Handwriting, Cursive, and Typing as Foundations for Technology
A schedule to unlock creativity, independence, and better focus for your children before introducing technology.
It’s no secret that many families are concerned about the growing amount of screen time in their children's lives - both for entertainment and education. With schools increasingly using devices for students as young as second grade, technology is becoming an unavoidable part of the learning experience. But when it comes to mastering advanced tools, we believe in mastering foundational skills first. (You can imagine how this will have striking contrast to parking your small children in front of a chromebook and asking them to get to work.) Our approach to integrating technology is intentional, structured, and designed to make sure our children are fully prepared to use technology as a tool for creativity and innovation, but only once they've mastered the basics.
Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Mastering Handwriting First
Start with the essentials: Teach your children how to master print handwriting and use screen-free pencil-and-paper for their education materials. By doing this, your children can focus on forming letters clearly and legibly, which will in turn help them develop motor skills and cognitive connections to written language. This foundation is key to building focus and concentration in their academic work. | By age 7, most children can typically form letters neatly, write sentences with basic legibility, and will develop the motor control needed to transition to the fluid motions of cursive writing around ages 8-9 (3rd grade by public school standards).
Step 2: Learning Cursive
Once students are confident in print, introduce cursive writing. Cursive strengthens fine motor skills and helps in brain development, improving memory and reading fluency. Learning cursive requires perseverance and focus, helping students become more disciplined in their approach to writing. | By age 9 (typically the end of 3rd grade), most children will have completed a cursive handwriting course, with the fine motor control and familiarity with cursive letter forms for fluid and legible cursive writing. At this point, students are ready to build on their handwriting skills by beginning formal typing instruction but parents may delay this another year or so to allow their child more time to refine print and cursive skills or simply choose to delay the introduction to technology.
Step 3: Typing Skills
After mastering print and cursive, students move on to learning basic computer skills, online safety, ergonomics, and typing. The purpose of this is to ensure that they can type quickly and accurately, which is a vital skill in most professions. By mastering typing, students are ready for more complex, tech-based assignments they’ll encounter in future studies. | Once your child has reached proficiency in typing, around 11-12 years old, they’ll “unlock” the ability to type some of their assignments. To continue to develop and retain handwriting skills, some assignments will remain in print, some in cursive, and some typed. We recommend all initial/rough drafts continue to be handwritten so students maintain those skills.
Step 4: Introducing Technology
Once your child has built a solid foundation with handwriting, cursive, and typing, it is time to introduce them to parent-empowering AI tools. During this time they learn how to use AI as a tool in a safe, monitored environment. At this stage, we begin introducing AI as a tool for innovation, not as a shortcut for getting work done. | Once your child has reached proficiency in AI skills, they’ll “unlock” the use of a parent-empowered AI tool for education for some assignments and projects.
Step 5: Innovative Use of Technology
Once your child has established competency and responsibility with AI, they can begin to freely incorporate AI and similar technology into their homeschool routine. This ensures that they have already established the necessary cognitive and motor skills to use tech tools effectively while still using a parent-monitored AI. | Once your child has reached this stage, they are free to use AI in many of their projects and assignments at your discretion but should continue to practice and maintain foundational skills.
Safety & Accountability
TimeTrek Learning is hoping to use parent-engaged AI accelerators designed for education and customize to your preferences to ensure it’s safe and appropriate for young learners. Our goal is to guide students in exploring ideas and thinking critically without bypassing the learning process. Safety and accountability are paramount which is why we’re developing tools to monitor AI use while teaching students to engage responsibly with technology. We're excited to put large language models (LLMs) to work accelerating American students with parents firmly in the driver's seat.
Why This Approach Works for Homeschooling Families:
By prioritizing traditional skills first, we make sure kids develop solid foundations in critical thinking and communication tools.
We introduce technology at the right time, waiting until students have the necessary skills to engage with it creatively and responsibly. Each child will go at their own pace and progress with proficiency at each level.
Foundational skills continue to be a routine focus even after the introduction of typing and AI.
Technology becomes a tool for innovation, exploration, and creativity, and is not a shortcut for assignments. This approach is about helping kids create and problem-solve, not just finish tasks.
In a homeschool setting, we ensure that technology is used safely and effectively, with clear guidelines for responsible use.
The exact timeline and approach will vary based on each individual child and family but the beauty of homeschooling is that you can take your child’s learning at their pace! We believe in empowering homeschooling parents to build a strong foundation of skills first so we can raise innovators who understand how to use technology in a thoughtful and responsible way.
Thanks for reading! If this resonates with you:
Follow me on 𝕏 TimeTrekFam for daily updates and general shenanigans and click below to subscribe for free on Substack for the real content!