Italic Handwriting Series Book A

Italic handwriting is the most traditional style still in use. Originally developed in Italy in the 1500s to be an extremely clear, easy to read and write style, it spread and became a dominant form of handwriting until the 1700s, when the simple, clear style was rejected in favor of elaborate, almost Rococo styles that emphasized elegance over communication and legibility.The difficulty in reading documents written in the various "loopy cursives," as they are commonly called, was a problem from the beginning, and later systems trying to correct the problem by introducing new ball-and-stick prints and simplifying the loops did little to help.Fortunately, italic has been rediscovered. It is the style most commonly taught in adult handwriting remediation programs--in hospitals, for instance, where messy handwriting can kill--and it has many advantages over the self-consciously ornate "loopy cursives."First, it is built upon natural hand motions. No ball-and-stick that, at the best of times, looks juvenile and is exceedingly slow and is usually badly distorted at higher speeds. No more loops flying in ever direction, distorting the shapes of the words. Instead, the entire system is based upon a few, very simple stroke patterns which are combined to form well-shaped and highly legible letter. Second, learning cursive is simply a matter of joining the letter-shapes already learned in standard ways. No spending a year or two of painful memorization and then readjustment. The result is a handwriting style that is easy to learn and easy to read and that looks adult. Why would you teach your child a style of handwriting that looks immature when it is done "right" because it is so unweildy that no mature writer retains it?The Getty-Dubay Italic series has neatly packaged an italic handwriting style in a way that is very easy to teach and learn. They present the letters in a logical order and provide many tips and pieces of advice broken down in a sensible fashion along the way. Rather than spending hours and hours teaching them a style of handwriting that will, more likely than not, result in a mess and then RETEACHING them again when it comes time to switch to cursive, teach them beautiful, clear handwriting from the start and use the extra time teaching typing or something worth while.There is no Getty-Dubay font that I know of, but there are two freeware italic fonts, Jarman and Jardotty. Search for them on the web--they are available in several places. I believe that there are two letters that are formed slightly differently than in the Getty-Dubay style.

This a great book for teaching beginning handwriting. It is easy to use.

An outstanding method for teaching beautiful penmanship. I used it years ago with my children, and am now using it with my grandchildren. The format has been updated to better assist lefties and is just such an essential element to a quality home school or as a supplement to regular school.

You should know this about the book. It is for pre-school or kindergarten. It is for printing in italic style. If you want your child to learn "block printing", this is not the book for you. Personally, I think a child should know how to do block printing, sometimes called traditional manuscript. If you buy into this series, you'll want the instruction manual too. If you just want to teach/learn the italic cursive, start with book D in this series. Be warned. If you or your child likes the "loopy" cursive, this is not for you. Italic cursive, starting in book D, does not have loops. It looks a bit different. It is a major alternative to the old fashioned way of doing cursive. Remember those goofy capital "Q"s that looked like a numberal "2"? Italic cursive gives you a Q that looks like a Q, unlike what I saw as a child. I recommend considering this series.

This is a fabulous series. In most states, teachers have no knowledge of the history of handwring styles and therefore do not know the first thing about teaching letter forms to children. Italic handwriting returns us to the beautiful forms (before loops and joins overtook letters and which lead to confusion and difficulty for children who are forced to learn the degenerate modern "cursive"). This series teaches a natural progression from individual italic letters to the cursive joined letters that can be written ligibly, rapidly and rhythmically. Bravo!!

The book is aimed a lot lower grade than I'd though when I purchased. If you're looking for a letter practice book without frills, this might be what you are looking for. I wouldn't want to use it as a primary letter program but as extra practice it would be ok.I was looking for something to help me improve my 6 (in first grade) year olds handwriting. This wasn't the book. There wasn't anything to make it fun or interesting. It's just one page per letter. No suggested activities, no grouping by type of letter... I'd spend the extra money and buy the Handwriting without Tears from the start. It still handwriting but a little more interesting.

This is the book used in kindergarten 22 years ago. When I finished the handwriting program I went on to pursue their calligraphy program. I was also able to learn round hand cursive as a teenager, quite easily. I have very legible every day handwriting as an adult. I'm now having my own kindergartener go through this book. Highly recommended.

I used this with my now-adult son 20 years ago and am using it again with our surprise baby now. It's a time-tested winner.