Catholic Heritage Handwriting, Level 4

Product Code: CHH4
Format: Softcover
Binding: Top spiral bound
Page Count: 77 single-sided pages
Dimensions: 8.5″×11″
ISBN: 9780977123698
Returnable? Yes, view return policy.
Consumable? Yes, purchase one per student.
Answer key: None required.

Nancy Nicholson is one of the founding authors of Catholic Heritage Curricula. Equipped with an abundance of God-given talent, a major in Secondary Education–English, and years of experience homeschooling her own children, she has written over thirty educational titles, beginning with Little Stories for Little Folks. Her unique ability to develop programs and workbooks that “fit” both advanced and struggling students is due to her experience raising children of different ability levels and learning styles: two of her children are developmentally challenged, while another went on to graduate from Harvard and is now a college professor.

Q: What cursive style is taught in Catholic Heritage Handwriting, Levels 3 and 4? 

A: Levels 3 and 4 teach a no-frills, student-friendly cursive style, similar, but not identical, to Zaner-Bloser Simplified. The very significant difference between the two styles is that every lower case letter Catholic Heritage Handwriting cursive begins at the bottom line, somewhat, but not identical, to D’Nealian cursive. This is significant, as the formation of each letter begins at the same point, providing a consistency that facilitates formation and linkage of letters.

Q: What is recommended after Level 4?

A: The Catholic Heritage Handwriting series is aimed at Kindergarten through approximately 4th grade. (Level 4 may be used for cursive practice at any grade level, after Level 3.) Because the student work load begins to intensify in middle school, parents often drop Penmanship as a separate course at this juncture.

For those who wish to continue handwriting practice beyond Catholic Heritage Handwriting, Level 4, the student may gain penmanship practice by neatly completing lessons from CHC’s My Catholic Speller Series. In this fashion, students may continue to hone handwriting skills without overload, or adding to curriculum cost, with yet another book.

Q: My child is left-handed. Do you have any tips on teaching him to write?

A: CHC’s Catholic Heritage Handwriting is designed with spiral binding at the top specifically to make writing easier for ‘lefties.’

Lefties often have difficulty with smudging as their hand passes over what has just been written. One way of reducing this problem is to avoid the softer-leaded #2 pencil, opting instead for a harder #3 pencil.

Another trick to facilitate writing is to tell the student to aim the top of his pencil at his left shoulder, keep his upper arm close to his body, and tilt his paper to the right.

Also, he should grip the pencil about two inches away from the lead. I know that this seems strangely high up on the pencil, but the grip moves the child’s hand up and away from what he is writing, which permits him to view the letters as he forms them. All of these tricks will improve the child’s penmanship.