School after breakfast: Copywork

The reason we have incorporated copywork into our school schedule is so that Ella can practice her penmanship and also learn to use proper grammar and punctuation by seeing (and copying) the written word.

We began by copying letters only. I instructed her on how to form the letter and then she would spend five minutes writing that particular letter of the alphabet. I encouraged her not to try to get as many done as she could within that five minutes but instead to try to copy as many perfect letters as she could during that time. I kept stressing that if it took her the full five minutes to write only three letters, that was okay. Once we made it through all of the letters (uppercase and lowercase), we moved on to other things.

Now she copies a poem or a verse or a short paragraph from one of her books. But if she has a book report to do, or a letter to write to her pen pal, or a thank you card to write, we utilize our "copywork" time for this, too.

I'm encouraged to see that her handwriting continues to improve. If I look through Ella's binder at the copywork she completed even a few short months ago, I can see that her writing now is much neater and her grammar much better. Great job, Ella!

2 comments:

  1. :-)

    Yeah for progress.

    When I was in public school, the teacher told my mother I was a terrible slob (with my handwriting) and that I'd never improve. So much for a kind word to help, eh? Unfortunately, for many years those words echoed in my spirit.

    Kimmie
    mama to 7
    one homemade and 6 adopted

    ReplyDelete
  2. great job as always.

    love your new memory verse. such a good one for you and for your son. I'll be praying it with you for him. (And for me. And for my kids.)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting! I love hearing from you, and I will do
my best to reply back to you in the comment section.