Cursive for Preschoolers/Kindergarteners

Chase learned about cursive handwriting when he looked over my shoulder as I was typing up a letter that Grandpa had handwritten in cursive.

"What kind of writing is that Mommy?" Chase asked me. I explained that it was called cursive and he became very excited.

"I want to learn to write like that Mommy!"

I explained that he would learn cursive as soon as he was printing well, when he got older.

"But what if I want to learn cursive now Mommy?"

Well, I am homeschooling so my child gets individualized instruction. Was it really bad for him to learn cursive before manuscript? I know that the ABeka curriculum teaches cursive early their curriculum so I decided to start my research on this topic on their website.

I also found some information on other sites that were helpful.

My take-away points that seem true for Chase are that children can recognize and write cursive early in their education and that cursive does nearly eliminate problems with backwards letters (a problem that really bothers Chase).

Check out these links that I found on the topic:
ABeka
ERIC
BJU
PreCursive
Psychologist article
"Cursive First" author comments
A Montessori approach

Have many of you started with cursive? What are your thoughts?