Kids Corner KS2: How to join up your handwriting

Cursive (joined up) handwriting is something you need to learn in Year 4 in English schools. Everyone has their own method for teaching people how to join letters. Some people tell you to remember all the different ways of joining each letter, to learn all the flicks and lines and curves, and other people have you practice writing the letter c over and over again before you even start to join. My method is to just keep it simple.

When you are joining letters right at the start, it will be slow. It’s a new skill so slow is normal, be nice to yourself! Rather than learning 100 different ways of connecting letters and trying to get the “right one”, my method is to go slow, and let your muscles do the remembering.

When you write things, you learn things in your brain, but also you learn with “muscle memory”. This means that without you needing to think about it, your hands will begin to do what you want them to when they have had enough practice. Because of this, the best way to learn joined up handwriting is to jump in, go slow, have a go, and get better over time.

Stage 1: Plan – Think about what you want to write. If you are thinking so hard about the joined up writing you forget what you want to write, and your spelling and grammar will go out the window.

Stage 2: Starts and stops – As you are writing, go very slowly, and think about where each letter starts and ends.

Stage 3: Join – Begin writing the letters as normal but join the starts and ends together. Try to make the line the shape it needs to be so that you don’t write over or through the next letter making it difficult to read.

Stage 4: Enjoy – You did it. The spooky Halloween ghost says well done and you can have an ice-lolly.

It starts slow, but your hands will do the learning. If you take every opportunity when you write to join the letters together, you will be doing it automatically in no time.

There are some differences in style. Many people do not join capital letters like I do, and many people join the bottom of a t and not the cross of the t. You will find your own style. Remember the goal is to write more quickly, but also for it to be readable. Beautiful squiggly handwriting that no one can read would make great wallpaper, but no one will be able to mark your homework.

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