Copywork is an important part of our school day. My 2nd grade son is showing real improvement in his handwriting through the regular use of this tried and true method. He is also starting to feel more comfortable writing sentences on his own.
I have found it to be an excellent method for our dyslexic son, too. He doesn’t have to think about how to spell a word or where a comma goes when he is doing copywork. He can just carefully follow the model sentence provided. His understanding of sentence mechanics and his spelling show dramatic improvement since I added copywork to his schedule. Best of all, it gives him the opportunity to succeed on a language arts activity. Copywork has not replaced our spelling program, but it gives me an additional opportunity each day to incorporate spelling work.
We do grammar lessons immediately following copywork. First Language Lessons by Susan Wise Bauer is user-friendly and effective without being burdensome to my little guys. We do a lot of the exercises orally, and incorporate some of the lessons into our copywork time by looking over the copied sentences to locate proper nouns, verbs, and other grammatical elements. Since our copywork book was also written by Bauer, the two books fit seamlessly together. One is great, but doing both at the same time is even more effective. In about 20 minutes a day my boys are getting a grammar lesson, practicing their handwriting and sentence mechanics, and gaining facility with the English language. Soon we’ll finish book one and move from copywork into dictation. I think the boys will be ready for it. I can’t wait!
To read more specifics about the materials we are using, Susan Wise Bauer’s Writing with Ease, read my review on The Curriculum Choice.
