Friday, January 23, 2009
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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Thursday, January 22, 2009
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.
"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.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The morphing of the Presidents from Washington to Obama [Video] . . .
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tomorrow is the big day . . .
Inaugural ball gowns ~ What will you be wearing? . . .
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Obamicon Yourself . . .
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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.