Today is National Handwriting Day and Neatness Counts

Get out your pens boys and girls. It's time for penmanship. Oh, how I loved this class in the fourth grade! It was such a rite of passage to leave the childish printing behind and learn CURSIVE.

I looked through my flat files and found this page from Lena Carroll's 1873 lesson book.

This is a screen capture from an online website that teaches children cursive. When you mouseover each letter, it shows you how to write it. See 2nd link at end of this post.

This is a penmanship exercise from the late 19th century that I found online and copied.

You can download and print these cursive flash cards ~ see the last link below.

Today really is National Handwriting Day. I hope you will take the time to read the full article from The Boston Globe (first link below). It really made my hair stand on end when I read that there are 20 and 30 year olds that can't read cursive! How can this be? I can understand when 5 year olds say they can't read script but not young adults. What has happened?

I read an article recently about a young girl who sent 35,000 text messages in one month. We e-mail, we text, we Twitter - what will become of handwriting? Parents should insist that their children are taught these basic skills. It would be a real handicap later in life to be illerate in cursive and incapable of executing a handwritten letter or thank you note in your best penmanship.

I still have the fountain pen that I got as a high school graduation present and I have some bottles of real ink too. In my desk I have quite an assortment of antique writing instruments acquired over the years from relatives or purchased at estate sales. Sadly, I don't use them as much as I used to but I could if I wanted!

Try to write something beautiful today in your best hand to celebrate this special day and help keep handwriting alive.

Feel free to comment if you have any strong feelings on this subject. Thanks, Rosemary

Is the writing on the wall for penmanship? - The Boston Globe

Online cursive handwriting lessons for kids

Download cursive pictorial flash cards for kids




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Visual Word Cloud of Obama's Inaugural Speech + Wordles of Bush, Clinton, Reagan, and Lincoln . . .

What words were used most often? The folks at Read Write Web ran the full text of Obama's speech through tag cloud generator Wordle.net for one view of the event, and just for the sake of historical context they ran George W. Bush's second inaugural speech plus those of Clinton, Reagan and Lincoln through as well.

This is soooo interesting! Be sure to view the others on Read Write Web.

Life's Little Instruction Book, page 10 . . .

...To be continued...

"Malcolm S. Forbes Quote" + Free Font to Download . . .

More information about the author of this quote.

The interesting font I used is called ECOFONT, designed to save ink.

It's a free download here.

The morphing of the Presidents from Washington to Obama [Video] . . .

This is such a cool YouTube video! A friend just sent it to me and I had to share! You will love seeing how some very clever person figured how to morph all the presidents faces ever so seamlessly from George Washington to Barack Obama in less than 4 minutes. It's great!

Life's Little Instruction Book, page 9 . . .

...To be continued...

Recipe for toast . . .

I am eating toast but mine wasn't this much fun to make! I can understand this clever ad completely since my toaster seems to take forever to pop up. You can enlarge the photo.

My wooden toast tongs keep me from burning my fingers or getting electrocuted. Love them!

via Bad Banana Blog

Life's Little Instruction Book, page 8 . . .

...To be continued...

Tomorrow is the big day . . .

It's almost here! View many more photographs of the preparations for tomorrow's inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama at The Big Picture. I don't like calling him PEBO so I won't.

Inaugural ball gowns ~ What will you be wearing? . . .

Isn't this photograph the best? Twins with twins at a debutant ball in Paris. Their dresses by Dominique Sirop would be perfect for the many inaugural balls tomorrow.

What's in your closet?

Life's Little Instruction Book, page 7 . . .

...To be continued...

Obamicon Yourself . . .

I turned my portrait into a Shepard Fairey poster!

Have some fun with your own photos. Turn them into Shepard Fairey posters at a site called Obamicon.Me where you can also customize the caption and adjust the colors. FUN!




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How do you read the Sunday newspaper?

How do you read the Sunday paper?

At home in pajamas via home delivery?

Online?

Leave house, go out for coffee and buy a copy?

Bring it home to read?

Read it at the library?

Read it in another public place?

Don't read at all?

None of the above?

Other?

If you are reading this in a reader, go to my actual blog and cast your vote. I have a poll on my sidebar. Voting ends at midnight on Saturday, January 24th.

Life's Little Instruction Book, page 6 . . .

...To be continued...

Looking Back: 2008 Horoscopes from Town & Country . . .

Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius

Did these predictions for 2008 come true for you? Mind did. I am a Virgo: "Virgos are never more content than when they can use their abilities to benefit others."

I started my blog in July of 2008 and can only hope it is benefiting others. I am astonished that my horoscope for last year contained word CONTENT. How ironic is that?

A friend just gave me a stack of old magazines. I normally don't read horoscopes, but this article intrigued me.

via Town & Country (April 2008 issue)

Shepard Fairey on The Colbert Report . . .

People Get Ready, There's a Train A-coming . . .

Will this train be stopping at your station?

Eva Cassidy ~ live.
I love her version of this symbolic song.

Today's whistle stop train from Philadelphia to Washington retraces a portion of Abraham Lincoln's route in 1861.