informative and it helped me, as a parent, learn the process of the curriculum so that I could teach my daughter Teela who is 9 this method of cursive. The workbook is very well laid out and written. After I watched the webinar it was easy to teach Teela and she understood this method after only a few pages into the book.

Orange Oval shape and letter string.

For the first string of letters it has 6 letters that share the same color and shape. The shape is called "Orange Oval". The student practices the shape saying aloud, "over, back-trace" while tracing it with the finger first and then a pencil, and finally writing it. Then the letter string is introduced: a, c, d, g, q, o. The student practices the letter string with this oval shape saying aloud, "over, back-trace, [letter name]...dip" while tracing it with the finger first and then a pencil, and finally writing it. Each time the lessons build upon themselves adding another letter string and a fun shape, color, and chant to go with them. I liked the catch phrases and finger tracing because this added a bit more to the memory aids. My daughter thought the whole process was fun. It was very rewarding to see that she liked this method of learning cursive.

Teela Practicing the Oval Orange shape and letter string.

Here is Teela's before and after sample.

The Art of Cursive book I am going to save for Teela when she has completed the CursiveLogic workbook. I however had her complete a coloring page out of the book just to show you what they can look like colored. This is a great adult coloring book for those that have worked through the method and understand it thoroughly. I love the coloring pages and the way they use the letter strings, and shapes in the artwork to color. This is such a cool way to practice these and relax while coloring too. I also love that it includes quotes from famous people as well.

The Art of Cursive adult coloring page.

I recommend the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive to all parents, teachers, homeschoolers, parents/teachers with special needs students, and occupational therapists that would like their children/students to learn cursive.

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Using the code CREW2018, my readers can save 20% on the Quick-Start Pack, which is the webinar + workbook combo. The code will be active through the end of March.

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Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks Easy Peasy Cursive Review

My family had the privilege of trying Easy Peasy Cursive from Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks was established in October of 2015 when Channie's son was struggling with handwriting. She could not find a product that fit her child's needs so she created her own handwriting workbooks with visual guides to help her child. After a few short months her son was excelling at handwriting and his attitude towards it also became better. Channie's LLC grew from there out of her wanting to help others with children who had similar difficulties. Now Channie's has over 15 new products and her workbooks are being sold at Walmart, Hobby Lobby and retail stores cross over 25 states! These products are proudly made in the USA in North Carolina.

Easy Peasy Cursive is a Channie's visual handwriting workbook that helps with both tracing and writing to reinforce letter formation in cursive. This consumable workbook covers the entire alphabet, A through Z, in cursive with both their uppercase and lowercase letter form. Each letter has two pages of tracing and one page of writing. At the end of the workbook it also has a few simple words to also trace and write in cursive. Easy Peasy Cursive not only shows the correct positioning of the letters in cursive and direction to trace them, it also has slanted or angled guide boxes for proper slant and letter size, green shading to show proper lower case letter position, and divider lines for proper spacing. This workbook is 40 sheets and 80 pages long. The pages are made of 60lb strong recycle paper and printed on both sides. The pad is an standard 8.5 x 11 inch / 21.59 cm x 27.94 cm with paper board backing. The block size is 1/4 x 1/4 inch / 0.64 cm x 0.64 cm. The skip space is 3/16 inch and the ruling is 3/4 inch. This is recommended for children in grades 1st to 3rd, but also works wonderfully for kids that haven't learned cursive before.

Teela working in the Easy Peasy Cursive Workbook.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
My daughter who is in 4th grade now has been working on learning cursive. It has been a slow, painful process teaching her cursive. Frankly, I wanted to find a better way than just the traditional method which only consists of a solid top and bottom line with a dotted center line to use as a guide where everything goes.

I believe that cursive is important for children to learn. It is sad that many public schools do not teach cursive anymore because Common Core State Standards do not think it vital to learn. I am glad that with homeschooling I get to pick and choose what I want to teach my kids. If homeschooling wasn't done in my home I would still teach cursive myself to my children because the public schools probably wouldn't. I feel that cursive is important because: it teaches how to sign one's name, cursive activates and stimulates both hemispheres of the brain and encourages them to work together...thus increasing comprehension and participation (printing doesn't do this), if your child doesn't learn how to write cursive they won't be able to read cursive writing easily, having legible handwriting is a must so that people can read the handwriting and learning cursive can actually help your child to have pride in their penmanship.

The Easy Peasy Cursive Workbook takes the traditional method a few steps further and makes learning handwriting and penmanship in cursive more visual. They use the top, bottom, and middle lines that the other handwriting workbooks do and have arrow guides for which direction to trace letters, but have instead individual slanted boxes with three uniform parts. The top and middle box is for the full upper case letter to fit in. The middle box (which is also shaded green) is used for the lower case letter to fit in except for b, d, f, h, k, l, and t which all go above into the top box as well as using the green space below that. The lower box is for the tales of letters like f, g, j, p, q, y, and z to reside in. There are also divider lines in between letters for proper spacing when writing cursive. These visual guidelines make it so that the child can auto-correct themselves quickly and accurately. It leaves very little room for error.

My daughter Teela has been working through this book and has made enormous progress. She likes this workbook a lot better than ones we have had her do in the past. Now I have my eye on the Easy Peasy Alphabet Workbook for my daughter, Zari, who is in 1st grade because I believe that this will help her handwriting as well. I recommend the Easy Peasy Cursive to all parents and teachers that would like their children/students to learn cursive, homeschoolers, parents/teachers with special needs students, and occupational therapists.


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Purchase Easy Peasy Cursive from Channie's Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks for $12.95 at the time of this post.

Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks...