I have really thought about all your responses, and thank you for your thoughts and ideas so far. For cursive writing instruction, I am planning on only having my son do 2 of the 5 or more weekly worksheets, spreading out the workload throughout 4 days of the week, and giving him just a few minutes of hands-on instruction in cursive writing per day (5 minutes maybe). I plan to let him do his worksheets in colored pencil, giving him a little perk. On one day of the week, I would like to make cursive writing more like art in that I will have him copy (a his own pace, over the course of the year) the Pledge of Allegiance, several prayers (including the Our Father), etc., on lined paper pasted to construction paper, with pictures. I plan to post each in our new display area (the front of the classroom door). I put up a colorful sign with the words "Awesome Art" and plan to display his artful cursive writing, art projects, and literary works of art (stories, poems, book reports, etc.) there. I am already in the process of finding a penpal for my son. I am joining the Yahoo Group: Christian-Homeschool-Penpals. This group is restricted for the safety of the children, and all messages are monitored individually. I will let you know how it goes. For the regular creative writing projects/book reports, I will not be overly concerned with his handwriting, as long as it is pretty much legible. He has started doing BBC's Dance Mat Typing online this summer. It is a great typing game/program, full of funny sounds, animations, and songs. Not only does he have a lot of fun practicing, but he is learning typing rather quickly. As soon as he masters typing well enough, I will allow him to type his stories/reports on the computer. Thank you all again. Any other thoughts, ideas, or constructive criticism about my plans will be more than welcome!!!
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