The Cursive Alphabet

Teaching cursive to kids: a four-week starter plan

You do not need a full curriculum to teach cursive. Ten minutes a day, the right order of letters, and a bit of patience will take a child a long way in a month.

When to start

In the United States, cursive is most often introduced in the second or third grade, once children can write print with some control. A child who can form the letters of their name in print, and who can hold a pencil without tiring in a minute or two, is ready. Starting earlier is fine if they are keen, but there is no need to push a five-year-old into it.

Before you begin

  • Use pencil. It is forgiving, and a child can rub out a bad loop without a fuss.
  • Use large lines. The large ruled paper with slant lines gives a young hand room and shows the lean.
  • Check the setup. The guide to pen grip, posture and paper angle takes two minutes and prevents most of the problems that come later.
  • Keep sessions short. Ten to fifteen minutes, every day if you can, is better than an hour once a week. Stop while the child still has some energy.

Week one: the basic strokes and the first four letters

Begin with the shapes that everything else is built from, before any letters. Have the child write rows of the upstroke, the undercurve, and the loop on the large ruled paper. Do them slowly, keeping an even lean.

Then teach the letters made of those strokes. Start with l, i, t and u. They use the undercurve and the upstroke, and with them the child can already write words: it, lit, tilt, until. Each letter page has the animation and the numbered steps. Let the child watch it once, then trace the first sheet from the letter practice sheets.

Week two: the oval letters

Add the letters that begin with an oval: a, d, g, q, c and o. These are harder because the oval has to close at the top. The most common fault is an open top, which makes an a look like a u or an o look like a v.

Words to write: add, dad, did, tag, quilt, cat, dog. Note that o joins with a bridge at the top, not at the baseline, so words with o are a good time to read the guide to joins together.

Week three: the humps and the rest of the lowercase

Next come the letters with humps and loops: n, m, h, y, k, e, b, f, p, r, s, v, w, x, j and z. That sounds like a lot, but by now the child knows the basic strokes, and each new letter is a small variation. Teach three or four a day, and review the earlier ones with each new session.

Practice with the days of the week and the common words sheet.

Week four: whole words and the capitals in their name

With the lowercase letters in place, move to words and sentences. Writing a full word without lifting the pen, except to cross a t or dot an i, is the real skill, and it is the part children enjoy most because it looks like grown-up writing.

Then add the capitals. Do not teach all twenty-six at once. Start with the capital letter their own name begins with, then the names of family members and the capitals for the days of the week. The rest can wait. The worksheet maker can make a sheet of any names or words, which is a good way to give a child something they care about writing.

What to praise, and what to leave alone

Tidy cursive has three features: an even slant, even spacing and letters that sit on the line. Praise those. Do not fuss about the exact shape of every loop in the first month. Children whose early efforts are criticized for small differences often decide they are bad at writing.

Some letters have more than one accepted form. Capital F, T and Q, for example, are taught differently by different schools. If your child's school teaches one version, use that one. The letter pages show both forms where they exist.

Keep it going

  • Have them write one real sentence a day: a label, a card, a line in a journal.
  • Let them choose the words. A child will practice a name for a pet or a favorite team more willingly than a list of words they were given.
  • After the first month, move from large lines to the medium ruled paper. Smaller writing comes with time, not by asking for it.

If a letter keeps going wrong, go back to the letter pages and watch the animation again, slowly. Seeing the pen move is often what a child needs, more than being told.

More guides