Review: Peterson Directed Handwriting

I am the mom of three boys. I am married to an engineer. What does all that have to do with handwriting? They all have horrible handwriting! I have teased my hubby on numerous occasions that he really should have been a doctor - simply based on his signature. I've worked with many doctors in my past so I know of what I speak. 

Enter Peterson Directed Handwriting.

I was given the opportunity to meet on-line with Rand Nelson of Peterson Directed Handwriting in order to evaluate what product would work best for my boys. I ended up choosing to start with cursive with the goal of really using it with all three boys but focusing on my youngest, J6. J6 is still very much an emerging writer so I wanted to see how it would work best with him.

The end of the school year here is very busy with us while our activities finish up. Sadly, I have not had a chance to fully implement this product in our homeschool. However, I still plan to do so! Handwriting, in my opinion, is becoming a lost art of sorts. With the age of computers that we live in, many students no longer learn how to write in cursive or even very neatly. After all, they can just type it or text it. I feel that is a disservice to my sons so I do plan to continue using Peterson Directed Handwriting this coming year. I plan to post another update later in the fall (of my own choosing).  

I found the website for Peterson Directed Handwriting to be a tad confusing. I wanted to link up to a few specific pages there that I found extremely helpful in figuring out how to use this product and how it works.

This LINK will take you to a video that will start in your browser. It's a 20 minute presentation about Peterson Directed Handwriting. Along with the video presentation, the "information directory" at their website is choke full of good information about handwriting in general and the program in particular. 

If you'd like to see what the product looks like, you can check out various eWorkbook for free by clicking here. (Scroll down the page about half-way until you see "PDF By Hand E-Workbooks for Print Writing." There are links for three print workbooks and one cursive workbook.)

I was given a PDF By Hand E-Workbook to check out - the PDF+ Cursive First. Again, I did find the website very confusing including trying to find the price to list here. I think this is the correct one and it sells for $19.95. Once you browse their all the products and such on their website, be sure to click on "Browse Our Products" and then "Kits for Homeschooling: K Through Advanced Cursive Levels" and finally "To Web Store" (above the grade lists) to actually purchase and/or read descriptions. 

I was also given the Step 2 Cursive ($19.95), Step 3 Cursive ($19.95) and Step 4 Cursive ($19.95) PDF By Hand E-Workbooks but have not yet used those since we are all starting on Step 1.

Be sure to head over to the TOS Homeschool Crew blog to read what other Crew members had to say about this product. If you have a digital tablet for your PC, you may be interested in knowing that Peterson Directed Handwriting now has a product designed just for PC tablets. Click HERE to learn more.



*Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. All opinions shared are my own. TOS Crew Members are given the product free of charge in exchange for our unbiased opinion of the product.