Montessorium: Intro to Cursive 4+

The narrator adds an “uh” sound after some of the consonants, saying “buh,” “duh,” and “guh,” among others. The correct method is to give the pure phonics only (“b,” “d,” “g”), as adding “uh” confuses children later as they try to build words by sound.

Additionally, I wish it didn’t say “you did it” after each three part lesson. It gives no time for the child to realize “*I* did it.” The goal of a Montessori education is for the child to develop intrinsic motivation, not hear constant praise from the instructor.

The app is pretty good. My daughter turns 4 next month and has been using it since 6 weeks ago when her school closed. Her teacher recommended it because they learn cursive first in their class. She is enjoys tracing the letters and picking out the sounds. She will go for about 10 minutes, which is the age-appropriate attention span for this kind of thing I believe. Presenting the sounds in groups of 3 is great. Listening to the sounds as you write them is great. Setting it for Spanish is great! The arrows showing how to draw the letter are great. The thing that is not great is that sometimes the tracing does not match up exactly with the letter, which is confusing for her, and also, the tracing requires the child to keep drawing PAST the place where the letter ends or else you can’t move on. So sometimes we are staring at an obviously traced, completed letter, but it won’t consider it complete. I wish the sounds would come in Spanish too, especially vowels. Also, the letters are a bit big, so little hands that aren’t completely dexterous yet sometimes accidentally grab off-screen and shut the app/open my camera/something else weird. Overall, good app that we enjoy. With a few improvements, it would be excellent.

I got this game as a third grader thinking I could
Learn to write cursive a little better but this game is absolute trash! For example, when I am writing it has arrows pointing on where I should go! and it completely ruins the letter in trying to write. it stops me and makes me mess up! Just let me trace the letter without having the arrows! Also the narrator sounds so dull when she is saying good job or nice work. saying that should encourage the child not discourage the child using the app! Also, the noise while your tracing letters is horrible! It’s sounds like nails on a chalkboard and while I’m trying to learn I have to get a huge headache while I’m learning! I mean like school is already hard enough! If you could just fix these bugs and hire a new narrator this game could be a five star rating.

And also the fact I’m an eight year old wasting all my time writing a review the first day I got the app is horrible.