Cursive

Cursive is having a second act: a wave of state legislation has put it back on the report card, and parents are the ones fielding the homework. ChartGlade's cursive section keeps it simple — one clean chart, one tracing strip, and the teaching notes that make practice actually work.

What you need to know before printing

Third grade is the most common year for formal cursive instruction, after print handwriting is secure. Lowercase comes before capitals, and letters are taught in stroke families — the curve letters (c, a, d, g, q), the straight lines (i, t, u, w), the loops (l, h, b, k, f), the hills (n, m, v, x, y, z) — because one learned motion carries five letters.

Schools teach different styles (Zaner-Bloser and D'Nealian are the two common American ones). The chart here is a clean, continuous script in the general tradition; if your school specifies a style, match it for homework and use this chart for practice.