The Lost Art of Handwriting!

Many public schools are doing away with handwriting aka cursive. They are doing so because kids are more computer oriented and therefore are needing less and less to know how to do cursive or handwriting. I beg to differ! Handwriting is a lost art as far as I am concerned and while it is SO easy to jump on the computer to jot off an email to someone..... to take the time to sit down with a pen and paper and put words onto paper is special! I believe that kids need to know how to write and read in cursive! It is an important part of growing up and one I feel all kids need to know about!
My Mom is in charge of the boys writing program and since she is a retired teacher, she is a firm believer in cursive! YEAH!!! So, not only do the boys do most of their writing on paper but they have to do cursive. Once a month they get to write a cursive letter to her and she insists that they do their spelling words as cursive! I love the printable handwriting worksheets at Spelling City! They are AWESOME!!! Not only do the boys practice their spelling words but they get to practice their cursive at the same time!! Homeschool multitasking!! When they are not doing their writing by hand, they get to use the computer and for that my Mom requires that they practice online keyboarding games. Basically it is the dreaded typing class we all had to take in high school, but flipped around and made fun!! Where was this when we were kids!!!LOL The boys think they are playing games yet.... in reality they are learning how to use their keyboard more efficiently!! Another homeschool multitask!! Love those!!!

Is math easy or fun at your house?

Is math easy or fun in your house? If so please gloat below;) Well I guess that I could half gloat, my 3rd grader loves math at the moment but my 8th grader... does not! I think that because I started homeschooling when my youngest was in 1st grade, we would try to find interactive math programs or online math flash cards. It helped him discover that learning the math facts can be fun and not stressful. Unlike my oldest who went through public school until 5th grade, math was a subject that he didn't think he was good at. But in fact he was, he just couldn't say the math facts as fast as others could. He now loves to play games where he is racing the clock instead of the student sitting next to him. We especially have liked the cartoon based math lessons that we receive from Time4Learning, my boys are usually laughing at something that the character says or does. And a bonus is they are learning as they go!

Positive reenforcement at its best! When a cartoon character can tell you that you are doing a great job, what else would make a boy happy?