Copywork for the boys, 2012-13

Charlotte Mason wrote:

“A Child should Execute Perfectly. No work should be given to a child that he cannot execute perfectly, and then perfection should be required from him as a matter of course…Set him six strokes to copy; let him, not bring a slateful, but six perfect strokes, at regular distances and at regular slopes. If he produces a faulty pair, get him to point out the fault, and persevere until he has produced his task; if he does not do it to-day, let him go on to-morrow and the next day, and when the six perfect strokes appear, let it be an occasion of triumph. So with the little tasks of painting, drawing, or construction he sets himself--let everything he does be well done… Closely connected with this habit of 'perfect work' is that of finishing whatever is taken in hand. The child should rarely be allowed to set his hand to a new undertaking until the last is finished.”

The idea is quality over quantity, which is why last year I had the boys copy just one letter at a time, and execute that letter to the best of their ability just three times.  I used to go for quantity- (poor Ella!) but have since learned that everyone is happier if I assign less but expect it to be done WELL. (So even though I toyed with the idea of having them copy George Washington's Rules of Civility (we are studying American History, after all!), I decided against that and am stepping up from one letter a day to one word a day.)

I decided to do the books of the Bible-- something we've done in the past for memory work-- but this will serve as copywork for this year and a refresher on the books of the Bible.  Handy!

So, in their copywork jar are two copies each of each book of the Bible.  They'll each draw one out, find where it goes (I've lightly penciled in all the books of the Bible on the left-hand side, in order), they'll tape or glue their slip of paper over my word, and then write the word (once!) in the space on the right-hand side.  Eventually they'll have written all 66 books of the Bible, in order!

*UPDATE: Annie asked in the comments if I'd be willing to give this information out so that she could use these copywork pages, too.  I am completely willing, always.  (Honestly- I had thought about posting it but then was all, "Well- that's sort of presumptuous to think someone might want it." so I didn't.  But goodness!  Ask and I am always happy to share!  :))  But apparently it's impossible to post pdf documents in Blogger, so I've posted them into Google docs. (This is the first time I've done this, so I hope it works for you.  Please let me know if you try it and it does work.)


For the link for the copywork pages, click here. (you only need to print page 1.  page 2 is blank.)

For the link for the listed books of the Bible, click here.
*August 3rd UPDATE: Grr.  My little plan to post those into Google docs did not work.  Sorry!  If you're interested in the files, just email me and I'll email them to you.  Several of you have done so and that is working just fine.  :)  (If anyone knows another way for me to make them accessible here on the blog, let me know!)