Schoolhouse Review: Patriotic Penmanship #hsreviews #penmanship

My almost-grown son decided this year that he wanted to improve his handwriting skills and requested my help in making this happen.  How fortunate for us that Laurelwood Books offers a series of Patriotic Penmanship books that are designed to do just that using quotes, poems, and hymns from great men and women in history as well as including Bible verses to copy, practice and study.  The series of books ranges in grade level from Kindergarten - 12th Grade and even contains a Transition book that helps students bridge from reading and writing manuscript to reading and writing in cursive.

This book was perfect for my boy as he began his quest for better penmanship.  He has long been fascinated by all things history so the patriotic bent of the 20 lessons appealed to him from the start (and fueled his desire to learn more about what  he was reading as he practiced writing -- what a bonus!).  As you can imagine, I was quite happy when he realized a need to improve his penmanship and I was thrilled to find a product that would resonate with him on his self-improvement quest.

The Transition book helps students bridge the gap from print to cursive by offering practice in both.  It is designed to help students achieve proficiency with their manuscript letters while beginning to learn (if need be) and improve their cursive (as in the case of my son).  Ample opportunities for practice are provided in the 48-page workbook.

 Patriotic Penmanship Transition begins with practice of both the manuscript and cursive alphabet.  These are simple pages that give lines for the multiple writing of letters where students practice by first tracing the dashed lines that show how to correctly form each letter and repeat that until the end of the page.  After completing this practice, students are ready to begin their lessons.

Each two-page lesson is designed to be one week's worth of work.  20 lessons = 20 weeks of handwriting practice.  The lessons all look the same and follow the same format as pictured above.  There is a patriotic quote (or Bible verse or hymn portion) to be read in full which is then broken down into "bite-sized" phrases for students to trace and practice writing on their own.  Each phrase is presented in both traceable manuscript and cursive and there is a blank line for students to re-write the phrase themselves without the dashed-line helps.

Included in the text are quotes from Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Benjamin Franklin, Nathan Hale, William Shakespeare, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Mark Twain, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Robert J. McCracken.  I love that Scripture and portions of some favorite hymns are also included.  In my opinion, you just can't go wrong with either.

Since my son decided to take this upon himself this year, I did not have to make daily assignments.  He worked through the pages of the book at his own speed.  I am happy with his penmanship progress so far and look forward to seeing continued improvement as he moves into the next book in the Patriotic Penmanship series.  These books offer to meet any student right where they are and help move them to the next level of competency.  That's exactly what we needed at our house.  How about you?

After years of struggle with simple things like turning a doorknob, buttoning a shirt, and correctly gripping a pencil following a stroke at 18 months, "pretty" handwriting was not something that I required of my Eagle Scout, but I sure am glad that he made a decision to require it of himself.   You can find out more about this and other products from Laurelwood Books by visiting the following Social Media site:

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I was given the opportunity to review Patriotic Penmanship from Laurelwood Books as a member of the Schoolhouse ReviewCrew.   You can check out the Crew Review and see what other members of the Schoolhouse ReviewCrew thought of it as well (or just click on the banner below) and you'll see how it worked for families with children of all different ages, interests, grade levels, and writing skills.

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