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Attitude with copy work and writing
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Veterans, I need advice! With us finishing up our first term, I’m reevaluating what we have done, where we need improvement or adjustments. This is our first year homeschooling and I have tried to be laid back as much as possible. My second grade daughter definitely had/has some habits she gained during her two years at charter school. One of them is her writing. She doesn’t make letters the way I was taught but she gets them made. I think the way she makes them is why she struggles to write nicely. She doesn’t complain about copy work. However, her handwriting is subpar in my opinion. I tried not to discourage her because she took copy work negatively the first week and no longer wrote independently. She really enjoys writing on her own and I have started asking her to write/narrate something we did together about once a week. So, here are my questions:
1. Should I take the time to re teach her handwriting? Rewriting her letters the way I was taught, trying to do better with neatness?
2. It doesn’t seem to make a difference if I have her do copy work 1, 3, or 5 minutes in her neatness. Should I be sitting and watching, and soon as she makes a mistake stop?
3. If she incorrectly copies a word, how do you handle it?
4. Any suggestions for free copy work? I have been copying poems she likes from books and having her copy them. Or, I have had her copy our hymn? She also has the copy work in her junior not poking journal for apologia one day every other week.
5. In her free writing, I have been just letting her write and then correct
Y spelling words in pen above words that are wrong. Suggestions for this? I really want to be careful of not taking the joy out of writing she lost and is slowly regaining. I guess it’s because I was told in high school once and in college once I would never be a writer and I’m just now recouping from that myself.
Tips appreciated! Where do I focus? I can’t even imagine dictation starting any time soon.
Some thoughts and suggestions come to mind.
2 & 3. Have her do her copywork then have her compare it to the model and find any places where the two differ (her copy and the model). If she finds variances, she should correct them. Once she thinks her copy is correct and the very best she can do, she should show it to you. If you agree that she copied carefully and neatly and didn’t miss any spellings or capitals or punctuation, she’s done. If, however, you find any variances, she must recopy the whole thing. I think she’s a smart girl and will catch on very soon that it’s quicker to do it right the first time.
1. Once she has seen the advantages to doing it right the first time, she may be open to your suggesting ways she could gain neatness and speed. You might offer to show her a different way of forming a letter and suggest she try it a time or two to see if it helps. You could try teaching her cursive and see if learning those strokes correctly helps with legibility.
4. Have you seen the free copywork in our bookstore? I’m not sure if it’s the font she’s used to, but you might take a look.
5. At this stage I would let her do free writing, if she wants to, on her own time and not worry about correcting it. There seems to be a built-in filter with children that they know they’re only playing with words’ spellings when writing on their own time, but take as “gospel truth” the spellings of assignments and activities during schoolwork. Charlotte Mason recommended we not start formal spelling lessons (dictation) until the child is about 10 years old. So give your daughter more time to build up a mental storehouse of word spellings through careful copywork and reading practice. And don’t worry about dictation for a couple more years.
Oh thank you so much! I will try the suggestion of having her check her own work. She is very smart. I think your approach to helpi her in how to make words would be good. She has been playing with trying to write her name in cursive. So, maybe I should just start teaching it to her. I will print out some of the free copy work. Thank you again!
As for #5, how do I handle her writing a narration? For example, we visited our local fire station. To encourage her to write again, I asked if she would like to write about her experience. She wrote five pages in her composition paper, since this will go in her school portfolio and is schoolwork, do I correct it or let it be? How do I encourage her to seek out the write spelling without discouraging writing. Or, let it go?
Thank you again and your Living and Learning DVDs have been such a blessing to this new homeschooling mom! We are truly enjoying the Charlotte Mason method with SCM materials.
During these years of gaining fluency in reading, Charlotte didn’t usually require the student to write narrations. Written narration was by and large saved for around age 10 and older, once more of a storehouse of words had been filled in the student’s mind. So I would recommend you set aside written narrations for now. You can put her recent paper in your records as a baseline: This is the level her spelling was at this date. Then simply use it as a comparison long term to see how much she has improved in her spelling in a year or two simply through attentive reading practice and careful copywork.
I’m glad the DVDs have been helpful and that you’re enjoying CM this year!
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