How Wee Learn

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8 Surprising Benefits of Cursive Writing

by

Sometimes, as a Mama, I do things just because I have always done them. Do you know what I mean? For example, my little ones have always had an early bedtime. I know in the back of my mind there are tons of benefits for this, but I haven’t really taken the time to research them. I just put my little ones to bed early.

Another thing I do is teach my little ones cursive writing. This is one of those things that I knew had tons of benefits, but I had never taken the time to research them—until now.

That’s right, friends. You are about to get the fabulous recap notes from many nights of research. Many long nights and cups of coffee later, I have realized that the ins and outs, history, and benefits of cursive writing is quite the wormhole.

As it turns out, the benefits of cursive writing and why it should be taught to children are plentiful. The reasons many children are no longer taught cursive writing, though, are not. The biggest reason I could find for why it is no longer being taught is simply it is not felt to be needed or relevant any longer.

BUT… when you look at all of the benefits of cursive writing, you will see a much different picture. There are incredible benefits to children! So much so that I would say it is indeed still needed.

8 Surprising Benefits of Cursive Writing with a Free Printable

Free Printable Cursive Writing Practice Pages

Just before we get into all of those benefits, you’ll want to grab these Free Printable Cursive Writing Practice Pages. I know you’ll be just as gung-ho about cursive writing after reading through these benefits, so let’s get you set to dive right in!

8 Surprising Benefits of Cursive Writing

Here are 8 benefits of cursive writing to show why teaching cursive writing is still important:

1. Cursive letters are easier for young children to form. Writing in print with all of the starts, stops, and hard lines tends to be difficult for young children. Writing in a smooth, flowing, curving, connecting pattern is much easier for little hands still developing fine motor control.

2. Cursive writing reduces letter reversals. Young children very commonly struggle with letter reversals when printing. Letters b and d are examples of two print letters that look very, very similar. Children start by drawing a line and removing their pencil, then they need to try to remember (or guess) which side the circle goes on. In cursive writing, though, young children do not remove their pencil from the paper. Letters flow from one side of the page to the next in smooth and fluid movements. The letter ‘b’ is made with the stick first, and the letter ‘d’ begins with the circle. Letter reversals vanish!

3. Cursive writing is artistic. Most children love to draw and begin to do so quite naturally. Cursive writing is very artistic and quite like drawing in many ways. Cursive writing flows from this natural drawing ability.

How Wee Write in Cursive - Cursive Writing Practice Pages4. Cursive writing helps children with reading and spelling. Because cursive writing flows from the beginning of the word through to the end, cursive letters tend to be more distinct. And since those letters all flow into one another, it strengthens muscle memory on how words are spelled. This actually has been shown to help children learn to read easier and faster.

5. Cursive writing involves crossing the midline. Do you remember a post I wrote some time ago about the importance of crossing the midline? If not, you can read it right here. Cursive writing is a fabulous activity for crossing the midline!

6. Cursive writing leads to increased writing speed and lowered hand fatigue. Due to the flowing nature of cursive writing, children who write cursive do so quicker and with less stress on little hand muscles. There is no starting and stopping, removing the pencil and placing it down again to shape each individual letter as there is with printing. 

7. Cursive writing helps with the retention of information. This benefit of cursive writing is actually a benefit of printing as well, but it needs to be mentioned due to the current shift towards typing reports, papers, and basically everything. It has been shown that writing things down by hand helps us to remember that information much better. This is a huge benefit to children learning information!

8. Signature. Finally, there will come a day when our little ones need to sign their names. Be it at the bank or on a driver’s license, that day will come. Voila! I have found at least ONE completely practical, daily reason why children should still learn cursive writing!

Isn’t this list surprising? There are SO many fabulous reasons to teach our children cursive writing.

I hope you will consider teaching your own children how to write in cursive! And if you do, I invite you to use my program, How Wee Write in Cursive. From squiggles to stories, you will be guided in teaching your child how to write in cursive, step-by-step, slowly building up their writing stamina and technique.

Check out How Wee Write in Cursive:

https://shop.howweelearn.com/products/how-wee-write-in-cursive

Thank you so much for reading, sweet friend!

xo
Sarah

 

Comments

  3. MJ Palser says

    What a great giveaway.
    Cursive is a lost art these days. I can’t wait to have my small human get better at writing.

  4. Tameca Everett says

    I love the wee learn page it has brought alot of learning and fun to my 1 and 2 year olds. Keep doing an excellent job love you guys.??❤

  10. Lara says

    Hi! My name is Lara and I’m a Preschool teacher of 3’s in America! I am a BIG supporter of handwriting for the benefits of reading skill development! I hope I am a winner!

    • Mei says

      I live in UAE, you change my view about cursive handwriting, I though it’s something difficult for young kids to learn, I will start teaching my 3 years old son about this, thank you.

    • Sarah says

      Congratulations! You have won one of the cursive writing workbooks! Please check your email.

  36. Laura Ganja says

    Hi, I’m a Canadian Grandma,aka, Gigi.I am a full time caregiver to my 3 year old granddaughter and loving every minute. Love your site, keep up the work as we need teachers like you. Yes it is a crime that they are not teaching cursive writing anymore.

  39. Marissa Jeffery says

    Canadian, and I have found the distinct lack of teaching cursive to be profoundly sad. I love writing cursive and will definitely be teaching my tiny human how to do it. Thanks for the cliffs notes

  40. Valerie H says

    American!
    One more great reason I’ve found to learn cursive is to be able to READ it. I do a lot of family history work finding my family’s ancestry, and so much of it is in cursive! I love looking over old records and reading history in it’s original script.

    • Sarah says

      Oh YES! A fabulous reason!! I am always surprised looking back on historical letters how almost all of it is in cursive writing. It is definitely a needed skill to keep our history alive.

  43. Erica says

    I’m American. We just started kindergarten homeschool with my oldest and are continuing preschool homeschool with my middle. Since I started homeschooling, I knew cursive would be something I taught to my munchkins. All of these benefits just confirm it. Thank you!

  45. T says

    I’m American – and a big fan of cursive, which was always so much easier than printing for me when I was little!

  47. Uzma says

    None. I live in Saudi arabia and am always on the lookout for great resources for our little champs who i believe can change the world by being taught and directed in the right direction .

  49. Shanon says

    I am an American. I am a firm believer in teaching our children cursive. I appreciate the research you did. I did not fully understand all of the benefits of cursive writing!

    • Sarah says

      Thank you Shanon – neither did I. The research was very eye opening. Thank you for entering – good luck!

  51. Dana says

    As a retired American Teacher/Librarian, I have long been an advocate of teaching cursive writing after kids have mastered print. We used to teach D’Nealian in second grade as a step into cursive which was taught in third. Kids wrote more legibly all around and were able to read any type of print as they aged. My local school district has recently voted to bring back teaching cursive, and I am thrilled about that!

  52. Pauline Hampson says

    Cursive writing is very important skill for children to learn. There’s nothing nicer than receiving a letter that has been hand written.

    I am a Canadian granny.

    • Sarah says

      Oh do I ever agree with this!!! Thank you for entering you lovely Canadian Granny. Good luck!

  58. Samantha Shah says

    My daughter was just telling me yesterday, “in the olden days, people wrote ‘connected’ but not anymore” – heard from her teacher! I didn’t realize they don’t teach cursive anymore!

    We are American.

    • Sarah says

      Not silly at all! With the Oak Meadow curriculum form drawing begins in Kindergarten and continues through first grade. Official cursive writing begins in Grade 2. Thank you for entering Shelby! Good luck!

  72. Shelly says

    Great post! I’ve been researching different curricula and would love to try Oak Meadow. We live in America.

    • Sarah says

      I am a big fan of Oak Meadow. If you have any questions I am happy to try to answer them for you! Thank you for entering – good luck!

  78. Nicole says

    Hi, my name is Nicole and I’m a mother of five beautiful children: I’m new to “howweelearn” and so far I love it, and your sponsor Oak meadows, which gives me hope for homeschooling Multiple children in different grades . If I could afford the packages for all My children’s grades we would have considered homeschool, Oh and I’m American!!!!!

    • Sarah says

      Oh welcome Nicole! Thank you for your kind comment and for entering the giveaway. Good luck!

    • Sarah says

      CONGRATULATIONS! You have won one of the cursive writing workbooks. Please check your email!

  80. Jennifer Blaine says

    I need to use these workbooks, haha! I have a style of writing that’s a combo of cursive and printing but I wish I kept the cursive going. When I see a note or something written in cursive it just looks amazingly beautiful. And the research makes sense! Thanks for doing that! I am Canadian and I love your blog and Oak Meadow!

  82. Sara says

    I am Canadian.
    When is a good age to start doing activities like cursive writing?
    Thank you for the information that you shared in this post.

  87. Danielle says

    I am American and just taught my daughter to write her name in cursive this summer! Now I have a list of reasons for why it is important to learn cursive writing. Thank you!

  89. Sonya Kotla says

    I was excited to see the item on cursive writting. Schools don’t teach this anymore and it’s a same

  90. Lindsay says

    American.
    My 2 older girls have always asked why they didn’t learn cursive in school like I did. They always wanted to learn and I taught them as best as I could but, these workbooks would be amazing to help me teach my 3rd, youngest daughter!

  93. Loreen Hansen says

    American, and I have fought tooth and nail to keep handwriting as part of the curriculum to no avail. I still teach it in my classroom.

  95. Jennifer says

    I’m American. I’m glad to see someone present good practical reasons cursive is good for the hands. I learned print and cursive, but calligraphy changed my handwriting even more for the better.

  96. Liz S says

    I’m American. I went to K-2nd grade in Belgium and we only wrote in cursive. When I returned to the US for 3rd grade, the other kids were just starting to learn cursive. I got teased a lot because I couldn’t print well and was so shy, so I stubbornly gave up cursive any chance I had. It’s a skill I wish I’d never lost, and I plan on teaching it to my 2yo when she’s older.

  97. Carole Aubin says

    Is it okay for me to teach my child to do something just the way I do it, because I have always done it that way. YES! It is a
    beautiful art to teach children; to help them learn to express themselves as beautifully and artistically and elegantly as it is possible. No one seems to find a problem with everyone communicating by punching buttons on a phone with no voice or skill involved. God Bless you Sarah for publishing this program, and for the worksheets. I am aa great grandmother of a beautiful,
    intelligent 3 1/2 year old girl, and I have every intention of teaching her cursive, along with all the other beautiful, well planned and practical lessons that you provide. This website is such a gift for those of us who are dismayed and frustrated at the depths that society is sinking to, and I find it insulting that the educational system is making it so easy for us to eliminate standards that have been with us for centuries. Keep up the good work….you are a beacon of hope. Respectfully, Carole Aubin

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