Copywork is similar to dictation. However, instead of the text being verbally dictated it is silently read by the student. Give a child a paragraph from a favorite book and have them copy it directly from the book. Then check their work for penmanship, punctuation, capitalization, etc. This helps develop an eye for good writing. It also helps develop the habit of being detail-oriented. The child will learn to pay close attention to the minute details.
I find the DK Eyewitness books are great for copywork. Okay, they're not great literature but, hey, they do the job I need. They provide fun, yet factual snippets, which my younger children love. I let them choose a favorite topic and then we pick out an interesting paragraph.
To keep on your budget, the Eyewitness books are easily found at the library.
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2 comments:
Maureen,
One thing that's really helped me with copywork for my littles who are still "struggling" with penmanship is to download printing fonts from this FREE (I knew you'd like that!) site: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/fonts/p/schoolfree.htm -- the "Penmanship" font actually has guides for the lower case letters! You just download and choose that font in MSWord! I type out the copywork they choose and they have a "perfect" printing example to use.
Another site is:http://www.1001freefonts.com/ and of course the "worksheet maker" (which is not quite as flexible but still free): http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/
Just thought I'd share -- and I love this series of CM and Thrift!
Cool! Thanks Mary!!!
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