Calligraphy, Cursive & Cursing mothers!

What?  Cursing at Simple Teen Life?  No way!  We are a staff of 100% teens and the founder who is a teacher.  Cursing?  I think not!

However, as a parent, teacher, and founder of STL & POT club (Parent Of Teens), I can attest to listening to a few cursing mothers out of sheer frustration recently.

Cursing: when frustrated mothers utter offensive words in anger of annoyance 

Parents are more frustrated than ever as they try to help their teens deal with the issues of virtual schooling along with many new pressures of parenting courtesy of Covid-19.

There is a serious problem in the world of our teens.  The lack of downtime without the influence of their digital world is becoming a thing of the past for teens.  Time to just chill with friends, family or alone without a screen is becoming endangered.

The mission of Simple Teen Life is to help SLOW TEEN LIFE DOWN. How do we do this?  Keep reading….

Teen created, tested & apporved!

Deciding on our winter Simple Teen Box the teen staff discussed how they were “sick and tired of being on screens all day.” Keep in mind they said this in early fall, having no idea this zoom classroom lifestyle would last for over a year!  It’s a fact that the leisure time spent in front of a screen is now amplified by schools with  the increasing emphasis on digital learning.  Smart phones have become a constant companion.  We all know this but the question is what can we do about it?

Enter the STL staff as they decide on how to solve the problem for other teens.

Parameters were set by teens as they planned the winter box:

• Box cannot require a screen, batteries or electricity.
• Must be low key theme, calming, yet fun,
• Can do with a friend or alone

One staff member suggested, “We could do art, learn to read and write in cursive and create cool cards for our friends and family with calligraphy”

Sophie, our 13-year-old product tester got to work.  As a product tester her work really is play.  Playing around with the calligraphy kit Sophie confirmed calligraphy was fun.

TEEN TESTED, TEEN APPROVED

Digital take down

Do teens really want to learn to write in cursive for fun? Really? The teen staff says YES!  Who knew!

With today’s digital reality, teens just type & tap all day on screens in standardized fonts for hours on end.  This concerns me as a parent & teacher so I did some research to share with you.

What is calligraphy & cursive

• Handwriting: printing with a pen while lifting the pen after every letter
• Cursive: write quickly so that the pen is not lifted off the page resulting in letters that are connected
• Calligraphy:  drawing out the letters using specific strokes

Did you know that calligraphy is actually an art form?

With each letter having its own unique design, the series of designs and strokes will create words that will create a message.  A handwritten message in “fancy” cursive writing.  How old school is that yet no screens needed!

Lap top tapping and typing which uses the same movement,  same keystroke motion  same uniform font does not  allow for creativity, personal style and a feeling of ownership in their work you get from calligraphy.

Calligraphy & cursive handwriting go together like PB and Jelly.

Just for fun, did you know you, National PB& J day is April 2 and by graduation most American kids will have consumed 2000 PB & J.

Click the link below for a fun memory of PB&J when downtime was a little easier to find!   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ZAGBL6UBA

OK… get off the You Tube link now, put down your PB & J and let’s get serious again…

Benefits of Calligraphy

Makes the fingers & hands move using sequential movements

More of the brain is engaged doing calligraphy than key strokes

Requires thinking while  increasing communication skills

Focus is on one stroke at a time to slow down teens

Encourages creativity and out-of-the -box thinking

It is “human” as we live is such a digital world

Activates the visual and spatial processing

Improves hand-eye coordination

Practice builds confidence

Allows for personal styles

Calming & Therapeutic

Meditative & Relaxing

Increases memory

Improves spelling

STL GOES OLD SCHOOL…

You know what a piece of paper and a pen don’t have?

Access to Snap Chat, IG, or You Tube.

…created for teens by teens!

SLOW TEEN LIFE DOWN

Hallmark may have the pre made card market BUT nothing means more than a handwritten card with your own words, personal style with creativity  flowing from your calligraphy pen!

Recent Review

This recent review from March 16, 2021 for our Cool Calligraphy Simple Teen Box blew us away!

 She loves it (Cool Calligraphy Box)…from the great use of re-purposing materials to the cool calligraphy set and the personalization of everything. The space stickers were awesome. This is just such an amazing thing these teens are doing. She also loves that you support a charity. 

 She has now started using her calligraphy pen to keep track of assignments in a notebook because getting to use a “fancy pen and practice her calligraphy” was something that made it easier with her ADHD/ADD to remember to finish all parts of assignments and get them turned in. I know this is meant for downtime (and she certainly used it that way this weekend!), it also led to a small breakthrough for her in finding ways to work “with” her ADHD brain instead of fighting it all the time.

Thanks for reading as I need to stop now.  All this tapping and typing is making my brain turn to mush. I feel the need for a PB& J and writing a note to my mom in cursive because she can read it!

As always we would love to hear from you with questions, comments or recipes for homemade jelly!

Conni Rasmussen

Founder of STL