My Writing Paleography

Paleography has taught me many things, which I have shared with family and friends. I have even told a few students about it at the local high school. I have learned how to read different kinds of handwriting scripts to how to recognize various documents. It has been interesting for me and for my children to share this learning. My children have enjoyed the different writing styles the most. Paleography is the study of different kinds of writing. Knowing the different kinds of writing can allow us to better understand old documents, even if the style varies from what we have learned. Although each person’s writing style is unique to the individual, there are general characteristics that aide in the ability to read the penmanship
Of the script styles we have learned thus far it seems to be the one most without ornamentation. My children were taught D’Nealian print as a preparation for learning cursive writing, however the amount of cursive writing taught seems to be minimal. Although all of my children are able to read cursive including the youngest who is twelve. When given the opportunity to write most of them print. Except for the one who decorated cakes and he copied my handwriting. My mother only lived until the beginning of my first grade year. She taught me to write and I watched her write checks. I loved the big fancy letter P and told her I would write the P in my name the same way, however I had to write the way that we were taught when the letters were first introduced to me. Later, I adopted the P that I liked and changed a few other letters based on letters that I saw that I liked better. D’Nealian seems to be a very plain way of writing compared with Palmer Cursive. Palmer cursive has more curly embellishments. Prior to Palmer Cursive people wrote in Spencerian Script. It was used in the United States from 1800 – 1925. It was considered a fancy and feminine script by Robert Palmer. Spencerian Script has many curls and extra strokes compared with