All this week, the members of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew are continuing our Homeschool Essentials Blog Hop. Today, I would like to talk about our use of copywork.
Benefits of Copywork
Copywork doesn’t always seem to be high on the list of homeschool priorities, especially as children get older. When children are young, of course, we try very hard to make sure that they practice their handwriting, learning to form each little letter to perfection. Copywork is an excellent way to continue daily handwriting practice as the child gets older. But that isn’t the only reason I feel that copywork is essential. Some other benefits of copywork are:
- Copywork can help with writing and sentence structure. The more children are exposed to, and then copy, properly structured sentences, the more easily they are able to create their own sentences, and to recognize improper sentence structure.
- Bible verses can be used for copywork, making scriptures easier to learn and remember, since writing them helps lock the words into children’s memories.
- Poetry and passages of classical literature can be introduced in small amounts through copywork. Rhyme, rhythm, and meter of poetry are especially made much easier to observe once children are familiarized with them by copying the poetry themselves.
- Copywork improves spelling skills and vocabulary. Rather than having a simple list of spelling words or vocabulary to memorize, copywork puts the words in the context of sentences. The more children see, and copy, a word spelled correctly, the easier they can remember how to do so on their own.
- Copywork encourages attention to detail. Children have to pay close attention not only to the words they are copying, but also to punctuation, capitalization, etc. This forces them to focus and to train their minds to notice fine details.
Best Sources for Copywork
There are many sources for copywork out there. Copywork is especially popular with those who adhere to the Charlotte Mason method of teaching. Quick searches on Google or Pinterest can give you plenty of resources. Because I like to customize our copywork in order to fit with current Scripture or other subjects we are studying, I prefer to make my own copywork pages most of the time. For making our own pages, we use either Worksheet Works or Handwritingworksheets.com. These sites allow you to type in whatever passage you want, and customize the layout to suit your needs.
For the Reluctant Copier
I know that there are plenty of children who just don’t enjoy writing, so for them copywork may seem quite a chore. Or, sometimes children may just tire of doing copywork every day. In these cases, I try to find new ideas to make the writing more interesting. If a child has a favorite author or book, using a well-known passage or other quote from the author is a good option. Using quotes from favorite movies is a great option for those children (like mine) who are big movie buffs. Riddles and tongue twisters are an especially fun way to either ease into the idea of copywork, or just to break up the monotony. The possibilities are really endless, but the point is that, especially with the ability to create your own copywork pages, this can definitely be an enjoyable part of the day.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about our copywork essentials. Please come back for other “essential” posts coming throughout the week. Please also take a few moments to visit a few of my team members’ blogs this week to learn about some of their Homeschool Essentials as well!
Tabitha @ The Homeschool Four
LaRee @ Broad Horizons
Gwen @ Tolivers to Texas
Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning
Gena @ I Choose Joy!
Adena @ AdenaF
Stacie @ Super Mommy to the Rescue
Jen @ Happy Little Homemaker