A Reason for Handwriting uses ball-and-stick printing and a traditional style cursive, with scripture as the writing subject. Scripture verses are modified to be understandable for children—more at younger levels than older. One of the most popular features is the set of decorated border sheets in the back of the books for children to color and write their Verse of the Week. These completed pages are attractive enough to hang in prominent places, use as family memory verses, or send to grandparents and relatives.
Eight different books labeled K and A through F correspond to kindergarten through sixth grade. There is also a Transition book with a letter designation of T.
The first book, level K, is an introduction to printing for kindergarten level. The next two books, A and B, teach printing, covering the same skills but with different scripture selections. Lines have more space than in upper level books, so children don’t become frustrated by lack of space.
The Transition book covers the transition from printing to cursive and would typically be used in second or third grade. Books C through F all cover cursive skills using different scripture verses each year. Scripture for the four books is drawn from these areas: C - Epistles, D - Gospels, E - Psalms, and F - Proverbs. I would likely use book C for the first year of cursive (after Transition) since it provides foundational instruction. After that, you might select books according to scripture content since it is unlikely that you will need to use all of the books.
The Handwriting Teacher Guidebook, which covers all levels, includes brief lesson plans, principles of handwriting, valuable suggestions for correcting handwriting problems and working with different letter-connection combinations, teaching tips, vocabulary and skill lists for each student workbook, and reproducible master forms for skill development and evaluation. There are also supplemental exercises, games, and ideas. Initially, you should purchase a combination set of one student worktext and the teacher guide. After that you need to purchase only student worktexts.
