Will they stop teaching cursive? Not in our house.

With all the talk about getting rid of cursive handwriting in schools, this writer is a little panicky. Fortunately my kids are showing the inclination anyway. Which is in part why I'm loving these awesome personalized placemats to help them do that very thing. We fell in love with the awesome kids' personalized placemats from Sarah + Abraham a while back--my kids still love sitting down at the chair where they see a likeness of their faces staring back at them. Plus? The placemats show no real sign of wear and tear, even after everyday use for more than a year. So now I'm glad to see they've extended the personalized placemat line with dry-erase style placemats for kids to help teach writing in either block letters or that verging-on-extinction script. I really like that you get to add your kid's name to the top--clearly staving off the THAT'S MINE/NO THAT'S MINE remains is a top priority. And when your kids are done doodling, you can just wipe their placemat clean as with any dry erase product. You just might consider not using it when you've got the fancy white china out.

My favorite item though? Best of both worlds. You can order a personalized kids placemat with your child's likeness on the front, that also has the letter practice on the back. Suddenly I'm thinking our own placemats may be in need of an upgrade. Order the new personalized kids' placemats at Sarah and Abraham, including the new handwriting practice versions.