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Selecting/Preparing Copywork
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I’ve not been consistent with copywork, but am wanting to change that. We have recently started homeschooling 4 days a week and I’d like the girls (ages 11, 8, and 6) to do copywork everyday. I plan to have my youngest daughter (who is just now learning to write her letters) do the manuscript copywork from this site – I was going to have her trace the letters first, then copy. My 8 year old can write pretty well, but still forms some letters the wrong way – should she do the manuscript copywork available here as well?
Concerning my oldest daughter, here is where I struggle the most. I read on this site that around grade 2 the child should begin to copy directly from books. How do I choose what do have her copy? Do I set a timer and she just works until the timer goes off, then finishes the selection the next time (or however long it takes) or do I pick a small section and she works until she is done?
Right now she is rushing through her copywork – which are just some prepared copywork pages I had printed online somewhere.
I don’t want to overwhelm her, yet I think she is capable of doing more than she has been. And I think she still needs the copywork, for her handwriting.
Hi Rene,
Copywork of letters would definitely, IMO, be the first step for your 6 yr old, and then simple words.
Your 8 year old should be doing about a sentence per day, or there abouts from: Bible, poetry, quality books you are using with her.
The 11 year old should be doing copywork each day as well, about a paragraph I would think from: Bible, poetry, and quality books she uses for school. She is also at the age to begin doing studied dictation at least once per week.
Don’t overthink this, it should be simple. 🙂
Maybe a copywork schedule:
Monday – literature
Tuesday – Bible
Wednesday – literature
Thursday – poetry
Friday – literature
I would say that copywork is so important, that if you just cannot seem to follow up with it, how about a prepared copybook?
Best wishes!
You’re right, Rene. You definitely don’t want to set up a habit of sloppy work and rushing through things for your oldest. Her daily copywork lessons will be a great time to focus on the habits of attention and best effort. If you need to back off the time or the word-count expectations to reestablish those habits, do so. You will be able to nudge them back up pretty easily once those habits are in place.
I don’t know whether you sit with her while she writes, but you may want to do that in order to coach her in doing her best and slowing down to do her best. One thing you can do is have her compare her copy with the original and ask her to point out where she could improve.
A couple of other ideas come to mind:
- You could allow her to select a favorite hymn, Scripture passage, or section from a living book. Sometimes being allowed to select your own material helps with motivation. 🙂
- You might let her pick out a special blank diary (with lines, if desired or needed) for her current copywork. Making the exercise special can help her want to do her best.
- If you can find some beautiful handwriting samples to inspire her, those might be helpful too.
Yesterday I had her (my 11 yr old dd) copy a very small poem – just 4 lines. I explained about going slowly and doing her best. She did very well.
Today I was going to have her do another poem but she didn’t seem enthused about that so I asked her what she wanted to copy.
She said “Something from the Bible?”
In my head I went “Woohoo!” 🙂
She chose a small verse and I could tell she was taking even more care with it than yesterday. I sat with her and watched – she made a spelling error (she wrote “thay” instead of “they”) and I corrected her as soon as she wrote it – I’m looking into getting Spelling Wisdom because her spelling is not good, she is not naturally good at spelling.
Then I talked with her about creating a “copywork book” and asked if she wanted to decorate her pages. She seemed excited about that and spent the next 30 minutes drawing on the two copywork pages.
She said she likes copying scripture better than poems, but wants to do poetry occasionally. I said “you could even copy some of your favorite parts from the Laura Ingalls books, or other books” and she said “Hey, free copywork!” LOL
My only concern is she sometimes does not do well with having to choose – I need to gather ideas so I can just give her something when she can’t decide what she wants to copy.
Just as a back up. I know that copywork can be an easy thing to find options for but sometimes it is the easy things we leave out just because we cannot find the time to get sources. For that I am thankful for Queen Homeschools copywork books. They have one for girls and boys as well as nature, leadership, etc… You might check them out if you need something to fill in the days you do not have a piece selected.
I second Shannas recommendation; We LOVE Queens copywork lessons! We also use SCM’s Spelling Wisdom for copywork because it has wonderful quotes, passages of scripture ,literature, poems and much more!
LOL!!! I obviously am not the smartest light bulb!!! I have SW but for some reason never thought to use it for copywork. I mean really it says spelling not copywork on it. 🙄 😀
Several moms I know assign the exercise as copywork as part of the studying/preparing for dictation process. (And your “mental wattage” has nothing to do with it, Shanna. 😉 )
I like the Queens copywork too. The one thing I have had to do is go back to making our own copywork because in the Queens books they only have the one or two lines to write on and my daughter needed the three lines (Two solid with the dotted line in the middle) and now that she has improved on her letter formation we can go back to using the Copywork for young girls.
One resource I have loved and would recommend is the computer program called Startwrite 5.0. It allows you to type whatever piece you want and then print it out in cursive or manuscript or several other fonts. It saves a lot of time. I can type in our memory verse and print it in cursive for ds, and manuscript for dd, and then print it with out extra lines for a poster to put up by the kitchen table to pracitce reciting at meals. I also can print off something in a lighter shade of print so my 4 yr old can trace the letters and words.
I may have to look into Spelling wisdom is that a phonics based (rules) spelling or what? In my other post I was asking about phonics..do we really have to learn it?
Shelly
Thanks Sonya. I think it has something to do with all these cute creatures that follow me everywhere!! My husband says we need to find out who they belong to. LOL!!
Shelly, Did you know that the older Queen copybook does not have lines in it at all. You would build your own book but just use it for selections.
As for phonics…I feel it is extremely important but I know others will disagree. CM didnt teach FULL phonics. She taught sight words also and had success. I think it really depends alot on the child and the mother.
Rene,
She may be ready for her very own ‘common place book’. 🙂
http://higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/2006/08/commonplace-book-or-copywork-for-older.html
Shelly,
I also have StartWrite and am really excited about using it. My question is, what size font do you use for your children. I am working with a 9, 10, and 14 year old, none of who have really great handwritting. I’m at a loss to finding a good size font that is not either too big or too small for them to copy from. Also, for your kids, do you use all three lines (top, dotted middle, and bottom)?
Thanks!
Meagan
http://www.writingwizard.longcountdown.com/multi-word_handwriting_worksheet_maker.html
This website allows you to create your own worksheets in several different styles of writing and lots of different sizes. It’s FREE! And easy to use.
I’m trying to remember where I read it, but in one of my CM style books the author suggested that copy work need not be judged on neatness, but just on correctness. The child should do the copywork and then bring the finished product to mother, who then goes over it with a fine tooth comb, if there is even ONE mistake – a missed comma, a spelling error, whatever – the child has to recopy the entire passage. After having to recopy a few passages it is believed that the child will begin to take VERY special care to copy correctly. Mine are too little for copywork yet, so I haven’t tried this and don’t know how I’ll feel about handwriting (the only subject I ever got a C in – sigh). I’m thinking that I’ll emphasize neat writing in letters to friends and such, but as long as it’s legible, I probably won’t be too picky about school work, but perhaps there a CM principle that I’m missing in requiring children to do everything exceptionally neatly. I open to correction!
Rebekah
Wheeew!
Meagan,
I just came across this post and was reading your question thinking that you had asked it 5 months ago and I had not gotten back with you. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized you just posted today.
I use font size 48 and yes I do use all three lines.Lately, I have just used a printed page of all the letters with the arrows for directions and put it in a page protector for each child…and then everyday they copy all the letters in the “RIGHT” way..they can write all the letters but not in a good flowing format..so I thought we needed to get down the basics before doing more copywork. The page protector is great so I don’t have to make copies everyday. The kids are loving to do it this way. I have seen a big improvement even after three days of doing the basic writing of letters. I am going to continue this until it is a habit to form the letters the correct way. Or until they get really bored of just copying letters…whichever comes first.
Blessings,
Shelly
I use font size 48 and yes I do use all three lines.
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