I do homeschool and dd had to start in 1st grade

This is definately a bit of a challenge.....I don't remember when ds started but my niece was in 1st grade also (public schools)and she hadn't started yet.

So was just curious.

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3rd grade for all mine.

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Third grade for mine, too, at two different schools. I think it's really important for them to have a firm grasp on manuscript printing before starting cursive.

My oldest DS wanted to start in first grade and his teacher as well as his second grade teacher told him he couldn't as they didn't do that until third. I had a talk with both of them as he was interested and we were teaching him at home. If he wanted to write his name in cursive - or anything else - they weren't going to hold him back just because no one else in the class was yet writing in cursive. They explained it wasn't fair to the other kids who wouldn't learn for another year or two. Again, I told them it wasn't fair to my child to try and restrain my child's learning and hold him back. Guess who won that fight?

3rd grade here too.

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My dd learned in 3rd grade.

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3rd grade here too DD #1 will learn this year

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We teach it in 2nd. I don't know if this was why the pp teachers did not allow the student to write in cursive, but we strongly discourage kiddos from writing in cursive until they have been taught. Cursive becomes "rote" (as it should) but what needs to be "automatic" needs to be "correct" as well. I love it when the kiddos are interested and self-motivated but it really can lead to poor writing habits. I always suggest the parents getting a pre-printed dry erase alphabet board and have the students practice correct formation for a while. I also encourage them to bring pre-printed writing tablets to school to practice if they have any "free" time. The kids love writing on both of these as well.

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At my last school they started teaching it at the end of second grade and focused on it in third grade. A first grader is still working on their fine motor skills and needs to master manuscript before learning cursive. Cursive is much more complex than manuscript and children need to have a strong understanding of the basics first. A first grader's handwriting skills are not mature enough to handle the complexities of cursive and bad writing habits may be formed. Handwriting is actually a very complicated subject to teach and learn.

We don't have the dry erase board but we do have pre-printed forms for him to learn and practice on. If my DS' teachers were that concerned about him doing it "correctly" that's what they should have said instead of it not being fair to the other students. We do not want to hurt our child's learning but we don't want him held back either. If kids' interests are squashed, that will only cause them to lose interest in learning IMO. If I had thought about it, I would have talked to a 3rd grade teacher and gotten materials from them so that DS would be learning what he would be being taught next year. Oh well. Hindsight is 20-20!