By Holly Britton HOH Rating: 5/5 I first “met” Kitty Burns Florey when I discovered her book, Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences. I was drawn immediately to her wit and charm and fascinated by the way she presented this much-forgotten skill. Script and Scribble: The Rise and […]
Wisdom-Bound! On this National Day of Handwriting, I’m thrilled to announce a new book review series I am calling Wisdom-Bound. I want to share the wisdom bound between the covers of books I am reading with other teachers, parents, brain researchers, and education professionals, each of us on our own life-long journey bound for wisdom. […]
By: Holly Britton When I began learning the cello as an adult, I started with variations of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. The cello instructor wisely pointed out, “You are not learning Twinkle, Twinkle; you are learning how to play the cello.” His point was that the song was second to a greater lesson, namely skill. […]
By: Holly Britton National Handwriting Day is celebrated January 23rd in honor of John Hancock, whose large, elaborate signature at the bottom center of the U.S. Constitution testifies to the importance placed on penmanship many years ago. The beautiful swooping letters presented a perfect finish to the world-changing document. His birthday, then, seems an appropriate […]
By: Holly Britton Over the last two decades – affecting at least two generations of school kids – explicit instruction of handwriting (both cursive and manuscript) has been pushed aside in the name of progress. Technologies like the personal laptops and cell phones replaced the typewriter and, well, everything smartphones replace. In 2010, as this seismic […]
By: Holly Britton When I started educating my kids, I wanted very much for them to have an opportunity to make music. I didn’t have grandiose aspirations of them going to some famous conservatory, but I did want to give them a solid foundation in case they wanted to. I noticed that the kids I […]
Failure to Teach Handwriting Fails our Kids By: Holly Britton In a casual conversation with someone who happened to be an occupational therapist, I described my reasoning for designing the Squiggle Squad resources for handwriting instruction. She looked at me wide-eyed and said, “You know, so many of the kids that teachers send to me […]
