Eclectic Echoes

Since Johann is officially in second grade, we have been practicing penmanship. He’s been asking me to teach him cursive, but first he needs to refine his printing. One thing everyone needs to learn is not to put the letters that hang down above the line. I’ve told Johann many times to let the tails of the letters hang down below the line, but he wasn’t doing it consistently. He finally understood what I wanted when I told him to write his p’s, g’s, q’s, j’s, and y’s as though the round parts were a monkey’s body, the line is the branch the monkey is sitting on, and the tail hangs below the branch. It was a combination “Eureka!” and “Why didn’t you say so?” moment, but now he’s got it. While he practiced he said to himself, “The monkey on the branch and then….. monkey tail! The round part and then…. monkey tail!!”