When and How Does Waldorf Teach Cursive?

Waldorf schools usually teach cursive in grade 2 or grade 3, after a year or more of form drawing has made the shapes familiar. In grade 2, children often draw running forms, flowing lines that already hold the lowercase letters inside them. Then each letter is walked, drawn large with a crayon and practised small with a pencil, lowercase first. Joined words come after single letters, and cursive gradually moves into the main lesson book.

Grade 1 in Waldorf is about capital letters drawn out of pictures, which How does Waldorf teach letters in grade 1? covers. This article picks up where that one ends: the move from printed letters to a joined, flowing hand.

What grade does Waldorf teach cursive?

Orchard Valley Waldorf School puts it simply: cursive is traditionally taught in grade 2 or grade 3. Look at a few school curricula and you'll see both.

London Waldorf School says its second graders refine their printing and also their cursive. The Alliance for Public Waldorf Education lists "beginning cursive" in its grade 2 language arts. Mountain Laurel Waldorf School takes the other road. Its second graders draw loops and loop symmetry as preparation, and cursive arrives in grade 3, where it's used widely for written work.

One Waldorf homeschool writer, at The Parenting Passageway, prefers grade 3 because the hand is steadier by then. She doesn't expect cursive in the main lesson book until the end of grade 3 or into grade 4.

So there isn't one right year. The common thread is that cursive comes after the child can print the letters comfortably, and after the forms have been drawn many times.

How form drawing prepares the hand for cursive

If you've done form drawing in grade 1, you've already started. The two first forms, the straight line and the curve, are what every letter is built from.

In grade 2 the forms change. Children draw a shape on one side of a line and mirror it on the other, across a vertical or horizontal midline. They also draw running forms: continuous lines that loop, turn back and carry on, like a ribbon unrolling across the page without the crayon lifting.

One Waldorf class teacher, writing on her class blog, notes that all the lowercase cursive letters can be written as running forms. That's the quiet preparation. Picture a child who has drawn rows of loops and rows of little hills for a few weeks. They've already drawn the l, the e, the m and the n, and nobody has called them letters yet.

The same teacher describes each form being moved first with the whole body, then with the arms, and finally with the hands and fingers. It's the same order you probably used in grade 1.

A few running forms to try:

• Loops along a line, like a telephone cord. This is the shape inside l, e, b, h and k.
• Waves and garlands that open upwards, like cups. These become u, w and the joins between letters.
• Arches that open downwards, like little bridges. These become m and n.
• An oval with a tail, again and again. This becomes a, d, g and q.

How is cursive taught, step by step?

Many Waldorf teachers follow the same path for each new letter. It's slow at first and speeds up once a few letters are in.

1. Start with a form your child already knows. Draw a row of loops on the chalkboard. Ask your child to walk it on the floor, then draw it in the air with a whole arm.

2. Find the letter in the form. Draw the loop once more, then stop after one: that's an l. You don't need a story for every letter in cursive, because the letters already have names and sounds. What's new is the movement.

3. Draw it large. Your child draws the letter big with a block crayon on unlined paper, several times, in more than one color.

4. Bring it down to size. Now a pencil and a lined exercise book. Earthschooling suggests graphite pencils and lined paper for handwriting practice, not crayons. It also suggests angling the paper a little more than for printing.

5. Lowercase before capitals. Take the lowercase letters one at a time, then join two or three into short words your child already reads, like "all", "me" or "sun". Capitals come later, once the joins feel easy.

6. Use your own hand as the model. The Parenting Passageway suggests teaching from your own handwriting. If you'd like a chart on the wall, find a printed cursive alphabet close to the way you write, so what your child sees at the table matches what's on the wall.

Posture and grip matter too. London Waldorf School calls good pencil grip and posture "a necessary condition" for easy, enjoyable cursive. A quick check before each session helps: feet flat, back straight, the pencil resting on three fingers.

How one grade 3 sequence runs through the year

In Starpath's grade 3, cursive runs alongside the Old Testament story blocks instead of having a block of its own. The Hebrew Creation Story block opens with the basic loop and curve forms that lead into cursive. Individual lowercase letters come next, in the Farming and Occupations and Patriarchs blocks. In Moses, the letters move into simple words, and in Kings, your child practises cursive inside longer words. The free Hebrew Creation Story guide shows how the first cursive forms sit beside the day's story. The grade 3 Old Testament stories covers the blocks themselves.

Other curricula often follow a similar order. Forms come first, then single lowercase letters, then letters in words and whole sentences.

Why teach cursive at all?

Waldorf schools give a few practical reasons, and it's worth knowing them before you commit the time.

• Fewer reversals. Orchard Valley Waldorf School points out that the lowercase cursive letters all start from the same baseline, and sees this as a help with reversed letters.
• Words become shapes. The pencil lifts only between words, so your child can see where one word ends and the next begins.
• Speed. The same school notes that cursive lets children work with more speed and dexterity once it's easy.
• The hand is doing real work. A small study from Norway compared university students writing words in cursive with a digital pen and typing them. The researchers found more widespread patterns of brain connectivity during handwriting. It's a study of adults, not children, so read it as a hint rather than proof.

What if my child finds it hard?

Go back to the forms. If a letter won't come, go back to its running form and draw it large for a few days before trying the letter again.

Keep printing for other work. Your child can keep printing in the main lesson book while cursive is practised in the exercise book. Cursive moves into the main lesson book once it's comfortable.

Don't rush the join. Some children need longer with single letters. That's fine. The joins come more easily when each letter already feels familiar in the hand.

If writing hurts, or the grip stays tight and tense after plenty of practice, you could ask an occupational therapist to take a look. That's a question about the hand, not about Waldorf.

What to do this month

1. Pick one running form a week, such as loops, garlands or arches.
2. Walk it, then draw it large with a block crayon, a few times a day for 10 minutes.
3. In week 3 or 4, find the first letter in a form your child has drawn many times. The loop and the l are a good first pair.
4. Practise small with a pencil in a lined book for 10 to 15 minutes, most days, next to the main lesson.
5. Join letters into a word your child already reads once three or four letters are easy.

For the rest of the year, see What's in Waldorf grade 3?, and for a side-by-side look at curricula, the best Waldorf homeschool curriculum for grade 3. Your child's cursive will end up in their main lesson books, and those pages are often the ones families keep.