Cursive Letter R Practice

R is short but fiddly, so do it slowly. Start with the lowercase shoulder, then trace the solid rows, move to dashed and dotted, and write the final row alone. Ten minutes is enough. Check the peak, since it is the identifying part of the letter. Write rare, error and carry afterward, three words with repeated r's, and see whether the shoulders match across a word.

Lowercase r has a small raised peak, like a tiny roof, before the exit stroke. It is easy to round the peak into an n, or draw it too tall. Capital R combines a stem, a bump and a leaning tail, three small decisions in a row. It follows Q and leads to S, which has its own curve. R is one of the harder joins, because the exit leaves from the peak and not the baseline.

Medium is a good start for most children. If the peak is hard to see, change Line size to Large to make it obvious. Small should wait. Because the peak is small, extra rows help more than longer sessions. Switch Style to Print to compare, as print r is just a stem with a short arm.

What makes cursive r hard?

The small raised peak. It must be sharper than an arch but not so pointed it looks like a v. Trace the dashed rows and keep the pencil moving.

Why does r look like n in my child's writing?

The peak has been rounded into a full arch. The r peak is small and sits at the waist line. Large lines make the difference visible.

How does r join the next letter?

From the top of the peak, not the baseline, so the next letter starts a little higher. Practice by writing words such as red and run.