Italics BEAUTIFUL HANDWRITING FOR C HILDREN SECOND EDITION Author of Charlotte Mason Study Guide: A Simplified Approach to a Living Education Sa m ple file by Penny Gardner LIVING BOOKS PRESS MOUNT PLEASANT, MICHIGAN
Italics BEAUTIFUL HANDWRITING FOR CHILDREN SECOND EDITION by Penny Gardner Author of Charlotte Mason Study Guide:A Simplified Approach to a Living Education L IVING BOOKS PRESS M OUNT PLEASANT, MICHIGAN HIGH QUALITY LITERATURE WWW. LIVINGBOOKSPRESS. COM
Italics BEAUTIFUL HANDWRITING FOR CHILDREN (SECOND EDITION) Copyright 2008 by Penny Gardner All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission by the author, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles where the title, author and ISBN are listed. Permission is granted, upon purchase, to print or photocopy this workbook for use by immediate family members only. Others may purchase these rights by visiting www.pennygardner.com. Penny Gardner 1128 N. 70 E. American Fork, UT 84003 www.pennygardner.com Also by Penny Gardner: Charlotte Mason Study Guide: A Simplified Approach to a Living Education Nine-Note Recorder Method: Easy Duets for Beginners Nine-Note Recorder Method: Alto Edition Beyond the Nine-Notes, soprano and alto editions Christmas Duets for Soprano Recorders Christmas Duets for Alto Recorders Easy Consort Music for Recorders Cover: Carrousel Graphics, Jackson, Wyoming Cover Photo: Forester Forest, Dreamstime Text layout: Penny Gardner Published and distributed by LIVING BOOKS PRESS Publishers of classic living books 5497 Gilmore Road, Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48858 www.livingbookspress.com ISBN: 1-57636-150-0 Copyright 2008 Penny Gardner i
Table of Contents Introduction to Italics, Beautiful Handwriting for Children 1 Why Choose Italic Handwriting?. 1 Suggestions for Using Italics, Beautiful Handwriting for Children 2 Steps for Teaching Your Child Basic and Cursive Italic Handwriting 3 Basic Italics: Lesson 1: i, j, l 4 Lesson 2: v, w 6 Lesson 3: z.. 7 Lesson 4: k, x 8 Lesson 5: n 10 Lesson 6: m, h, r 11 Practice 12 Lesson 7: b, p 14 Lesson 8: u, y 16 Lesson 9: f, t 18 Lesson 10: a 20 Lesson 11: d, g, q, 9 22 Practice 25 Lesson 12: o, e 27 Practice 29 Lesson 13: c, s 31 Lesson 14: Basic Italic Alphabet and Capital Letters 33 Practice... 35 The Concept of Copy Work. 37 Candy Jar Copy Work. 38 Examples in Basic Italic Handwriting to Copy 39 PART TWO ~ Cursive Italics: Lesson 15: The Cursive Italics Alphabet 46 Lesson 16: The Cursive Italics Alphabet, continued 47 Lesson 17: Curved Joins 48 Lesson 18: Sharp Joins 49 Lesson 19: Start-back Joins 51 Lesson 20: Horizontal Joins and Some Optional Joins 53 Lesson 21: Diagonal into Horizontal Joins. 55 Lesson 22: Joining Out of a 2-Stroke e and Some Optional Joins 57 Lesson 23: Letters That Are Never Joined 61 Lesson 24: Capitals in Cursive Italics 63 Examples in Cursive Italic Handwriting to Copy.. 65 Variations on Copy Work 74 Quotes for Copy Work Jar, modeled and typed; reproducible papers 75 ii Copyright 2008 Penny Gardner
ITALICS, BEAUTIFUL HANDWRITING FOR CHILDREN: AN INTRODUCTION Charlotte Mason, a British educator who lived from 1842-1923, recommended teaching children Italic handwriting. She wrote: Some years ago I heard of a lady who was elaborating, by means of the study of old Italian and other manuscripts, a system of beautiful handwriting which could be taught to children. [This is] a style of writing which is pleasant to acquire because it is beautiful to behold. It is surprising how quickly young children, even those already confirmed in ugly writing, take to this new handwriting. (Home Education, p. 235-236) I first learned italic handwriting in an adult calligraphy course that I took many years ago. We simplify calligraphic italics for children by leaving out some of the flourishes but the basic form is still the same. This is a beautiful system of handwriting. If your children have already learned another form of penmanship and if it is legible I would leave well enough alone. However, if you are researching penmanship styles for your young children, I would give my highest recommendation to Italics. If you have an older student with unacceptable handwriting, offer to teach him/her Calligraphy. Or teach calligraphy to a group of students so it is a fun, co-op class instead of another of Mother s reform projects. In the adult calligraphy class that I took, we worked in pencil for several weeks. Pencil provides the friction that is needed to have control. Ballpoint pens squiggle all over the place and we should not allow our children to use them for penmanship. Calligraphy pens, whether true nibs or felt-tipped, should not be used until the student has mastered his work in pencil. A major difference between this handwriting book and others on the market is a fundamental philosophical difference. Most penmanship programs have a workbook for every grade through elementary school. Charlotte Mason disagreed with this method. She preferred that children have meaningful handwriting experiences. Once the child can form all the letters, he chooses for himself what he will write. Charlotte called this a book of mottos a collection of special pieces that a child copies into a book with lined paper. So in this workbook, I will guide you to teach penmanship to your child and encourage you to use Charlotte Mason s concept of copy work for practicing it. Please feel free to adapt and add to this program, as it seems warranted. I hope that Italics, Beautiful Handwriting for Children will prove helpful. WHY CHOOSE ITALIC HANDWRITING? 1) Italic handwriting is beautiful, legible, and simpler to learn. 2) Basic italics, the printed or manuscript form of italics, is very similar to cursive italics, unlike other forms of penmanship where cursive is radically different from printing. 3) Italic penmanship is an art and appeals to creative children who wish to express themselves. Copyright 2008 Penny Gardner 1 Published and Distributed by LIVING BOOKS PRESS, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THIS ITALICS BOOK Writing is a trying endeavor for most young children. If you will do these lessons along with your child using your non-dominant hand, you will better understand how difficult a task this is for your child. So my two suggestions are: 1) Wait until the child is physically ready. 2) Keep the penmanship lesson very, very short. There are activities for preschoolers and kindergarten-aged children that will help them become ready for handwriting. Your public library will have some books that address this. A few readiness activities are: stringing uncooked macaroni or cold cereal with a hole in the center onto a shoelace; finger painting; picking up small items with fingers or tweezers; working with safety scissors under supervision; playing with clay or beeswax; and doodling with chalk, crayons, pencils, and other writing/drawing tools. The beginning of second grade seems to be a good time to start formal penmanship lessons. In first grade, you may guide your child with forming individual letters in a tray of sand or cornmeal or in shaving cream. Trace individual letters in first grade with guidance so bad habits are not formed. Prior to first grade, your child may want to write his/her name, so you may decide to teach capital letters, training the child to start the letter at the top and form it as correctly as possible. A soft three-sided pencil grip from your local school supply or department store may help the child grasp the pencil correctly. The student should sit up straight at a table or desk. Have the page at an angle that follows the forearm of the dominant hand, with the nondominant hand holding the page in place. The left-handed child has more challenges with learning to write. Allow him/her to experiment to see what works best. If he is not yet hooking his left wrist, encourage him to try writing without hooking. If hooking works best for her, that is fine. If the wrist is hooked then the paper should be slanted as for right-handed persons. Your child should trace and copy each lesson in this consumable workbook. You may print enough copies for members of your immediate family with purchase from the author. Some specifics to watch for: ~Italics have a narrow, slim look. For example, an o is an oval rather than a fat, round circle. ~Make sure letters are touching both the waist line and the base line (AKA the floor). ~Encourage the child to have a consistent slant or slope to his/her letters. ~All letters (with one exception) start at the top never at the bottom. ~Capitals and letters with ascenders, such as b, h, and l, start halfway up to the line above the waist line we will call it the ceiling. Letters with descenders, such as g and y, extend halfway down to the line below the base line we will call that the basement. Letters within a word are spaced closely together but not touching. Between words there should be a wider space about the width of a child s pointer finger. Between sentences there should be about two finger-widths. 2 Copyright 2008 Penny Gardner
STEPS FOR TEACHING YOUR CHILD BASIC ITALIC HANDWRITING: 1) Go through the Basic Italics lessons at an appropriate speed for your child. Always use a pencil. Each lesson should be about 3 to 5 minutes long so it will take more than one day to complete some of the lessons. Train the child to concentrate and give his or her best effort for that short time. Supervise closely to make sure the child is forming letters correctly. It is much easier to avoid bad habits than to break them. Be encouraging. 2) Once you have gone through all the Basic Italics lessons, have your child practice what he has learned with copy work. At this stage, he/she should be copying from a model, not from typeset material such as a book. Models, and space to copy, are provided on pages 40-45 with additional models on pages 75-77. If he needs more practice than what is provided in this workbook, you may write a passage in a spiral notebook for him to copy on the facing page. Skip the next sheet of paper so you can rip out Mother s models from the notebook; the finished product will contain only the child s writing. Mother provides the model on the left-hand sheet; the child writes on the facing right side. If the child is left-handed then Mother must write her model on the right-hand sheet so lefty may copy it onto the left side where he/she will not be hampered by the spiral binding. 3) Transcribe from typeset material when ready. Some material is provided on pages 82-94. This is more difficult so watch how it goes. You may need to provide the model in basic italics for a few weeks longer. The student may copy directly from read-alouds and other living books. 4) Provide consistent, brief sessions of practice with basic italics using copy work for a year or longer, if needed before moving Mother s model Right-handed child s copy on to cursive italics. STEPS FOR TEACHING YOUR CHILD CURSIVE ITALIC HANDWRITING: 1) Go through each cursive italics lesson thoroughly. Supervise closely and be encouraging. Use pencil. Extend the length of the penmanship session to between 5 and 15 minutes. 2) After completing the cursive italics lessons, have your student use copy work to practice. He or she should be copying from a model until capable of copying from typeset material. Models in cursive italics are provided in this book on pages 65-73 and 78-81. 3) When ready, the student should copy directly from read-alouds and other living books that are being used for schoolwork or personal reading. Some typeset quotes are provided for transcribing on pages 82-94. 4) Move back to wide-ruled paper making the body of the letter go to an imaginary line at the halfway mark. (See examples on pages 72-74.) 5) Optional: Advance to college-ruled paper with the body of the letter going to the imaginary halfway mark. Copyright 2008 Penny Gardner 3 Published and Distributed by LIVING BOOKS PRESS, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Published and Distributed by LIVING BOOKS PRESS, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Published and Distributed by LIVING BOOKS PRESS, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Published and Distributed by LIVING BOOKS PRESS, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Published and Distributed by LIVING BOOKS PRESS, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Published and Distributed by LIVING BOOKS PRESS, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
Published and Distributed by LIVING BOOKS PRESS, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan