1. Warm-Up: Posture and Rhythm Strokes
Set up your grip and posture, then train the two movements every cursive letter is built from.
What this lesson teaches
Before writing any letters, your hand needs to learn the rhythm of cursive.
Sit with both feet on the floor and tilt the page slightly to the left if you are right-handed (to the right if you are left-handed). Hold the pen loosely — if your fingertips turn white, you are squeezing too hard.
Work slowly. Rhythm and evenness matter far more than speed.
What is on the sheet
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Rhythm Slants
Copy the row of slanted strokes. Start each stroke at the dashed midline and pull down to the solid baseline. Keep every stroke at the same slight slant and the same distance apart. Lift the pen between strokes.
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Undercurve Waves
Copy the connected wave without lifting your pen. Swing down from the midline, touch the baseline, and swing back up. This swing is the entry stroke of most cursive letters — make it smooth and even.
How to use it
Print at 100% on US Letter — not “fit to page”. The ruling is classroom size, and scaling the page down makes every letter the wrong size. The 10 cm scale at the foot of the sheet is there to check against: if it measures short, the print was scaled.
The sheet holds 2 exercises, each with a model row in full ink, a pale row to trace over, and two empty ruled rows of your own.
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