Schoolhouse Crew Review: CursiveLogic

Linda Shrewsbury developed CursiveLogic after working with a 23 year old with learning disabilities who desired to be able to sign his name.  She knew that the traditional method for teaching cursive would not work and by studying the cursive alphabet found a pattern she had not noticed before. Using this new method she was able to teach the young man to sign his name and help numerous students learn and master cursive writing.  We received the CursiveLogic Workbook for review.

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

Instead of teaching the letters alphabetically, the CursiveLogic Method groups letters according to shape in an order that reinforces the pattern being taught.  Similarly shaped letters are taught in a string teaching students to connect letters right from the very first lesson.  Each shape string has a different color that reinforces the formation of the basic common shape.  Students learn a rhythmic chant that describes the writing motion that they use to form that letter.

The CursiveLogic Workbook is 96 pages long and contains both the teaching instructions and the student practice pages.  The book is spiral bound at the top. The first part of each lesson is a 5 step teaching process that after learning the student can move on to writing connected letter strings and real words.  The main purpose of CursiveLogic is learning the lowercase alphabet although there is instruction in learning each capital letter and practice tracing and writing famous historical sayings.  Within the workbook there are also 3 dry erase pages that allow for extra practice on the four letter strings.

CursiveLogic has developed some practice pages from The Declaration of Independence, The Gettysburg Address, and The Psalms.  You can find those here.

The CursiveLogic Workbook costs $29 and can be purchased here.

Somehow, teaching cursive to my now 13 year old kind of fell through the cracks.  I am not really sure why.  My oldest learned cursive and my 11 year old knows cursive but when it came to be about the traditional time for Nick to learn it just didn't happen.  I have been looking for the last several months for a product I could use to teach him that was not going to be babyish or take up too much time.  I was very excited to have an opportunity to review CursiveLogic.

I sat down with Nick for the first few days, explaining the process to him and ensuring he had a proper grip on his pen and was forming the strokes correctly, but since then he has begun to work independently.  I have been very pleased with this product and with his success.  I love that the teaching instruction and workbook are in the same book and also that the book is spiral bound allowing it to lie flat with and with the binding at the top it does not get in the way of writing.  I was pleased with how simple the process was and the fast results.  I think this method could be used easily with young children just learning cursive and with older children who haven't yet learned or need a refresher.

To see what my Crew Mates had to say, stop by the Crew Blog!