Trace Lowercase Letter r

A short line and a wavy arm. The start dot on the model sits on the middle line with an arrow pointing down. The pencil drops to the baseline, climbs back up the same line about a third of the way, then slants out to the right and up until it touches the middle line. From there the arm dips a little, rises to the middle line again and stops.

Stopping is the skill. Like n, r sets off down the line and back up it, and a hand that knows n wants to carry the arm over and down to the baseline. If you learned r with a short curved arm, as plain print has it, the wave here will look generous: it is about as long as the letter is tall. It finishes up on the middle line, where n comes down to the baseline.

Say "down, up a little, wave" as the pencil moves. If the arm keeps diving to the baseline, put a small mark on the middle line where it should end. Good r words to say along the way are rabbit, rain, rocket and ring.