New American Cursive: A Cursive and Penmanship Program

New American Cursive is an easy-to-follow resource for teaching beginning cursive. It presents simplified letter forms, using multi-sensory methods to aid in the learning of motor skills necessary to write well. Developed by Iris Hatfield, with over 35 years of experience in the handwriting field, the book improves the process of teaching handwriting and allows students to start at a younger age.

The character Mr. Meerkat is the book's guide, making learning tasks fun; step-by-step, he shows the way to draw each letter and encourages creativity. There are clear arrow directions for letter creation, and plenty of shaded letters to trace for practice. The book is bound at the top for equal access for left- and right-handers.

New American Cursive's simplified strokes and letter forms allow first grade students to truly master beautiful cursive. We have used New American Cursive in our Highlands Latin School, with dramatic results. Every child can master cursive in the first grade, and many of our first graders write better than typical third graders. Learning cursive early ensures that students are not slowed down or frustrated in the upper grades when they are focusing on other subjects, such as grammar and composition.