I have handwriting on the brain! My little grandson is 3 (almost 4) and homeschooled. He’s just starting to learn how to write, so I was looking over some of the resources my daughter was researching. I can’t help myself. I love homeschooling! Now I get to do it vicariously through my grandkids and all our customers who share their lovely stories and photos, LOL! 💕
So, anyway, I started dreaming up the amazing handwriting workbooks I could make with Beowulf (Guest Hollow’s mascot), adorable artwork, fun motor skills activities, and such. This isn’t something I’m working on quite yet since I’m still working on Jr. Modern History and Little Kids’ Modern History, 😉 but I’m thinking ahead and wanted to see what’s available.
A while back I wrote a post about StartWrite, a handwriting and worksheet wizard. It’s a great program, but you are constrained to making worksheets in the app, which can be really limiting. In order to make the fantastic, amazing handwriting workbooks someday, I need to have a handwriting font installed as a system font. This will allow me to generate handwriting pages across various applications, like Photoshop, Microsoft Word, and Affinity Publisher. I chose Zaner-Bloser because it’s the handwriting style I learned as a child, and I prefer how it looks. I think it’s also a much tidier and easier to write print style.
Looking for the perfect fit, I went to the all-knowing internet, and that’s when I discovered vLetter, which makes Schoolhouse Educational Fonts!
This is exactly what I was looking for! I contacted them, and vLetter was kind enough to allow me to use their font and to share with all of you the following coupon code:
HomeSH2025
With this code, you can get $10 off the regular price of $59 on a set of their their Schoolhouse fonts: Set D (D’Nealian® style) or Set Z (Zaner-Bloser® style). It’s only good through March of 2025, so if you are interested, grab it while you can!
I LOVE these fonts! They connect while you type them and you get a nice package of options to install on your system. Take a look at some of the goodies I got with the Set Z fonts:
vLetter has great customer service
Just a quick note, you may need to enable ligatures to get the font to display properly if you are using the font in Microsoft Word. See this page for info:
https://www.vletter.com/help/font-faq/enable-ligatures-in-microsoft-word.html
If you have any other problems with the fonts, the team at vLetter is really helpful and friendly! They answered a question of mine in just minutes, which is rare these days! 😊
Check out the website for free samples. You can try out the fonts before buying them to see how they work.
Great ideas for using the fonts
You can imagine all the ways these fonts can be put to use:
- Copywork
- Handwriting lessons and practice
- Notebooking
- Spelling word lists
- To customize worksheets you already have
Handwriting is often overlooked these days, but given the research supporting its benefits, I think it deserves a place in your homeschooling day!
The vLetter fonts can save you tons of money if you want to make your own custom practice sheets. They are also perfect if you have an older student who needs to work on handwriting, but they’ve outgrown many of the “younger” handwriting workbooks that are available. It’s super easy to whip something up in just minutes that is completely customized.
Studies showing the benefits of handwriting
I’ve always been a big believer in handwriting! Here are some studies showing why you may want to add a handwriting component to your homeschool:
- Children who write words spell better!
- Handwriting activates reading circuits in the brain.
- Handwriting enhances learning and memory.
- Handwriting leads to widespread brain connectivity.
Here’s a bit of info I shared in a previous post:
Here’s an excerpt from a NY Times article:
… learning to write in cursive is shown to improve brain development in the areas of thinking, language and working memory. Cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity between the left and right hemispheres, something absent from printing and typing. As a result, the physical act of writing in cursive leads to increased comprehension and participation.
Another article in Psychology Today talks about the biological and psychology benefits from learning cursive:
Handwriting dynamically engages widespread areas of both cerebral hemispheres. Virginia Berninger, a researcher and professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says that brain scans during handwriting show activation of massive regions of the brain involved in thinking, language, and working memory.
…scientists are discovering that learning cursive is an important tool for cognitive development, particularly in training the brain to learn “functional specialization,”[2] that is capacity for optimal efficiency. In the case of learning cursive writing, the brain develops functional specialization that integrates both sensation, movement control, and thinking. Brain imaging studies reveal that multiple areas of brain become co-activated during learning of cursive writing of pseudo-letters, as opposed to typing or just visual practice.
Studies have also shown that parts of the brain needed for reading are stimulated, and that writing by hand allows children to express more ideas and to produce words more quickly than they can when typing. Good handwriting activates more regions of the brain (associated with language, memory, and reasoning), and also has been shown to help improve learning difficulties like dyslexia, enhance auditory learning, and more! You can do a search online for more info, if you are like me and love the science behind why cursive is so important to teach.
A lot of parents think it’s O.K. to forgo the time consuming process of teaching handwriting, especially cursive, as it’s just not “needed” in this age of typing and digital communication, but I strongly disagree. I think it’s a very important part of a homeschool, and made sure my children had plenty of opportunities to practice it.
Save while you can!
If you’d like to make your own handwriting worksheets, head on over to vLetter fonts and take advantage of this discount to get $10 off the regular price through March of 2025!
HomeSH2025
I will be using vFonts to make some handwriting workbooks at some point, but if you are looking for something now, this may be just the thing you need to add some handwriting to your day.
