Cursive Boards, Waseca Biomes

Language 3-9

While studies say cursive writing comes naturally to children, and involves more executive function usage, many schools, including some Montessori, don’t teach cursive writing.

There are many materials you could find on cursive writing, and we chose to go with Waseca Biomes. What interested me the most in this material is that they use stories for each letter, which resemble the Waldorf method. I also like the sensory input that chalk can provide.

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The stories are written using situations to which children can relate, involving characters matching each letter of the alphabet. For studying the letters “c, a, o, d, g, and q,” children are following the stories of Carl, Alice, Oscar, Dona, Gail, and Quincy who drive a car to a broken bridge.

This specific sequence of stories had my learner realize, on his own, that the letters strokes have common patterns. Eureka! I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, but only now, it hit home.

The way we use the board is simple. We follow 5 steps, then practice on a different program, Writing Without Tears:

• Step 1 – we read the stories.
• Step 2 – we work with the corresponding board, we practice the strokes.
• Step 3 – we practice freestyle on the blank board.
• Step 4 – we practice the same strokes on paper.
• Step 5 – we use our own paper to build muscle memory for each letter.
• Step 6 – we practice cursive on our workbook “Writing Without Tears.”

This material was for us a great investment since I wouldn’t know where to start to teach cursive to an elementary child. My learner is always excited to grab this work of the shelf.

Ready for a lesson?