Cursive Reading & Writing

Regarding reading, it is already in a sense implied in the exercise with the movable alphabet. In a perfectly phonetic language, it could be developed without any further aid if there were a strong impulse to know the secrets of writing. Our small children, on their Sunday walks with their parents, would stop for a long time in front of the shops and succeed in deciphering the names written outside, although they were in printed capital letters whilst they had learned only the letters of the movable alphabet in cursive script.

- Maria Montessori, The Formation of Man, p. 94

I know; it's a long quote. But it answers a question so beautifully that I receive so often.

Why do we start off teaching cursive if what the child sees most is print?
One of the reasons is answered here by Dr. Montessori herself because the child can decern between the two. 

But isn't cursive hard?
It is very developmentally aligned with the young child just learning and building the control of movement—especially the exact and fine movement of writing. 

The movements of cursive or script are much more natural and easy to learn. The most challenging movements are that of print - the perfect circle and the line. They require the child to place the pencil down, move it in the desired direction, pick it back up, put it back down in a new place, and move it again. That takes a great deal of control and muscle strength. With cursive, the child places the pencil down and moves continuously, connecting letters (or sounds as we tend to call them at this age) until the word is finished—no picking up and putting down, just fluid movement.

So how does it align with my child's development?
When we think about how young children begin to express themselves through drawing, we notice they move their writing utensils (crayon, pencil, marker...) across swiftly across the page, making swirls and curves and lines all connected, rarely stopping. Their manual dexterity and fine motor skills are not yet defined enough to succeed at the challenge of print. But cursive, with the fluid movements and connected lines, align beautifully. And with that skill, they can begin writing and expressing their thoughts. 

So, how exactly do you do this in the classroom?
We do this by always writing in cursive when the children see what we write. 
We also introduce the Sand Paper Letters in the Primary classroom. This work comes after a great deal of work on phonetic sounds and mastering the ability to pick out sounds of words. (More on that another time) Once a child has mastered identifying the sounds of words, we introduce them to the symbol (or letter) of that sound. We stay away from using the name of the sound (t is "tah," not "tee"). 

We show the child how to trace the sound and invite them to trace it. All while repeating the sound. "This builds muscle memory and a sensory connection. As Dr. Montessori put it: "The hand can be prepared directly to trace the signs of the alphabet by the help of the tactile and muscular senses, not by sight." 

Once the child has mastered a handful of these connections of sound to symbol, we move to the moveable alphabet. Here the child can practice building words (we say building instead of spelling because everything is phonetic at this stage). This way, the pressure of writing with the control of movement and refinement of fine motor skills is a none issue. Words are built using little wooden cutouts of the sounds. This allows the child to build words and build confidence while working on motor skill refinement, movement control, and muscle strength. 

So through watching others (older children and the adults in the classroom) use cursive, practicing tracing the sounds with cursive sandpaper letters, using the cursive moveable alphabet, and continued practice at their own pace, the child learns cursive. 

Great, how can I help to support this at home?
I am so glad you asked 😉

And you are right. The more consistent we are at school and home, the easier things are for the child. So supporting this at home is a tremendous help for your child. It is also so easy to support at home.

Whenever you write something, your child will see whether that is a shopping list (an excellent language work to do together even at the toddler age), leaving a note for your partner (we all do it "don't forget we have that thing with the neighbors tonight"), or just something more formal like a labeling game (a fun language enrichment game of labeling things in the house), do it in cursive. It doesn't have to be perfect. Of course, the more you do it, the better it will get. 

Whoa, Kate, this feels like a lot.
No worries. Baby steps. And you know I am always here to answer questions, as are Ms. Ellen and Ms. Jill. If you have more questions, reach out. As many of you know, I love talking Montessori and am always happy to share my passion. 

Here is an excellent article from Montessori Services explaining this a bit more. 
Here is a handy example of the directions for each cursive letter. Remember, we stay away from upper case letters and stick to lower case.