Homeschool Happenings: Homeschool Copywork

I reviewed the Lifetime Membership from Homeschool Copywork which gives me access to a wide variety of e-books for copywork as well as noteboooking pages. There are three membership levels. The first is free but is limited to certain sections. The next, a one year membership, for $29.95 gives the user full access for a year. The last level is the lifetime membership, which costs $45.00.

Why is copywork important? Listed are just a few of the reasons why I incorporate copywork into my children's curriculum. Copywork:

Helps the younger student visualize the look and feel of what a grammatically correct sentence is supposed to look like.
Reinforces spelling, punctuation, rich vocabulary, and fluidity of a sentence.
Helps the child to learn proper spacing between letters and words.
The perfect time to work on neat penmanship and cursive formation.
As your child copy's what is written they are rehearsing it in their heads.
Exposes the student to a wide variety of "well written" works and genres.
Aids in the memorization of poetry and great literature.
Writing requires the student to use multiple cognitive processes and younger students must learn the fundamental parts in order to later produce their own paragraphs, papers, etc.
Introduces the student to new ideas, thoughts, and perspectives.
Requires coordinating the senses of sight, memory, and writing. The student sees and reads the written words, utilizes chunking, whole words, or phases and writes them.
Requires patience on the students part, especially copying lengthy passages or poems.
Exposes them to thoughts beyond their own realm of thinking.

So many choices!! Here are just a few of the selections that you can choose from:

Looking Upward: Quotes by Charlotte Bronte as Copywork
Claude Monet Artist Study and Copywork
Transportation Copywork for Prek-1st
1 Corinthians 13 Cursive Copywork
1 Corinthians 13 Manuscript Copywork
Winds of Play: Quotes from Elizabeth Barrett Browning for Copywork
Courage Always Rises - Quotes from Jan Austen for Copywork
The Poems of Emily Dickinson as Copywork
The Poems of Lewis Carroll
Dragons of the Bible Copywork, Notebooking, and Coloring Pages
Character Building Copywork
StarSpangledBannerCopywork.pdf
Town Mouse, Country Mouse Copywork
BONUS! Dog Notebooking Pages
BONUS! Transportation Notebooking Pages
RainbowCopywork-Final.pdf
Shark Notebooking Pages
O Captain My Captain Copywork
Charge of the Light Brigade and other Tennyson Poems as Copywork
William H. Taft Inaugural Address as Copywork

I had my 2nd, 4th, and 7th graders work through various pages of a variety of selections. I opted to go with variety, over printing out whole selections and working through entire selections. Each selection contains various manuscript and cursive options as well as dotted lines and straight lines. Many of the copywork pages have pictures that the students can color. Some of the selections have beautiful colored artwork. I really liked the variety of genre available such as scripture, poetry, or literature. I opted not to print out many of the selections that had colored artwork due to the cost of printing.

Whether you are needing copywork for the preschool level, elementary, or middle school you will be able to find great selections for every age. Each selection downloads in seconds via pdf download. You are then able to print out the whole selection or print just a few pages.

My 4th grader enjoys copying quotes and has been doing it for a couple of years now. She loves looking back at the quotes and being inspired by them, laughing about witty quotes, and learning important truths. Little does she know that she has been doing more than just copying. She has learned so much more through the experience. I have purchased beautiful journals for her to do her copywork in. I will more than likely use this site, not to print out the selections, but for my daughter to search through and find meaningful selections for her to then copy in her journals.

My Personal Golden Rule of Copywork,

No sloppy writing is allowed!!

For my 2nd grader printing out portions of selections is the perfect fit. Since she is still working on proper formation she still needs dotted manuscript paper. My 2nd grader and I had a long discussion about the following copywork.

I would rather be what

God chose to make me

than the most glorious

creature that I could

think of; for to have

been thought about, born

in God's thought, and

then made by God, is the

dearest, grandest and

most precious thing in all

thinking.

~ George MacDonald ~

This is just one of the many copywork pages that can be found on this site. I often found that the copywork turned into great discussions.

One of the BONUS products was Leaves Notebooking and Coloring Pages. This would be a wonderful springtime field trip. If you have a local arboretum or park your child could go and collect leaves. They could then write about the color, shape, and other features of each leaf collected. This pdf download contains 24 pages of various leaves to color and write about in various line set ups or full page leaf pictures.