Copywork has a different purpose in my mind, so let me explain. Copywork is done to work on handwriting. The goal with copywork is to do your best effort for a short (appropriate to age/ability) period of time. Now, to see how it feels, grab a favorite book and write from it for even 5 minutes (let’s do in CURSIVE for a challenge) and remember you are aiming for best effort – beautiful handwriting. Use a timer. At the end of even 5 minutes it gets difficult! Don’t expect your children to do their best effort for an unreasonable amount of handwriting/copywork.
For seeing models of well written work there are a few things I would do:
1. Have them read great literature.
2. Have them listen to great literature read aloud.
3. Try prepared dictation. (You can look it up on the SCM site, check out their blog archives by topic).
The other thing to work on is oral narration. Yes, it will be short and potentially pathetic at first. Don’t worry about that! We all do poorly in the beginning of a new skill, and even in the middle of it. Give them time to narrate orally and begin with shorter passages of reading. Aesop’s fables tend to be a great starting place that won’t feel too ‘babyish’ even at their ages. I wouldn’t expect great narrations after reading a whole chapter of a book to them! They need to develop those oral narration muscles. In 6 months you’ll see improvement. In a year or two it will be even more of an improvement.
For perspective, oral narration involves a lot of skills:
– Listening/reading
– Thinking about what was read.
– Putting things in order in your head.
– Holding your sentences in order while speaking.
– Possibly adding your own observations on the material.
– Holding in your head proper grammatical constructions (saying it well).
(The only thing that is removed is the physical act of writing by hand.)
You can ask for written narration – start with once a week. Don’t panic when it is shorter than their oral narrations, just accept it, praise what you can, and give them time to improve (months and months).