How to: Copywork?

We used a copywork generator were you put in the sentence(s) you want your child to copy and choose the handwriting style of your choice. http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/ In the beginning we used 3/4 spacing for the lines. But you can also buy ready to use copywork workbooks. At that age 1 or 2 sentences are enough. The words used should be familiar, best would be if the child is able to read them because the child should learn to copy the word and not the single letters ( if that makes any sense). With A 6 year old you want to have the writing space directly under the copywork. So if your copywork takes up 2 lines tou would have 1 line copywork, 1 line writing space, 1 line copywork, 1 line writing space. As far as I know if the tracing of the copywork not recommended but we did it anyways and I know others who do it. Remember the goal is perfect execution not quantity. Hope this answered some of your questions:).

Blessings Christine

We use material I found on currclick. My 7YO son who hated writing last year but now he actually likes it. He (and DD) used this resource last year. It has coloring pages too and they are very realistic. It is religious-based and has Scripture throughout.

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=21135&it=1

This year, DS and DD will be using another resource from Lighthome: http://www.currclick.com/product/33746/Animals-We-Know-and-Love-Manuscript-Penmanship?src=s_pi&it=1

You just buy the PDF and print out as many as you need, which is nice if you want your child to get extra practice.

YOu can print out your own, but I knew it would never happen here if I didn’t have something on hand all the time. I printed mine all out and had them spiralbound into a book, which has turned out to be a nice keepsake of DD and DS’s kindergarten year. They also were motivated by having their own “real” book (like their older siblings).

HTH

Yes, good suggestions jmac17. We started out doing things like you suggest and I love worksheetworks for making my own.

To the OP, I still have a worksheet I made at worksheet works for DS and DD with their first and last names on it. I actually laminated it (you could also use a sheet protector) and they use the fine-tip dry erase markers with it. This is how they learned to write their names!

@jmac17–thanks for the idea about “Happy Birthday” and other phrases. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that! I think I’ll go now and make a sheet or two with some common phrases to add to their notebooks!

You’ve already gotten some good ideas here, but just wanted to add that if your 6yo hates handwriting, I would start really, really small – like one or two words at a time – and work up from there. My dd hated doing handwriting at first (even though she knew how to form all her letters and did them neatly), so in the beginning it would take us a whole week to copy just one sentence, a couple of words at time. We’ve gradually worked up to where she writes about 2 sentences at a time now. She’s 6.5 now, and we’ve been doing copywork for about a year and a half if that gives you any idea of what kind of a gradual progression that we’ve had. We also started out with the words directly above the line for her to copy on, now she copies from a separate sheet of paper into a composition book, but again we worked up to that over a period of several months. We still use the type of paper with the dashed lines in the middle, although the lines are narrower, probably only 1/2 inch wide now. Copywork has definetely been one of those things where I’ve seen really good progress by starting small (very, very small) and taking slow but steady baby steps.

We alternate between things of my choice (right now we are working through the copybook that goes with SCM’s Hymns in Prose Reader), things of her choice (she usually chooses a sentence or two whatever the favorite book of the week has been), and 1-2 sentences I have taken down from one of her narrations. In the beginning stages when we were just doing 1 or 2 words at a time, and a complete sentence took us 3-5 days, we usually did things of her choice just because this was highly motivating to her. As she got to where she was writing full sentences at once, we changed over to the variety we are using now.

HTH some.

Jen