Mr. Third Grader is deep into some of the biggest elementary-school challenges:  multiplication tables and cursive writing.

He's all over the times tables, since he's always been great at math.  Cursive writing, however, is a much bigger struggle for him.

Handwriting has never been his strong point.  In fact, if I look at his school papers side by side with his older brother's, I can see so many similarities in their (poor) handwriting.  And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree; my husband also has bad handwriting.  In fact, I missed some important emails regarding my son's basketball-practice schedule because my husband had written my email down, and the coach read "5" where there was supposed to be a letter "S."

I tell Mr. Third Grader to keep trying.  What I don't tell him is that I have a very vivid memory of breaking down in tears in my second-grade classroom, because I just could not get the hang of cursive writing, and my teacher was none too patient with me.  I figure that a more-gentle approach will work better, and I know his teacher well enough to be sure that she's on the same wavelength.

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