Teaching Cursive Handwriting First

Is there a benefit of teaching cursive handwriting first before print?

A few years back, I wrote an article on the benefits of cursive handwriting at Yahoo's Associated Content. This article entitled " 10 Reasons to Teach Cursive Writing First Before Print"which consistently garnered high views.

The complete text is in this site. Read Penmanship: Cursive or Print?

Anyway, yesterday, I began to teach my 4 year old how to write in cursive.

First, I practiced him with pre-writing exercises of a "u". I drew a "smiley face" without a mouth. Actually, I drew several big smiley faces. He just naturally drew the mouths in each face.

Second, I told him that using the same strokes, he can make many "ocean waves" like in the beach. He immediately drew those connected "u" from left to right.

Third, I told him it is time to draw rainbows in the clouds. First I drew a cumulostratus clouds. Using an inverted "u" stroke, I drew rainbows coming out of those cumulostratus clouds.

Fourth, I told him that he can make many hills using the same inverted "u" stroke. Hills not mountains, mountains are a bit pointed. We want a practice of those smooth curves.

Fifth, once he was comfortable drawing those curves, I started to teach him how to write the lowercase letter "s" in cursive. In fact, I divided it into 4 strokes. 1 to 2 is from bottom left to diagonal top right, 2-3 is from top right curving down back near number 1, 3-4 is moving like a wave from left to right.

Sixth, I told him to draw cursive "s" in the air. Then, I put dots on the cursive s, as a guide for him to trace. Then, I encouraged him to attempt to write "s" in cursive using the stroke he learned.

SBI!