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!)

Copywork for the boys

{I was going to blog about my plan for the boys' copywork this coming year, and realized that I had never posted about what they did this past year.  I found a draft of a post I'd started about their copywork, so I'll finish that up here and then in my *next* blog post I'll tell you what we're doing for this coming year.}

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My goal this year for the kids' copywork was QUALITY over quantity.  I made the boys (Isaac- 2nd grade, Isaias- 1st grade) their own copywork jar, but reaaaaallly simplified it.  I just wrote out lowercase and uppercase alphabet letter sets for each boy (Isaac's on green paper, Isaias' on blue paper), and dumped them into a jar.

Here's what their copywork paper looks like

Each day, they pull out a letter and write it- carefully- three times.

 

Then once a week-- on Fridays-- I had something called "Copywork Draw", where they'd instead draw a short word, and then a draw a picture of that word.

And that was it.  Super fun to see their illustrations, especially.  I love their drawings so much. 

Fifth grade copywork plan

Iriemomma mentioned in the comments that she was anxious to see my plans for the upcoming school year, and asked if I would be sharing them.

My reply to her was that I hoped to, as time allowed.

Since I happen to have time NOW (it's amazing how free my schedule is without school!  It really makes me realize what a HUGE undertaking it is during the year to do what we do.  I would like to hug every single homeschooling mother and say to them: "Great job!  Thank you for your commitment and dedication and time and research and in-the-moment problem solving and planning and managing your home and making those meals and taking care of the babies and toddlers all the while helping your child with a story problem or settling a dispute with your other children and--- all of it.  It is amazing, the work that you do.  YOU are amazing."  So if you're reading and you are a homeschooling mom, consider yourself hugged and encouraged.  I admire you.)

Anyway- I realized that since I happen to have time NOW, I should try to post what I plan to do with the kids when we start up again in the fall.  I don't have everything planned out yet, but some I do, so I'll share as I go.

Here's one thing I have planned:  Ella's copywork.  I've decided to change things up a bit this year.  In previous years I have had her draw from the copywork jar every single day.  I'm not going to do that this year.  Instead, I've selected eighteen verses from the King James Version (not our usual version), and have filled the jar with those verses.  I tried to select verses that give a visual picture.   I'm going to encourage Ella to carefully write the verse, in cursive, and then draw a picture to go along with it.  (Or, if she'd rather, for some: just make her cursive large and calligraphy-ish and add a border around the edges.)  My intent is for her to: (1)carefully practice her cursive, (2)be able to draw, which she loves, and (3)create a finished project by the end of the school year: a book of illustrated Proverbs (we'll add all pages into a nice notebook or bind it as a little "book" somehow.)

Eighteen verses works out to one verse every two weeks, which is why it's so different than our daily-copywork of the past.  But Ella does a lot of writing every day, so I'm not concerned about it.  My only concern is that she is such a perfectionist, and I think she might be anxious about messing up during the actual execution of her drawing.  My guess is that she'll write the verse beautifully and then begin her drawing, mess up, and want to start all over, so I'm trying to figure out a way around that.  (Have her do it all in pencil, first?  Do the handwriting on a separate piece of paper and then cut and paste onto a completed drawing?  I'm still thinking it through-- your ideas are welcome!)

I've listed the Proverbs I selected below, if you're interested:

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Proverbs 3:3, KJV
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.

Proverbs 3:9-10, KJV
Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

Proverbs 4:18, KJV
The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Proverbs 4:25-27, KJV
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

Proverbs 8:34, KJV~ read more for context before illustrating
Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
Proverbs 12:25, KJV
Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.

Proverbs 12:28, KJV
In the way of righteousness is life: and in the pathway thereof there is no death.

Proverbs 13:9, KJV
The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

Proverbs 13:20, KJV
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

Proverbs 14:27, KJV
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

Proverbs 18:10, KJV
The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.

Proverbs 15:3, KJV
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

Proverbs 15:29, KJV
The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.

Proverbs 20:12, KJV
The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.

Proverbs 21:13, KJV
Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.

Proverbs 22:2, KJV
The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.

Proverbs 24:20, KJV
For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out.

Proverbs 6:20-21, KJV
My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

Copywork selections

We're 10 weeks into our school year and it's already time for me to refill Ella's Copywork Jar.  I changed it up a bit this year- there are no longer different categories for different days of the week (Mondays-Poetry, Tuesdays-Quotes, etc); we just have several selections tossed in.  The other change is that I really aimed to make the copywork selections shorter, so that Ella will not get bogged down with a long passage (as was the case last year) and neglect neat handwriting.  Our focus is on quality, not quantity. So far I have had her print each one, but the next "batch" she will do in cursive.  She often draws a little picture to go along with it. It's been going really well!  I've listed her copywork selections below if any of you are interested in using them for your own children:

Thirty days hath September, April, June and November.

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January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow.

 

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February brings the rain, thaws the frozen lake again.

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March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the dancing daffodil.

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April brings the primrose sweet, scatters daisies at our feet.

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May brings flocks of pretty lambs, skipping by their fleecy dams.

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June brings tulips, lilies, roses, fills the children's hands with posies.

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Hot July brings cooling showers, apricots and gillyflowers.

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August brings the sheaves of corn, then the harvest home is borne.

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Warm September brings the fruit, sportsmen then begin to shoot.

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Fresh October brings the pheasant, then to gather nuts is pleasant.

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Dull November brings the blast, then the leaves are whirling fast.

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Chill December brings the sleet, blazing fire, and Christmas treat.

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Many hands make light work.

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Practice makes perfect.

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A man is known by the company he keeps.

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A child should always say what’s true
And speak when he is spoken to

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O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!

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A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.

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Red sky at night, sailors delight;
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

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Adopt the pace of nature: Her secret is patience.
    ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 


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Never let us reflect upon small annoyances, and we shall be able to 

bear great ones sweetly.
    ~Charlotte Mason

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All beautiful and noble possibilities are present in everyone.
    ~Charlotte Mason

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Kindness is to make everyday life pleasant and comfortable to others.
    ~Charlotte Mason

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A grateful heart rejoices not only in the gift but in the giver.
    ~Charlotte Mason

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I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.
    ~George Washington Carver

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2010-11 Year in Review: Copywork

I am really pleased with our system for copywork this year... it was simple and very hands-off for me because I had most of Ella's copywork for the year selected ahead of time. (I did refill the jar once, during our December break.)



That's Ella's Copywork Binder. The first page of the binder was a page of instructions/reminders from me, things like: print as neatly as you can, leave space between your words, use good punctuation, use a pencil so that you can erase if you need to, and date the top of each page. The rest of the binder was filled with clear protective sleeves, which she filled throughout the year.


A couple of other things Ella did during her "Copywork" time slot this year: she kept up on her letter-writing (she corresponds with two pen-pals), she used that time to write thank you cards or birthday cards, and about once a week she did her copywork in cursive.


Note to self: Some of the copywork selections I chose were too long. I either need to choose shorter ones or add a day for "finishing" into the schedule.

C.S. Lewis copywork selection

I was just reminded all over again this morning how much I love C.S. Lewis, with Ella's copywork selection today:

"I was the lion."
And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued.
"I was the lion who forced you to join Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you could reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you."

~The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis

And now I'm off to help my 3-year-old control her temper and talk with my 6-year-old boy, who is sitting on his bed on a timeout, right after I check in with Ella to make sure she is doing okay as she does school at the table. (The other two are contentedly being buddies. :)) Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of motherhood. Now, please HELP me! :)

Our Copywork jar

This is something new we're trying this year: a Copywork jar.

Here is how it works. Each day for her scheduled Copywork time, Ella will go to the jar and pull out a slip of paper. I've organized it to give her some variety, so that each day of the week she'll be copying from different "genres", for lack of a better word. Here's the schedule I came up with:

Monday (pink paper)= Poetry
Tuesday (yellow paper)= Quotes
Wednesday (blue paper)= Bible verses
Thursday (purple paper)= Look Up...*
Friday (green paper)= Literature and History selections

*On Thursdays I have given her something to physically go and look up. Here are a couple of examples:
-Go to page 23 of the book you are reading and choose a sentence to copy.
-Go to the library basket, choose a book from it, and copy all the words from one page of that book.



Mark and I had a lot of fun choosing the passages for Fridays. We pulled our favorite read-alouds off the shelves and searched for the passages we knew Ella would love to revisit. Here is one of those:

Not until the light began to fade could she move away from the place. Then she ran so fast up the mountain that it was not long before she saw the boughs of the fir trees above the roof, and then the roof itself, and then the whole hut. On the seat beside it sat her grandfather smoking his pipe, and over the hut the old fir trees were rocking and roaring in the evening wind. Heidi ran all the faster, and before the Alm-Uncle could really see who was coming she threw her basket on the ground and hugged him. In her excitement of seeing him again she was unable to say anything, except to keep exclaiming, "Grandfather! Grandfather!"

~Heidi, by Johanna Spyri

Or how about this one?

"Ohh!" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-- quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake" said Mrs Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

~The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

I love it that Ella will be able to recall particular scenes and the characters she has loved in the good books we've read, as well as the memory of all of us curled up on the couch, reading these books aloud together as a family, and discussing them afterward.

Why do Copywork?

In the process of planning and preparing for this coming school year, I re-examined those things that I want to be doing, and remembered all over again why we're doing them to begin with.

Copywork is one of those things.

Here are the reasons we are doing Copywork in our home:

*Copywork allows our children to see proper sentence structure, grammar, and spelling.
*Copywork introduces them to new vocabulary.
*Copywork improves their handwriting.
*Carefully selected copywork gives our children the opportunity to reflect on worthy passages/quotes.

* * *

Here is one of our Copywork selections:

Be the living expression of God's kindness;
kindness in your face,
kindness in your eyes,
kindness in your smile,
kindness in your warm greeting.

~Mother Teresa

I love this. What a wonderful quote for my daughter to meditate on as she copies these words!



Next up: How we're doing it.