Cursive to Print
Question
I teach my child cursive letters and I have the movable alphabet. However, most storybooks are in print. My child gets confused. What should I do? He is 4 years old. He can already read CVC words that I write in cursive but if I write the same words in print, he can't read them.
Answer
Great question. It sounds like your child is doing really well. Because we live in such a print-rich world, we often find that children do not need an explicit lesson when they transition from seeing cursive to reading print. But sometimes they do. You can do a lesson with him where you compare the cursive movable alphabet letters to the printed letters that you can write on a piece of paper. You can say, "When we handwrite letters, we like to write them this way and we call it cursive. But when we make books and use computers to make letters, we like to make them this way, we call it print. These are the same letters, they just look a little different."
Do a few letters at a time and, if he's interested, he can play a matching game matching the cursive letters to the print ones. It will probably go very quickly for him.
Going forward, keep handwriting in cursive. That's what cursive is really best for and he'll have the gift of being able to read both.
It's so good that you started with cursive! You've prepared him more soundly for the future. Because we use the gestures part of our brain when we use cursive, we are actually more biologically programmed to use cursive before print. It is easier for the brain and lays a strong foundation for future reading work. You're doing it perfectly!
