Hey looks it's almost November....

So how is school? That seems to be every one's favorite question these days. Then the kids laugh and say "it's great!" In reality, we really haven't done a whole lot of "school." We have worked through a lesson or two in some work books and we have gone on several field trips, but we really haven't done school. Yet, we are all happy and adjusting well to being home together all of the time again. 

However, as November approaches I decided it was time to start adding a little more structure to our days. I purchased Sonlight's ELA 2 program and their 2nd grade math curriculum. These two will be combined with daily cursive writing and lots of reading. A friend of mine asked me why I was teaching the kids how to write in cursive. I really didn't have an answer. Then I got to thinking about the reasons for learning how to write in cursive. 

When you know how to write in cursive, you know how to read cursive writing. Historic documents are written in cursive. Why would you not teach cursive? If you want your children to be able to understand what our forefather's wanted for our country, cursive is a very necessary skill.

Writing in cursive builds and improves fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are necessary for success in math and science. 

I was very surprised to find out that handwriting is not a graded skill in elementary school anymore. While some teachers will send a paper back to be rewritten, there is no grade for neatness. How are our children going to be able to communicate? Written communication is still necessary. I understand that technology has provided other ways to communicate, but neat legible handwriting is still a needed skill. Maybe we don't really want our children to know how to communicate. Maybe we want them to rely on the government and the media for information. I will save that entry for another day.