Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting is a simple step-by-step program for teaching your child to read well and write beautifully. It can be a primary or supplementary teaching tool.

— 60 lessons

— Phonics based

—Italic handwriting, progressing from straight to slant and joined

Perfect bound, consumable, 8.5 x 11", 218 pages.

 

Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting
is the book for you if . . .

• You would like to teach your four or five year-old to read perfectly and write in a simple, attractive style in sixty days time. Teaching your child these all-important skills will undoubtedly be one of the most rewarding experiences that you and your child will ever have together. The complete step-by-step program presented in this book will make it both simple and fun.

• You have an older child who is experiencing difficulty learning to read in school. Most reading problems are caused by ineffective instruction methods used in the schools. This book uses the most time-tested, effective method possible—phonics. Your child will almost certainly be reading at his grade level or beyond within a matter of weeks of your tutoring him with the help of this book.

• Your child can read well, but has poor handwriting skills. Most Americans have bad handwriting, and this due to poor instruction methods. The fact is, though, that everyone can have beautiful handwriting if only they are taught how! This book teaches Italic, the easiest to learn, fastest to write, most legible and attractive handwriting style possible. Within a few weeks of using this book, your child can have excellent handwriting, no matter what his writing looks like now.

• You have always been frustrated with your own handwriting. You can teach yourself how to have fast, legible, and beautiful handwriting with this book. Within a matter of weeks, you will be delighted with your newfound skill, and will be amazed at how easy it really is.

The ability to read and write is the foundation for your chid’s entire future education. By helping him or her gain these skills, you will be giving your child one of the most priceless gifts imaginable. Whatever your reasons for using this book, you can be sure that it will be one of the most valuable additions ever to your family library.

How to use Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting

• Before beginning each day’s lesson, briefly review the previous lesson.

• Introduce the letter or sound being learned.

• For the alphabet, trace the letters in the lesson; then copy.

• For other lessons, practice sounding out word families (at, bat, hat, cat, sat, mat, etc.).

• Practice reading the story.

• Use word families for spelling practice.

• Use the model sentences as copywork; copying letterforms and spacing, and writing each word directly beneath the model.

• Users of Charlotte Mason methods will find it helpful to use the reproducible guide sheets for copywork and dictation, as well as other writing assignments.

Easy to use

Because this is a book that students write in, it is simple to use — just do the next letter, word, or sentence. In many parts of the book, students write directly below the model, which is the best way to teach letterforms, slant, and spacing. Students don't get distracted or lose their place as they can do when having to look back and forth from a text to separate paper. The reproducible guideline pages can be copied for additional practice.

Click here to download a PDF sample of Lesson 31 from Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting.

What is in Perfect Reading, Beautiful Handwriting?

Here is the table of contents to give you an idea of all that is covered. The thing I love most about this book is that every page serves as a model of the handwriting style it teaches. As you can see in the sample lesson (download it from the link above), every line clearly teaches what writing should look like.

Foreword 5

• Teaching the Lessons 5

• Scheduling Options 7

Introduction 

• Four ways this book can be used 11

Chapter One

• About Reading 14

• About Handwriting 20

• Teaching Tips 25

Chapter Two: The Alphabet

• Reproducible Guide Sheet 44

Chapter Three — Lessons 2-23

• Lesson 2. Short a Sounds 46

• Lesson 3. Short e Sounds 48

• Lesson 4. Short i Sounds 50

• Lesson 5. Short o Sounds 52

• Lesson 6. Short u Sounds 54

• Lesson 7. Review of Short Vowel Sounds 56

• Lesson 8. Writing Review 58

• Lesson 9. Blending with s 60

• Lesson 10. Blending with r 62

• Lesson 11. Blending with l 64

• Lesson 12. Blending with n 66

• Lesson 13. mp, tw , dw, xt, pt, ct, f 68

• Lesson 14. ch, tch Blends 70

• Lesson 15. sh, th Blends 72

• Lesson 16. wh Blends, Review 74

• Lesson 17. Adding s or e 76

• Lesson 18. Compound Words 78

• Lesson 19. Magic e 80

• Lesson 20. More Magic 82

• Lesson 21. Magic e Exception 84

• Lesson 22. or Sound 86

• Lesson 23. Short Words Ending in Vowels 88

Chapter Four — Lessons 24 - 41

• Lesson 24. Long a Combinations 92

• Lesson 25. aw Sound 94

• Lesson 26. ar Sound 96

• Lesson 27. ee Sound 98

• Lesson 28. When ea is Like ee 100

• Lesson 29. ei, ey, Long e Review 102

• Lesson 30. Other ea, ey Sounds 104

• Lesson 31. ew, eu, eau, eye Sounds 106

• Lesson 32. Review of e Sound 108

• Lesson 33. i, y Sounds 110

• Lesson 34. More i, y Sounds 112

• Lesson 35. ir, er, ur, or, ear Sounds 114

• Lesson 36. Long o Combinations 116

• Lesson 37. ow, oi, oy Sounds 118

• Lesson 38. ou, ong, off, oss, ost Sounds 120

• Lesson 39. oo Sounds 122

• Lesson 40. Review of o Sounds 124

• Lesson 41. u Sounds 126

Chapter Five — Lessons 42 -60 

• Lesson 42. Silent Letters (b, k, g, w) 130

• Lesson 43. Silent Letters (w, n, p, h, l) 132

• Lesson 44. Silent Letters (gh) 134

• Lesson 45. Other ph, gh, ch Sounds 136

• Lesson 46. Soft c, g, and d g e 138

• Lesson 47. z, s Sounds 140

• Lesson 48. cia, cious, tious, xious, tion, sion, su, ture 142

• Lesson 49. le, ly Sounds 144

• Lesson 50. Endings — ies, ied, ier, iest 146

• Lesson 51. Endings — ing 147

• Lesson 51. Endings — ing 148

• Lesson 52. Endings — ed, en 150

• Lesson 53. Contractions 152

• Lesson 54. Review — Exception Words 154

• Lesson 55. Review — Sound-Alike Words 156

• Lesson 56. Important Words to Know 158

• Lesson 57. Numbers 160

• Lesson 58. 500 Most Common Words 162

• Lesson 59. Most Common Words Continued 164

• Lesson 60. Most Common Words Continued 166

Chapter Six — Handwriting Practice 

• Different Ways Italic Can Look 170

• Using This Chapter 172

• “The Night Before Christmas” Copywork 174

• Slanted Letters 180

• Trace, Copy, and Finish 186

• Reproducible Guide Sheet: Slanted 187

• Writing in a Smaller Size 188

• Reproducible Guide Sheet – Smaller Size 189

• Joining Letters Together 190

• Joining Practice 192

• Using the Edged Pen 196

• Adding Serifs 200

• Reproducible Guide Sheet for Edged Pen 203

• Variations 204

• Joined Writing with an Edged Pen 208

Bibliography 213

Use with Charlotte Mason Methods

To begin with, letters, words, and sentences are practiced right on the pages of this book. As students progress, they can use the reproducible guide sheets for all copywork and dictation, as well as other writing assignments. The guide sheets help students develop a rhythmic, even handwriting, so be sure to photocopy plenty of them (lessons are not reproducible, but the guide sheets are).

About the Author

Caroline Joy Adams has taught calligraphy in the Boston area at the Harvard University Center for Lifelong Learning, (a former part of the Harvard Extension School) as well as at MIT, and the Tufts University Experimental College. She is the author of An Italic Calligraphy Handbook, a textbook on calligraphy for adults, published in several editions in the US and Great Britain, and most recently published by Dover Publications. She is also the author of A Woman of Wisdom, and The Power to Write: Seven Keys to Discover Your Writer Within, and has taught hundreds of Creative Writing workshops over the years across the country, from California to New England.
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Currently, Caroline is an Adjunct Professor of English at Paradise Valley Community College, in Phoenix, Arizona, where she has taught since 2008. She loves to inspire her students to gain an appreciation for the power and beauty of the written word, in all its many forms. She is also a passionate nature photographer, and leader of seminars on a variety of topics. Her forthcoming book, Your Life is a Sacred Journey: Making the 28 Day Sacred Journey from Wherever You Are Right Now, features her beautiful photography and inspirational words. Her two websites are www.CarolineJoyAdams.com and www.SacredJourneyMoments.com.