Old-Fashioned Lessons That Never Go Out of Style: Cursive

 Who writes in cursive, anymore? Mostly people over the age of thirty-five. Why is it important? Is it important?

I mentioned to our local postmaster once that I homeschooled and he looked at me very sternly and asked, "You're teaching them cursive, aren't you?" Taken aback, I said, "Yessir!" It wasn't until I left the post office that I realized that you can't work for the post office if you can't read cursive! There are too many people who still use it and too many young people who can't deliver a letter!

But why should we teach cursive to our children? In my book Life in the Trenches, I address the development of the right and left sides of the brain. As I have said in previous "Old-Fashioned Lessons", the more you stretch your brain, the more it can do. The more you use both sides of your brain, the faster it can work because you have laid pathways across the divide between them. Cursive does this astoundingly.

We usually think of writing as being on the left side of the brain, the verbal side. However, the left brain doesn't just do words; it does details, it does trees. The right brain does forests, global thinking, and spatial skills. How does cursive work? It writes words, spelling them out letter by letter, which are left brain skills; but it forms them spatially, with the pen changing direction, more drawing the word than writing it, and it forms the entire word, not letter. letter. letter. And don't get me going on crossing your T's and dotting your I's!

Nothing works like cursive to train the brain every day to work holistically, to stretch the ability of the brain to jump from one side to the other. While it is a strain to learn, it actually changes the brain in a way that is more effective than any other everyday activity.

#15 of 15 Ways To Teach Your Child to Write Using Books -- To Have Your Child's Heart

Here we are! The last of our 15 Ways. And, after all we've been through, we need to discuss why we are even doing this.

Why do we choose to have children? Frankly, to have a heritage, someone to pass down what is important to us to. Unfortunately, sometimes those things can't be passed down or are done unhealthily because we have lost our children's hearts.

We keep our children's hearts by maintaining our authority while respecting them as individuals. How do books enable us to do that?

20 years ago, I attended the Illinois Christian Home Educators Conference and sat in on a session led by the curriculum specialist for the state of Illinois. She mentioned book reports -- a standard school assignment, right? She said she NEVER had her children do book reports because all it teaches them is that reading results in drudgery. Instead, she would ask a child about the book he had read and sometimes had a fascinating, in-depth discussion with him. Her reasoning? She wanted a relationship with her child, not a piece of paper they were both eager to see the last of. And, the best way to get a relationship with her child was by talking about the books he had read.

While sitting after breakfast reading (everything from the Bible to poetry, to novels to leadership books), we have had a wonderful chance to listen to our children. Even the very youngest can bring up an example from his own picture books or Sunday School lessons that applies to the topic at hand. And, when he does, we can commend him, thus showing him respect and firming up our relationship with him.

We each hope we are doing the best we can and are getting better all the time. And, don't we hope for our children that they will be even better than we are? If we show them and their ideas respect, when they are the one writing the books, establishing the policies, teaching the next generation, they will delight in the lessons we shared and will carry our values to the future.

#14 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books -- It Takes Time

Every subject takes time to learn, whether you are doing block study -- studying a single subject in-depth intensively for a short period of time -- or piecing it out over a year. My daughter, Becki, Queen of Research, has discovered that if you study any subject for either 1,000 hours or 7 years, that you will become an expert in it. We can have our students fill in blanks in workbooks, or dissect the passages they read, but that kind of literary education is actually quite new, being taught starting only in the 50s and 60s. C. S. Lewis, the English professor, despised this kind of literary analysis. He preferred the traditional, immersion method. He himself was a voracious reader reading every book in his father's house - and books were stacked on the stairs and in the attic. The immersion method teaches by osmosis. Children learn language usage by reading the best books.

I have never taught Grammar. Once, maybe, for a few weeks. And, we've read "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves", a funny book about punctuation. But, aside from helping my graduates format their final papers, never have I taught Grammar and every one of them got 24 or above on the English portion of the ACT and those who took the English CLEP passed the first time. They may not know what a noun is, but they definitely understand noun/verb agreement. But, this comes from hours reading on their own, both required and elective reading, and reading together.

I heard a quote from a football player: "An amateur practices till he gets it right; a professional practices until he can't get it wrong." And, that only comes with time, whether practicing football, or the English language.

#13 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books -- Relax and Enjoy Yourself

I just got a book in the mail yesterday. And, I asked the kids if they wanted to read it with me. They were less than enthusiastic.

You see, as I said before, we just finished reading "Alice in Wonderland" -- required reading. And, I looked at my list of books I wanted to read with the kids and I saw E. Nesbit's "5 Children and It," which I chose because it was one of JRR Tolkein's and C. S. Lewis's favorite books when they were children. But, 16-yr-old Mimi damped everyone on that by making a disgusted face and saying, "that was just weird." So, the kids were not in the most receptive state of mind for reading a book.

But, then, I explained to them about this book. It was called "The Whispering Mountain" (that sounded promising) and I had been trying to find it for years. It wasn't at the bookstores, though Joan Aiken is still having books printed, and it wasn't in the Southwest Wisconsin Library System. So I had to order it. I think it had to be shipped from England! And, I assured them that not only could we stay up late, but there was absolutely nothing educational about it! That got them very excited.

So, although the little boys were playing with their new velcro ball-and-plastic-mitt game, and Anna was looking at manga pictures on the internet, and I was quilting, and we weren't able to finish the chapter (it was 34 pages long!), we read around and were relaxed and Mom wasn't scolding, "Now, pay attention! This is important!" And, you can read all the greatest books in the world but, as Prof. Rosalie de Rosset said so long ago, "If you don't enjoy it, you won't get anything out of it." So, have fun!

#11 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books -- "What Does the Bible Say About That?"

For all kinds of reasons, this is the most important question you can ask you children about the books they read or the things they watch.

The first reason is, the Bible is THE standard. It has been called a great book of literature, but is is more than that: it is THE great book of literature and can be compared to no other book. Every other book is compared to it. The wisdom it teaches is perfect, the characterizations of people is perfect, its standard of behavior and action and motivation are perfect. Every literary theme, every character, every plot can be taken to the Bible and held up next to it to see if it is the truth, because the Bible only tells the Truth. Of course, this requires familiarity with the Bible and, while we're reading aloud, why not read the Bible? This morning, we had a lively discussion over the breakfast table about Gehazi, Elisha's servant, who essentially stole the gifts Naaman the leper offered to Elisha for his healing but Elisha refused. The discussion of selfishness, the nature of lying, the importance of volunteering in Christian witness was quite lengthy. The kids will be able to apply this to other areas in life and, during our discussion the kids brought up previous lessons from the Bible, as well. It all builds on itself.

Shakespeare is lauded as a premier psychologist and poet, using every plot device and literary mechanism known to Man. But, the Bible tops him because we don't have a man's spin on the Truth, (as in his "Richard III") we just have the Truth. So, after the nature of the Bible, our title question is important for teaching our children what to write. And, even if they never write after completing school, it will teach them how to judge every piece of media that comes their way for the rest of their lives.

#10 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books -- Character

Who are these people we are reading about? What makes them who they are? How does the author show us what kind of person they are? Do we admire the kind of person this is? What does the Bible say about how they are behaving?

All of these are questions to explore with your children while reading.

Characters are more important to the theme of a story than any other single aspect. When your child is very young, you can ask, "Who is the good/bad guy? How do you know?" As they get more experienced, you can discuss, not just their actions, but the words the author chooses to describe them, the kind of companions he has, both human and animal (think Disney animal sidekicks), the kind of family or house he lives in (Sauron in Mordor vs. elves in Rivendell), and even the name the author chooses. "Danny Rugg," from the Bobbsey Twins always sounded like a bully to me. "Captain Ahab" tells you all you need to know about the character in Moby Dick, named after the most godless king of Israel ever. "Bilbo," "Frodo," "Pippin," and "Merry" are all bouncy cheerful hobbit names, while "Samwise" has common sense written all over it.

Personally, my favorite class in public school was Reading/English and, specifically group discussion. The great thing about stories shared with your children is that any story is fair game: docudramas about history, Disney movies, picture books and novels all have characters, real and fictional, whose personalities and presentation can be examined. When we examine those characters, it helps children to not only understand the story better, but present characters in their writing, as well as examine their own characters and who they want to be as they grow up. For instance, my son Ben really disliked Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer is supposed to epitomize The American, but Ben thought he was conniving and self-serving and decided that he didn't admire him. As a businessman today, he is evaluating how to live his life -- not like Tom Sawyer!

#9 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books -- What's the Point?

Every book -- every GOOD book -- has a theme, an overriding point that, in the greatest of books, is never forgotten. Every plot point, every character, every description of place supports the theme. I have come to realize that the very greatest books -- and there are only a few -- discuss the relationship of God and man. That would include Milton's "Paradise Lost", "Moby Dick," Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" and Dosteoevsky's "Brothers Karamozov". These books are not for the faint of heart! I've only read 2 of them and am working on a 3rd; "Les Mis" was just too depressing. But, every great book has a theme. "Alice in Wonderland's" is the joy of childhood, "Winnie-the-Pooh's" is the wisdom of simple things, "Pride and Predudice's" is that the more pride one has, the more prejudiced one will be.

Not everyone is going to write a great book of world literature: witness how few have been written. But, we can still learn about carrying a theme through and supporting it with every tool at our disposal by examining the books we read. And, the great question to ask your children to discover this when reading is "What's the point?" "What is the author trying to say?" "And, how do we know?" "Prove it!" As my H. S. English teacher, Dr. Grosch, used to write at the top of my analyses of Shakespearean sonnets: "Evidence!"

Perhaps this won't be the most fun time you spend reading with your children, but, when their eyes are opened to it, their own writing will become so much better. When they see that the preacher in Moby Dick climbs up into a pulpit made of whale ivory and pulls the ladder up behind him to preach from his literal "ivory tower," they will see the breadth of what can be done in their own writing.

#8 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books -- Bunny Trails

Bunny trails allow processing, bouncing ideas off of each other and encourages deeper thought. What else is writing based on?

How much fun are bunny trails? I love them! Bunny trails come when you read anything -- fiction, non-fiction, magazines, devotionals, comic books and films. Bunny trails are another way for kids to make connections. It is also a great way to find out about your kids.

For instance, Steve is reading "Body Language for Dummies" to us. It is specifically for 14-year-old Anna who has Non-Verbal Learning Disorder -- she doesn't understand body language or vocal tone very well. Well, the other day, during our reading, she offhandedly said, "Mom, I was walking to the library and realized that the blinking lights on the back of cars tell you what direction they're turning." It took me a moment to understand what she said, but I finally realized -- and continue to celebrate -- that she read non-verbal communication -- a turn signal -- and interpreted it correctly -- all on her own! The family's reading that book gave her a venue to go on a completely pertinent bunny trail that revealed her growth to us.

Often, bunny trails take us through anecdotes from family history, science, history, psychology or just the kids thoughts. We were reading William Blake's "The Tyger" of "Tyger, Tyger, burning bright" fame and when we read "Did He who made the Lamb make thee?" 16-year-old Mimi asked, "Could he be talking about the Lion and the Lamb?" We discussed that, perhaps, Blake chose Tyger instead of Lion simply because of the sound of the word.

Reading aloud and expecting bunny trails can also open up the opportunity for uncomfortable topics of conversation. My mother and I had such a history of this, that, when I was 17 and had to tell her I was pregnant, I came home from college and asked her if we could read "Watership Down." We went to my room and never cracked the book. I knew Read Aloud was a safe place and was free to share there as in no other place.

#7 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books

#7 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books
"There's No Such Thing as a Stupid Question"

This was one of my mother's favorite sayings. She talks about our family going on a tour to Monticello, for instance, and my brother or my asking a question of the guide. She said you could see the faces of the adults change: they went from being closed, cold, "I don't want to look ignorant" faces to relaxed, warm, "I'm so glad someone asked that because I wanted to know too and was afraid of looking foolish" faces. But, my mother had taught us, "The only stupid question is the one you don't ask," so we weren't afraid to ask questions. That doesn't include obvious questions that are meant to obstruct the flow and show how clever someone is. You know what I'm talking about. But, while you read with your child, any question is fair game. I admit, while reading 1-on-1 with my mom, I could ask questions that were VERY far afield from the subject at hand and I haven't been able to do that while reading with 4 or 5 kids. But, when they have a sincere question, I try to get to the bottom of it. I say that because sometimes 4-year-olds have very pertinent questions or connections to make that they don't have the vocabulary for. But, the questions that children ask about the reading is helping them to make sense of it, to apply it, and to make connections and connections are what education is all about. As my ex-nun history teacher Mrs. Maureen Schmidt expressed it, education is a process of learning to Memorize, then Analyze, then Synthesize information. This corresponds completely to the medieval Trivium still used by Classical Education -- Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric. It's basically learning something, pulling it apart, and putting it back together again in a new way. The best way to learn that is by reading together and asking questions. Why else do we write?

#6 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books -- Read Around

#6 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books
Read Around --
This is a family expression. It means, for us, taking turns reading. It accomplishes so much for your children.

First of all, you can hear how well you child is reading and coach him, if necessary. Reading aloud improves anyone's reading more than any other exercise. You can't fake it when you read aloud.

Secondly, it becomes a group project. "Were all in this together." Part of that is learning courtesy: the kids don't want to be criticized themselves, so they are patient with one another. If they aren't, it is a chance for them to learn.
Each child in our family would read according to his ability. So, I have the 5-year-old read the chapter title, the 8-year-old read a page, the 12-year-old read 2, the 14-year-old, 3, etc. I'll finish the chapter or read 4-5 pages and then we start over. With older kids, we alternate chapters. "Whose read is it?" is a familiar cry at our house.

I admit, this is a family culture. You can feel free to create your own. But, it has meant so much to our family that I take great joy in passing it on. I couldn't begin to list the different relatives I've read with and the different books we've read. The tradition is continuing, with my daughter taking her daughter to read with my mother after church every Sunday. The close family relationships, the common language and frame of reference, the depth of understanding from discussion, the shared jokes have all helped shape me as a writer and a person. I have seen it do the same for my children, where they start to read together without me, discuss books and films and guide each others' writing. You may not have that same culture, but, I have seen it happen too often to doubt that reading around helps writing.

#5 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write With Books -- Learn to Like Good Books

#5 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write With Books
Learn to Like Good Books

Rosalie deRosset taught English at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for decades. I attended a workshop she held at a Women in Christ conference in the late 1980s. I know last time I said that you need to read for fun and, in the beginning, you should read anything to foster that. But, eventually, you should expand your taste. If you learn to love good books -- great books -- you will be spending your time with the great thinkers. And, this is what you will be sharing with your children. As I said in the first post, their vocabulary and comprehension will expand by reading great books. You can start by reading good children's books, even on your own.

I love children's literature. My favorites: "Alice in Wonderland", "The Wind in the Willows", "Winnie-the-Pooh", "The Hobbit", and "The Chronicles of Narnia". What do they have in common? Aside from the fact that they are all British authors, they were all written before or around WWII. Almost all books written before WWII were written from a Christian world view and by people with great depth of character and breadth of experience. To expand this list, I would add books by Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, E. B. White, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the book "Heidi". Great children's literature gets one used to the deeper mental requirements of great old literature like Sir Walter Scott, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen. Not only that, but they are still in print because they LASTED; they were GOOD, entertaining and creative. And, the books that children read will be reflected in their writing.

When Becki was 6, she drew a picture in church of a dollhouse. She labelled the rooms including "the parlor", which she didn't call "living room" because she didn't read books new enough to use that particular phrase. It will be exciting to see what your kids come up with, I promise.

#4 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books - Read for Fun!

This means you!


If you only read aloud -- what we call "reading around" -- taking turns -- for educational reading alone, then reading will not be considered of value by your children. Writing isn't fun because reading isn't fun -- it's a chore; it's school. How about its being cuddle time in front of the fire or on the front porch on a sunny morning? We do it with our preschoolers; why not with our teens?

But, before reading can be fun with your kids, it has to be fun for you. Do your children see you spending time reading? Maybe it's your favorite gardening magazine, maybe it's Danielle Steel, but if you make reading a priority -- not because someone is making you -- they will wonder what the big deal is and try it out for themselves. My mother spent most of my childhood in the corner of the sofa knitting, playing solitaire and, above all, reading. She tells us that as toddlers, we would crawl up under her book to see what was so absorbing.

I have many friends who insist they are not readers, others who have hardly a book in the house, who have not been to the library since their 3rd grade field trip. People don't all have to be readers. But, if you want your children to be moderately eloquent writers, you have to be a reader. Read cookbooks, manga books, magazines, atlases, "as told to" autobiographies, even your own kids' stories. Then, when you've gotten a taste of the enjoyment of reading, read with your kids for fun. Let them pick the book and enjoy the time with them.

#3 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books - Read Together

Reading aloud together is probably the most valuable educational tool you will ever have. I consider this to be of such importance that I am going to dismantle the subject and detail it further in later posts. But, why is this so important?

Well, quite apart from teaching your children to write, you are teaching your children that they are loved. You are teaching them that reading with them is something you are willing to take the time to do with them. When they pick the book, you are valuing their opinions. When you pick the book, you are showing respect for them, that you consider them worthy companions and intelligent enough to share your interests with.

Educationally, what does reading offer, particularly to the subject of writing? It exposes children to a greater vocabulary and to more difficult concepts than they have the capacity for on their own since they usually have a greater auditory understanding than visual understanding of language. It gives you all a chance to ask questions and pull apart meaning that can be applied in later experiences. My children love Shakespeare because I never have them read it. We watch it on DVD. Since the oldest were in their early teens, I would periodically stop the show and ask,"OK, do you know what's going on?" At which, they usually said, "No," and I would explain. That allowed them to "get" the story and really enjoy it.

Lastly, reading aloud gives your children a chance to use you as a sound board for digesting what they have read and applying it to their lives. And, that is the foundation of good writing.

#2 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books - Uninterrupted Silent Reading

Our family always had this informally because my brother broke the TV when he was 7 and, in a  house full of introverts, books were our entertainment. But, when I was 11, our Ogden Elementary School instituted Uninterrupted Silent Reading. From 1:05-1:25 everyone in the school, including the janitor and school secretary, read. There were 20 minutes of profound blessed peace. The only rule was that the book had to have words. There was some discussion at first but comic books were finally allowed. You could read anything you want except "Spy Vs. Spy" (a wordless comic strip.) You could read Hardy Boys, Little House on the Prairie (very popular among pre-teen girls at the time), or Judy Blume  (though there were some questions about the immorality of some of her books.) Personally, I went to the English teacher's glass-fronted shelves and, in 20 minutes a day, over a 9-month period I read Dickens's Oliver Twist and Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon.

What did USR accomplish? It developed the habit of reading. The students saw that reading was valuable, not busy work, because even grown-ups did it. They were given the opportunity to start making their own choices in books. It brought a moment of rest to an inherently busy and chaotic institution. Students learned that they could accomplish something -- actually finish a book! -- in 20 minutes a day. They began to develop a fund of stories that gave them something to write about. Let's face it, no matter what the art -- fishing,computers, chess, figure skating or music -- you don't develop the desire to do it yourself until you see someone else do it, and that includes using words.

#1 of 15 Ways to Teach Your Child to Write Using Books: Talk About Stories

My adult son, Ben, is my writing club. Almost all of my kids have spent time writing but he is a natural. We still have his first story. At age 6, he wrote descriptions of the evil lord's castle with ugly dogs fighting over the bones and the happy castle with puppies in the corner. He studies writing and challenges me, partly by quoting me back to to myself. But what we do most is talk about stories, both in film and on paper.

My mother and I did this. We read hours together and always stopped to go on a bunny trail sprung from the reading. My husband did this, stopping a movie to ask the kids, "Okay, what's happening here?" When we read stories with the children, we ask them what they see in the picture that gives them a fuller picture of the story. Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland was the first place this was done, even to the placement of the pictures and text on the page, and Little Critter books are nothing special at all if you don't look at the humor (where Little Critter is really coming from) in the pictures.

When my children want to talk about stories, I always listen, whether it is something they have written or read or even an online anime program they are following. I once listened to my 15 year old daughter, Becki, go through the complicated storyline of every single Eragon book over pancakes at IHOP.

We all learn from stories and talking about them helps us to process them and apply them to our lives. If we are interested in stories, our children will want to produce them. They will become writers.