Do I REALLY have to teach my dd to write in cursive?

[Jen in SC]

My dd with a writing disability (and other LDs as well) is making great gains in several areas. And it's probably time to teach cursive, but why? So she can sign her name? So she can read a letter someone writes to her in cursive? I think it would benefit her more to teach typing.

Sigh...can I just skip this? There are SO MANY AREAS that need our attention and I'd love to just not mess with cursive. DH kind of agrees, but I don't want to make life any harder for her down the road.

[LillianD]

Skip it! I don't even know that they are teaching cursive in schools anymore, most homeschoolers I know don't bother teaching it. My daughter takes a cursive class at our co-op, but I don't really have any plans to teach my son cursive.

[Jen in SC]

Maybe I will teach her to sign her name.

[Rachel Jane]

Gwen in TX has some info about why it is good for your brain to write in cursive.

At any rate, make sure she can read cursive.

[Esther-Alabama]

John Henry "knows" how to write in cursive, but it takes him a really, really, really LONG time (can I add another REALLY!), so he does not. We are focused on keyboarding skills for him now.

[Jennifer in MS]

I'm new to HS so take this with a grain of salt. My DD9 has a horrible time with handwriting. We started using Handwriting With Out Tears cursive and she is actually doing much better than she does in print. Of course we are only on the first few lessons but she isn't crying when I bring it out. Yes, I thought it was odd the first time I read someone used HWOT and the crying stopped but it really did happen at my house.

Now if I could find something like that for grammar for me.

[Lisalyn]

Jen,
My dd12 is in PS. He had one teacher that wrote everything on the board in cursive. He said most of the kids in his class struggled to read it. I know it's probably a good thing to teach-we used HWOT and my 9 yr old uses it in OT in PS-but I think the keyboard has taken over. In your shoes I might just get the HWOT cursive workbook since it is so inexpensive, and just do it casually.
ETA: Casually, as in, hand her the workbook and say, "Do one page". It really is pretty self explanatory and great for kids who struggle.

[Luisa]

A while ago I read that a homeschooling boy got to college and was asked to hand write, in cursive, a report and he had never learned how-though he was able to quickly pick it up-the mom was mortified. It's the only reason I'm teaching it

[Jen in SC]

Well, I do have HWOT already, so I guess it wouldn't be too painful to pull it out and just do one page at a time. I know it's a simple program but believe me, NOTHING is easy with this child

We had a tutor that was going to teach her but he never got that far and now we are with a different tutor...but just stopped the language arts stuff and moved on to math help. So I guess it's up to me.

[Hollie in SC]