Last year the kids started school in a new school district, since we moved out on acreage. We loved our old school district, but one thing that it was lacking in was handwriting skills – they no longer taught cursive! I know lots of schools are moving towards that, which is a big bummer because handwriting is so important to kiddos. Anyways, our new school includes cursive writing in their curriculum – my 4th grader was dumped into it, expecting to have already learned a year of cursive. Luckily she had had a previous teacher that encouraged the kiddos to learn cursive in their free time by providing worksheets, etc. My girls LOVE to write in cursive and my 3rd grader is super excited to learn it this year!
Have you heard of the Bic Fight For your Write, Mission to Save Handwriting?! Did you know that writing is a critical learning tool for children? Writing helps kids become better readers, boosts their confidence and sparks their creativity. Together Bic wants to show children just how great writing can be… and how great they can be! (finally got shelf liner into the drawers of the tween desk makeover – now, to fill them with fun writing utensils!)
You can take BIC’s Fight for Your Write pledge to save handwriting and enter for a chance to win a $1,200 BIC Prize Pack by visiting www.BICFightForYourWrite.com – I just took the pledge myself! I want to encourage my kiddos to keep on writing, by hand, to stretch those minds of theirs.
Handwriting engages 14 different abilities
1) Visual Focusing
2) Mental Attention
3) Organized Physical Movements
4) Receptive Language
5) Inner Expressive Language
6) Memory Recall
7) Concentration with Awareness
8) Spatial Perception
9) Organization
10) Integration
11) Eye-Hand Coordination
12) Motor Planning
13) Tactile Input
14) Crossing Midline
My kids LOVE to write stories – and it’s that easy to encourage handwriting. There are tips over at Fight for Your Write, such as “We feel inspired by this beautiful weather! Take time outside with your kids and create your own eye-spy game. Write down everything you see!” – – it’s tips and ways that like that give you solid ideas for encouraging handwriting.
There even seems to be a hand-lettering movement right now – I love seeing what everyone creates with hand-lettering. You can even take a calligraphy class here from CreativeBug. Encouraging my kiddos with their writing makes me want to improve my own writing!
Does your school teach cursive? How do you instill the value of handwriting in your kiddos??
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bic. The opinions and text are all mine.