Sharing the communication letters, Part 3 of 3

Sharing communication letters, Part 2

“I guess it doesn’t really matter …” EXCEPT IT DOES!

  When I listen to parents and grandparents nowadays, I hear the same recurring grumble … our kids can’t write legibly!  Sometimes just writing their names is an effort.  Read, yes.  Tap computer and phone keys, yes.  But - handwrite legibly — no!  Actually enjoy writing?  Oh my!  That’s a tipping point, yet they really haven’t been given opportunity or guidelines.  Young children are usually eager to learn to write, and to write cursive.  And, it’s these growing years that writing skills are established.  Habits formed in childhood are often rooted for a lifetime.

  In modern times, researchers have found that when we write by hand, we are connecting to neurons in our brain.  We literally stimulate brain cells, and we are forming pathways for nerves to send messages.  When we repeat certain patterns in our handwriting, we are establishing patterns of pathways in our neuro-centers.  These become our habits of thinking, where or how we most often work on our problem solving skills, or approach new situations, or learn new skills.  Some people learn best by hearing, some by seeing, some by doing.  There is no right or wrong way, but there can be more efficient ways to think about things and easier ways of doing them.  Writing the Vimala Alphabet™ is key to opening that door to innovative thinking.

  Studies have found that children who enjoy writing learn better, faster, and are higher achievers than those who don’t.  Perfection is not the goal, rather, the purpose is to let handwriting flow onto the page with clear, casual, legible script that engages the writer’s attentiveness and is fun to write.  Learning to read and handwrite is one of the most important skills a child can acquire.  Helping a child learn to write fluent cursive letters, always ending to the right, is one of the most rewarding gifts you can offer.

  Why not take five minutes a day … just five minutes, to write with your children?  Just a few minutes with a letter or two or three, maybe a sentence and some thoughtful insights into the letters themselves.  

  Begin a routine practice of writing letters every day.  Including some of the aspects of the letters and Alphabet symbolism can make handwriting much more engaging.  Using the Vimala Alphabet™, begin with the communication letters … just one or two lowercase at first.   

Handwriting and the Alphabet have come down to us through centuries.  We’ve visited some ancient scripts and writing styles through this series of blogs.  It’s amazing that we can decipher the thoughts, feelings, and accomplishments from our ancestors who lived so long ago.  What does your child feel when he or she sees these writing systems?  Consider the complexities involved in how writing evolved over time.  Consider the form and style of some of the scripts pictured in earlier blogs.  Think about how the individual letters or symbols were made.  How easy or how hard would it be to use these scripts?  

Boustrophedon writing

Boustrophedon writing

Can you read the paragraph below?

Literally, it reads (translated left to right with spaces, but no punctuation):

boustrophedon was written in rows as an ox would plow them in a field

originally there was no spacing or punctuation used how hard is this

to read without any spaces or uppercase letters or periods or commas

just letters in fact words were just split where ever the line ended 

Papers and parchments were scarce and expensive.  Nothing went to waste.  Often people would deliberately wash and fade pages, turn them in a perpendicular direction and reuse them, writing over the previous writing.  They also wrote in the boustrophedon style shown above.  Leonardo Da Vinci wrote like this.  It was most confusing until it was finally decided that every line of Roman Alphabetical writing would begin at the left side and end on the right side of the page.  Finally, when spaces between words and punctuation were added, it became much easier to read and understand what was written.

Writing mediums ... inks and dyes

One of the first inks people used was Sepia.  Sepia ink is extracted from a small cuttlefish found in European coastal waters.  The cuttlefish squirts its inky liquid into the water when it feels threatened, much like a skunk sprays when it’s startled.  Sepia is a reddish brownish color that darkens when applied, then later fades with age.

People also tried soot mixed with oils and gums to make a dark writing fluid. 

There were color dyes and pigments made from plant materials that could also be used for painting or writing.

Calvatia Craniformis (Puffball mushroom) 

Used in Tibet for making ink.

Plant materials like the Puffball mushroom above had to be processed to make ink. These were burned, ground, then soaked in water with a little glue, pressed and left to dry into little ink cakes.   The Chinese were probably the first to make cakes or sticks.  There was a lot of experimentation with soot, plant materials, resins and glues to make a good ink.

Sometimes it would mold or fade or crumble.  Dry ink cakes and sticks can be stored and transported easily, then mixed with water to make the fluid medium when needed.  Ink sticks are often formed into beautiful art forms of their own like the two pictured at right.  

One of the first inks people used was Sepia.  Sepia ink is extracted from a small cuttlefish found in European coastal waters.  The cuttlefish squirts its inky liquid into the water when it feels threatened, much like a skunk sprays when it’s startled.  Sepia is a reddish brownish color that darkens when applied, then later fades with age.

People also tried soot mixed with oils and gums to make a dark writing fluid. 

There were color dyes and pigments made from plant materials that could also be used for painting or writing.

In China, the “four precious things of the library” are given much respect and attention to care.  They are the brush, ink, inkstone, and paper.  Above right is the inkstone used for liquifying the ink stick and loading the brush.  Ink sticks and brush are pictured to the left above.

Writing instruments through time ...

Before Pens and ink ….

Writing has come a long way since its beginning, when people had to use a hammer and chisel to carve their letters.

Engraving or carving Alphabet symbols on walls of stone was the work of artists.  Only the most holy priests and scribes could perform this important task.  Such detail work required skill and patience.  Special pointy and blunt edge tools called chisels were used with a hammer to chip out the stone surface in the pattern of the writing.  Some scholars believe this is why these early writings read from right to left.  Since the majority of people are right handed, meaning that their right hand is stronger and more skilled than the left, they used their right hands to wield the hammer against the chisel which was held with the non-dominant left.  It made sense to work across the rock face inching the chisel leftward after each hammer blow from the right hand.  This kept the pattern of symbols in clear view as the scribe carved.  When people started using just one tool, a brush or a stylus, to draw images on parchments or wax boards, they continued writing from right to left.  

Finer tools were needed to write on wax boards and scrolls.

The Greeks and Romans used a metal stylus to make letter impressions on their wax boards.  Both ends could be used for different effects.  The wider end could also be used to smooth out mistakes much like the erasers at the end of our modern pencils rub out our own errors in writing.  Bone and ivory were also used to make styluses.

When pens were adopted, people sometimes wrote in boustrophedon fashion, moving across a page one way, then turning their letters backwards and writing across in the opposite direction.  Finally, when inks came into use, our Roman letters became fixed in one direction, left to right.  Since most people are right handed, it was easier to keep the right hand in front of the pen so they could write without smearing the ink. Left handed writers can avoid smears too, by positioning their paper properly.  Right or left (and most especially for left-handers), line the paper up with the elbow of your writing hand.  

                                   

Writing Instruments through time

With the invention of the reed pen, people could use ink to form finer letters.  Reed pens were made from the hollow stems of certain plants like papyrus.  A writing point was fashioned and the hollow stem was filled with ink.  

Quill Pens are made from the flight feathers of large birds.  Feathers have a hollow shaft that holds the ink.  The best pens came from feathers plucked in early Spring.  Goose feathers were most common.  Swan feathers were the most expensive.  Crow feathers made very fine lines.  Turkey, eagle and owl feathers could all be used.  It takes time and skill to trim and fashion a pen.  Writers had to be careful of the fragile writing point, or nib.  If someone was very good at it, they could trim the same feather four or five times before having to discard it.  The term “pen knife” came from the little knife used to trim the nibs.  A quill pen was used to write our Constitution, and for signing it as well.  

While our modern fountain pens are completely fashioned of stronger, manmade metal parts, they follow the same principle as the original reed pen.  Care must be taken that they don’t leak.  

Brushes are still in use today for Chinese writing.  Brush writing is an art form and lends itself to the writing systems it serves.  Pencils with lead points offer the ability to rub out mistakes.  They are much less expensive than pens or brushes, and won’t leak like a fountain pen, but they lack the finer qualities that facilitate cursive handwriting.  The ball point pen seems the perfect solution to giving a lovely trail of ink without those troublesome leaks.  Even so, some folks still prefer the beautiful quill.

             

Check out the many benefits of handwriting!

Ivy Fenswick has created a wonderful, informative infographic on the many benefits of handwriting!  Please take a few minutes to read this one.  Beautiful presentation and so very important!!!  Children need to learn handwriting and practice handwriting from an early age — not only to establish proficiency, but also to enjoy the many benefits it offers as well!

20 Ways Handwriting Is Good for You and Your Studying
https://ivypanda.com/blog/handwriting-good-for-your-studying/