I’m absolutely delighted to share that my newest book, Creative Adventures in Cursive, has arrived.
Let’s take the Curse out of Cursive
This playful book is written for all of the children who adore handwriting, flowing script, and experimenting with fonts. It’s also for children who want to learn how write cursive in a playful way and could use an artsy hand-lettering boost.
While writing this book I lost my mom to cancer. She was always my champion and her delightful script inspired my own love for handwriting from an early age. With a lot of time for reflection under my belt, it’s an absolute joy to see this book find its way into the world, and now I get to be that source of inspiration for my own kids, and maybe yours, encouraging them and delighting them with endless ways to express themselves with the written word.
Watch my unboxing video…
#bringbackcursive
Did you know that cursive writing has been cut from so many schools. My children attend one of the most promising public school districts in the country and they’re not learning handwriting in school. Maybe this is the case where you live, too.
Why is this? With limited teaching time, teachers and administrators have to make tough decisions on what they dedicate time to. As a former teacher, I know this challenge well. Typing and computer skills are more important now than ever. The argument goes that children won’t need handwriting because typing text is the reality of the present and wave of the future. Sadly, handwriting is becoming a lost art as a result.
However, the good news is that people like me, and maybe you, value hand written notes, flourishes, and personality in our communication and it’s easy enough to learn outside of schools. When my 7-year old came to me with a request to learn handwriting, I rejoiced. Intrinsic motivation is one of the best ways to learn and retain information, and I knew I could count on her to keep the letter-writing alive in our family for years to come.
My daughter’s request also rekindled my own love for handwriting. We wrote fancy letters, created hand-drawn menus, and created flourishes in our bullet journals. We were having so much fun with script that when Quarto Books approached me to write this book, the pull was strong.
This book is written for all of the kids like my daughter who are hungry to practice handwriting. While it’s not a how-to book (there are plenty of those out there already), it offers playful ideas and inspiration for weaving cursive into arts and crafts.
Inside Creative Adventures in Cursive
Make posters, present school projects, design monograms, create greeting cards, decorate book bags and t-shirts, ice cookies and cakes — all while practicing cursive with all kinds of materials, including glue, pastry tubes, string and yarn, and of course brushes, pens, and crayons.
Praise for Creative Adventures in Cursive
Oh my goodness, where has this book been all my life? Rachelle’s book is the answer to my prayers. From the moment I opened the first pages and saw the cursive warm-up doodles, I wanted to be a kid again. Each page is more exciting than the next with projects like yarn art, glitter balloons, and cursive cakes. How interesting and unique to solidify the cursive movements through art and craft. Rachelle has always been an innovator, and this book proves to me again that she has the unequivocal power to turn small ideas into big movements.”
–Barbara Rucci, Art Educator and Author of Art Workshop for Children: How to Foster Original Thinking with more than 25 Process Art Experiences and owner of ArtBar Blog
In this age of over-developed thumbs flying over tiny keyboards, this guide to joyful handwriting takes the curse out of cursive and reconnects young writers’ hands with their eyes and minds. Doorley unabashedly embraces the aesthetic dimension of learning–the powerful attraction we have to making what we produce, especially our words and ideas, beautiful on the page. The nearly lost art of handwriting is recovered here with countless activities and exercises designed to excite and engage young learners.”
-Steve Seidel, Director of the Arts in Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
yay yay yay!!!
I’m also wondering if you would want to come do a speaking engagement- all things writing and tinkering related!
Yes, I would LOVE to!! And I loved seeing you recently. x
Great! I work in a French International school, and cursive handwriting is still a focus for us, and children begin in kindergarten. I would love to have this book, to encourage manual dexterity, and the joy of movement and writing – for myself and my grade 1 students
Thank you, Sarah! It came to my attention that French schools highly value cursive and that the children learn it before block printing, which is absolutely brilliant and good for kids in so many ways.
Thanks for sharing with us!
Awesome! Starting my daughter’s birthday list (a bit early) with this:)
Yay! I’m so honored to hear this is on the list, Erica. xo
You’re sharing such an amazing articles!
Thank you so much, Lisa.
This is amazing tips on how to make your kids love cursive writing! Thank you a lot for sharing this, I hope that you will continue doing this type of content.
Awe, thank you for the kind comment, Sabrina. Cursive writing should be fun, as it is, and it pains me to hear that children are either not learning it or not enjoying it. xo
Thank you so much for sharing this article, I was looking for an interesting blog for a long time and I am very glad that I found your website!
Good article, thanks for sharing this story 🙂
We have been reading your blog with my husband for a long time, we really like it. Keep up the good work 🙂
Thank you for this very clear and concise description of process art..I am working on a project in Istanbul Turkey which I hope will encourage Turkish parents to experiment more with process vs product art with their young children (aged 3 and under) and will be happy to refer curious parents to this post!
Hi! I’m so happy you found TinkerLab:)
The child will love to do things like this and interesting creative thoughts, and they have fun with colors and the innovative things come upon mind they do the really good work its very creative thought.
You have a great blog! And you are doing a very good job! It’s good that someone develops creativity in children! I’m also very glad that at one time they developed me in me and now I work in an excellent team and do ui/ux design.
n this age of over-developed thumbs flying over tiny keyboards, this guide to joyful handwriting takes the curse out of cursive and reconnects young writers’ hands with their eyes and minds. https://tinkerlab.com/creative-adventures-cursive/#comment-128954
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