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Copywork and EFTTC Questions
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We just strted EFFTC this week with my just turned 8 year old daughter and have a few questions. If you do a separate copywork do you still use the copywork lessons or skip them altogether? She is accustomed to using the three lined paper at this point, not a single line. When doing exercises, do you require “perfect” or best penmanship and correct spelling or just whatever the child does? For example, today she had to write sentences about the sun. Her letter formation was not her best, her letter “s” was backwards, some letters in the middle of the words were capital, and she spelled light “litt”. The point of the exercise was to capitalize the first letter of the sentence and put a period at the end, which she did. Do I correct spelling, only spell words if she asks, or just let it be for this purpose?
Also, how do you determine “perfect” or best copywork? My daughter does one page of copywork on triple lined paper which ends up being three lines a day. Some letters are end up partially above or below a line. Some word spacing is too close together. For the most part I feel its pretty good. I am just wondering if we should slow down and focus more on spacing and formation.
I skipped the lessons of copywork if my ds already did copywork for the day OR just make that the copywork…we did not do both.
My 7yo is only required to do 2 lines perfectly or a complete sentence, depending on the length of the sentence, of course. I let him choose from his Pathway reader right now. If it is really long we do part one day and finish the rest the next. We review what he has already copied and I try to make sure it has a new word for him to copy. I do expect it to be perfect but that could mean different things to different people. Because I know his handwriting I expect it to be what I know he’s capable of doing. Because of that, he knows when he’s gone over the line, has spacing issues, or letters that are a little “off”. I do remind him to go slow, really look at the letters/words, and copy perfectly. I usually sit with him to keep him focused and remind him that if he goes slow and takes him time, then he won’t have to erase or do any of the letters/words over again. I’m not asking too much as I know how well he does, plus he is usually only copying 6-8 words, total.
If I were using EFTTC’s copywork I would print paper with the dotted line. We are using a tablet that has the dotted line…it’s that kind of brown paper stuff. He doesn’t seem to mind, actually, he thinks it’s pretty special.
Oh, and a quick little lesson on spacing (we use one figure width) wouldn’t take long but would probably help. And I realized that my ds didn’t know how to form some letters that I thought he did, so we worked on that for a bit, now it’s really easy for him to do copywork since he’s not having to deal with the “how to’s” of forming a letter, but just forming it as neatly as possible.
HTH
With copywork, you are working on the habits of attention and perfect execution. I expect every word to be as perfect as the child is capable of. Slipshod work isn’t acceptable. I would rather two perfectly formed words than a full sentence that is messy or with errors. Perhaps assign less to copy building up to more slowly. I’m no help with spacing issues because we start with cursive and spacing isn’t as much of an issue.
Thank you. What about the exercises?
When doing exercises, do you require “perfect” or best penmanship and correct spelling or just whatever the child does? For example, today she had to write sentences about the sun. Her letter formation was not her best, her letter “s” was backwards, some letters in the middle of the words were capital, and she spelled light “litt”. The point of the exercise was to capitalize the first letter of the sentence and put a period at the end, which she did. Do I correct spelling, only spell words if she asks, or just let it be for this purpose?
Amber, I have seen, but not used this particular resource. I know many use this resource mostly orally.
However, the principles of best effort and perfect execution apply. If my child has been taught to properly form the letters, then I expect them to be properly formed in all of our work, even if that isn’t the focus of what we’re doing. 8 year olds often haven’t begun spelling in a CM homeschool, so I wouldn’t focus on that unless she asks apart from noting where she has a hard time.
HTH,
Christie
Thank you! Since she is accustomed to the triple lined paper yet, maybe it would be best to have her write anything out on there rather than the single lines provided in the book. Also, maybe doing less than listed exercises and focusing on best effort at the same time. For example, one sentence rather than the five listed in the exercise.
With regard to EFTTC, I have used it with both my dc. We skipped the lessons on copywork because my dc do that daily anyway. Especially for my dd, one lesson of copywork in a day is about all she can handle right now, so I don’t ask for the impossible. I don’t expect dictation until the age CM did: 8 or 9. Both of my dc were under age 8 when we did Vol. 1, so we also skipped the dictation lessons. I also skipped the poem memorization lessons because we always have a poem going anyway. EFTTC was a great resource for me because I was looking only to highlight the basics of grammar, and I felt the program did that successfully. If you already incorporate poetry, recitation, copywork, and maybe dictation (for a child over 8), I wouldn’t feel badly if you skip lessons in EFTTC.
Blessings,
Lindsey
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