No, I haven't given up Gregg, the dictation program, or the set of files for Simplified, but life's gotten busy for a bit. All good things, but studying for my voice exam (grade 4 -- often taken by 10 year olds) and preparing for a summer storytelling gig (multiple concerts for the same audience, so have to refresh my entire repertoire, including one with a a partner) take priority for a few months.
In more related news, my 11 year old son has started shorthand! He's a bright kid (qualifies as gifted), but has serious handwriting problems. As near as they can tell, he has problems with muscle memory, converting sounds to higher-level abstract shapes, and he wants his writing to keep up with his thoughts.
When he can express things orally, he excels. When he has to write them down, he doesn't capitalize or punctuate, and he doesn't spell correctly. Copying from a board is almost impossible. He doesn't remember what he wrote, and it's illegible. However, when he stops composing and just proof-reads, he can fix most of it.
Yes, he's learning to type, and we're pushing on the paperwork to get a laptop from the school, with speech-recognition, and will buy it ourselves if necessary, but being able to take your own lecture or meeting notes is still a very useful skill.
He also loves codes and ciphers.
According to the specialist, kids with low muscle-memory usually print, since cursive requires you learn each word rather than only 26 letters. That rules out Gregg. As you know, it takes a few tries to turn the alphabet and rules into a fluent outline. We have to adjust each letter to the ones around it. Pitman, with it's backwards blends, would be even worse.
I suggested Forkner, since the pen "resets' on the line after most sounds. He read the first chapter and is intrigued. Yay!
So, my time will be split, but in a good way.
Have a great summer!
Labels: anythinggoes