Training wheels - are not touching the ground

Training wheels do not sit on the ground with the two wheels on the bicycle.

They are up in the air - so that the learner can balance on the two main wheels - and they only need the training wheels if they are losing balance and tipping too much.

It is time to start making letters that are even in width and even in spacing.

Writing on top of the slant lines is a good way to educate your eye on EVEN WIDTH of both the LETTERS and the SPACES.

You need to be creating those consistent width of letters and width of spaces on your own. You need to start trusting your eyes.

This page shows how to use the slant lines as a guide to maintain the proper slant, but you do not put the stem strokes ON TOP OF each guide line.

To learn how to be CONSISTENT in the width of letters as well as the spacing - we have been using a technique where we FORCE all the letters onto the slant lines. This helps in the beginning - but eventually, we run into letters that just don't fit the grid.

m-i-n-u-l-t-h-y all fit the grid

the letter a wants to be a little bit narrower - and so will the c-e-o

So, it is time let go of putting the stem strokes on top of the slant lines and let your eyes do the proper spacing. Proper and consistent width of the letters as well as proper and consistent space between letters.

If you do not understand that the width of letters and the amount of space between letters SHOULD BE APPROXIMATELY the SAME -- then you need to review. This has to make sense. Most bad penmanship has letters that vary in width and are too close together.

Here is a close up of the top of the lesson sheet.

I cut off that last comment on the lower right. It says to keep the top of the r  flat.

The top line shows how we have been putting every single stroke on top of the slant lines.

Where I wrote - you will not be directly on the slant lines - you can see that those letters are not directly on the slant lines. However - the letters are consistent in their width - and the space between each letter is about the same as the width of the letters.

Just because I wrote words using letters that we are not yet learning does not mean that you should start doing those letters.

Stick with m-i-n-l-h-t-y-a- and we will add r.

The r is a very good example of a letter that is simply a bit narrower than an n - so that is why it is time to get off the slant lines. We will still want the slant lines on the paper to guide us. But we will not put stem strokes on top of the slant lines.

The r should be roughly 2/3 the width of the n. Half width is a little too skinny.

Most people do not have trouble going up to the waist line and then going over a tiny bit to make the ear. But the thing that often happens is that they make a very quick slope down and then make a narrow pinched r. I think the r looks much better if there is a tiny bit of a level at the top and then a very tight curve into the down stroke.

This is a matter of taste. But, I will keep mentioning it if I see r's that are really narrow with sloping tops.

Here is a close up of the bottom of the lesson sheet.

After you write the words - take a colored pencil and draw slant lines through the stem strokes. Then look at how consistent those colored pencil lines are. You can also use another color to fill in the triangles that are formed by the joining strokes -- 

You end up with a lot of stuff on the page and it can be confusing.

Another way to do this is to put your guide sheet under tracing paper - write some words - and then remove the guide sheet - and draw colored pencil lines over your stem strokes - so you can see exactly how consistent you are on your slant, your width of your letters, and the spacing that you have between your letters.