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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

StartWrite Software

Have you heard of StartWrite? If not, read on--it has been an amazing resource for our homeschool this year. I absolutely love it!

StartWrite is a computer software program that allows you to customize your own handwriting worksheets for your child. There are tons of fonts to choose from, from manuscript to cursive, and even Handwriting Without Tears font (both their cursive and printing font). You can customize the lines (double, triple, dashed, etc) and you can even show starting points with a red dot or number the strokes with little arrows and numbers. You can also customize how dark you want the font, from gray to just dashed letters. AND, on top of all that, it comes with pic art both in color and black and white to incorporate into your worksheets (or you can import your own clip art). For some reason, StartWrite doesn't advertise on their website that they include HWT fonts, but for me that was the main reason I wanted this program.

Little Bean is finished with both the Kindergarten and First Grade HWT workbooks, and I really didn't want to buy another workbook for him. Instead, I would rather customize his worksheets and make copywork based on our history and poetry studies. With StartWrite, I've been able to do exactly that.

I use it for Miss O too. I print letters up for her to trace and or I do matching the beginning sound with letters and clip art. I also made little banners for their desks with stroke order and starting dots for some of the letters Little Bean tends to reverse and with some of the confusing letters with matching pictures for Miss O, who tends to miss the difference between letters like p, b, d and W and M.

You can get a free trial on their website that is fully functioning, but the catch is that you can only use it once before some of the functions stop working until you purchase the program. If you are look for something like this, I encourage you to download the free trial and see what you think. Anyway, for me, it was well worth the investment, and I know I'll be using it for years to come! Click on the banner in my sidebar or at the top of this post to go to their website and check out their product (in doing so, you will also benefit me as their affiliate). :)

2 comments:

Jackie said...

I wish you would have posted this last week as I purchased it then so you won't get the credit. I agree it is a very good program and although I will use one more year of HWT for my grandson (K) I think it will be the last.

Can't wait to read about your school year this year, and maybe you can share pictures of the things you make with Startwrite.

By the way you can also use your own clip art in this program if you have it.

L2L said...

I have used this program for about 3 years now and love it!!! I have chosen italic so it has been very helpful as we use LLATL and it uses traditional cursive, so I just type up the writing lesson on StartWrite and off we go!!!!

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