Tag Archives: cursive

Dear reader,

I was born and educated in communist Cuba and that means that I had to learn cursive handwriting.

I remember that for not connecting 2 letters on a test, a point would be removed, that is how strict that education system is. On top of that, I remember end of year notebook reviews to review the legibility and good practice of our notetaking and if we kept our notebooks neat for the entire year, we would get up to 5 additional points.

Being educated in Cuba alone was not enough for me to have legible cursive (not cute, legible, there are many levels of cursive).

However, my father was a Spanish teacher and he has amazing cursive and calligraphy. He critiziced my clumsy cursive, and I had to compete with him, he was never impressed. He was the type who would paint signs by hand.

On top of that, my childhood poet, Jose Marti, talked of handwriting. I like the old literature of the 1800s when handwriting was supreme and remember seeing lots of it.

Benefits of legible cursive writing ( my experience)

• People assume you are more educated
• People assume you are smart
• People assume you are classy
• People look at you like you are unique
• You have better handwriting than most other people you know
• You have a creative side, at least you can do letter art
• You can create signs, some arts, and crafts
• You can pivot into calligraphy which is beautiful, creative handwriting
• You can work on legible handwriting: PS, I have earned money on my legible handwriting
• You will probably have the best handwriting at your job and be chosen to take meeting notes
• People will comment on your handwriting, even when you are not present
• Some might ask you to write certain things for them
• If you are really good, you can earn money from your calligraphy
• People might assume you are teacher material
• You can teach children handwriting
• People might keep notes you wrote for them
• Any handwriting you post online will get lots of attention because most people can’t do what you can

I have been practicing my calligraphy and I started trying digital calligraphy: It is not easy at all. But, why not: I think life is about choosing what to learn and lerning a little bit more every day.

With handwriting and calligraphy, practice is key.

This Lilli that I worked digitally, writing with my computer mouse (though this writing is imperfect) is actually the work of a veteran with years of cursive practice. I should actually be better at it.

Regardless of my perfectionism, my goal is not perfection with my handwriting.

My handwriting goals:

• Legibility
• Getting better always
• Unique letters
• Feminine designs: swirls, hearts, dots, and fabulous flourishes
• Artsy letters

Teaching handwriting to my kids

I do not tell my kids come and practice your handwriting for an hour. Instead, I will seat down for 2 hours and practice my own calligraphy. They will wonder what I am doing, come see over and over again, and they will decide that they can do better.

Lilli, my artist child (they all show artistic capability, yet Lilli calls herself an artist and seems to be the one who is more willing to be exactly like mommy (I was the same way with my mom and her crafts, not cooking).

Vivi also started decorating her letters, yet she has to work on her legibility. I keep on telling her legibility over beauty. Unless you have a secret something you are writing: I write secret notes in illegible cursive…

And just yesterday, while I worked on this publication, my oldest daughter, Lizzie came up to me to daclare she wants better handwriting. She has however, worked on her handwriting evvery time I did. Lizzie is very strong minded and chooses when she will work on what. She did not want to work on her handwriting when I started, howevver, she saw our handwriting, compared hers to ours, and naturally started writing more legible, her letters were more evenly sized, etc. Of course, now that she requested it, I am going to bring out all my efforts to give her as good a foundation as she will allow.

Samples of Lilli’s font. Her font turned out better than my font, becasue I tried to make mine complex and it was too much, Lilli’s letters also turned out more even than mine.

Thank you for reading,

Please tell us your insights about handwriting, cursive, or calligraphy,

With Love,

Eve