You can start your child on writing cursive, if you wish, but if they begin reading it first, you will be able to show them an example of what cursive typically looks like, how it’s connected, and what letters are what.
It’s best to get them to try writing all of the letters, and then seeing which letters were difficult for them. Ask your child which letters were the hardest for them to write, and then help them practice. Be aware that your child may find another way of writing a letter, such as writing their lowercase F so the lower loop is to the left of the line. Don’t chide them on this - as long as you can still tell what the letter is, it doesn’t need to be corrected.
A good sentence, when your child is comfortable with cursive, would be “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. It contains all letters of the alphabet, making it possible for your child to try connecting all letters. You can also start them on simple sentences, such as introducing themselves in cursive. Keep in mind that they should get a chance to use both capital and lowercase letters so that they learn to connect all letters, or which letters generally don’t get connected.
Your child may learn cursive but feel that writing in print is more efficient. That’s okay. Many children write in print now, and it’s common for some students to write partly in cursive and partly in print, or write in a cursive-print hybrid. Keep in mind that your child may just not want to learn cursive now. If they tell you they don’t want to learn cursive, they may just not want to learn it in this time of their life for whatever reason - many children can be stubborn about learning. Keep the option open for them and let them come to you if they want to learn it.
