I don’t know about your family, but my kids thrive on structure and routine. We are less than 24 hours away from officially being on summer vacation as an entire household. Anticipating the long dog days of summer, I thought I’d prepare a bit by building in some dependable structure for the kids.
As part of our morning routine, we’ll do copywork at the kitchen table after the kids’ morning jobs are accomplished and before we head out the door for camps or other outings. One of my friends who homeschools passed along a post from the Mater Amabilis blog called, “The Joy of Copywork.” The post was exactly the inspiration I was looking for to get our kids doing copywork over the summer! Please, do yourself a favor and read it. Sally makes a great case for why copywork is valuable for our children.
I have a drawer full of sharpened number 2 pencils ready to go, and I got a 6-pack of these fantastic Mead Primary Journals. These are the tablet style notebooks (not spiral bound) with front and back pages. The pages are lined at the bottom and have room at the top for illustrations.
I am going to write the Bible verse, poem, nursery rhyme, or other passage on the left-hand page. The kids are going to copy the passage on the right-hand side. Once they have written the passage correctly in pencil, they can go over it with a marker or gel pen if they’d like before drawing an accompanying illustration. I’ve decided to put my own handwriting in the book on the left-hand side for them to copy because the pages are quite thin, so the kids’ words and illustrations from the previous day will be bleeding through anyway. Having the passage written out on the left-hand side will help them to gauge their spacing and help them to see exactly which lines the letters should be touching instead of copying them directly from the books.
For inspiration, I’m starting with 3 of my favorite sources:
From left to right: Ignatius Bible: Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic Edition, Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Ever, and Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends.
We’ll listen to some relaxing instrumental music while we work together at the kitchen table. Jane (6) and Walt (5) will be doing the copywork as described above while Harry (almost 3) will be tracing letters out of his book or coloring. I’ll be sure to share pictures along the way. I think these little tablets will become treasures that the kids will really enjoy looking back on when they’re older.
Some questions for you:
What would you want to listen to while doing copywork? Have you ever done copywork at your house? What does it look like? Any tips or tricks for a family that’s just getting started? Do you have a favorite book of poetry, quotation, or passage that you’d be sure to include? I’d love your input!
