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mom2mpr
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| Posted: April 03 2008 at 9:42pm | IP Logged
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The copywork and dictation. It has been years and ds is now 10 and unless he sees a reason to do it, it just isn't happening. He will gladly sit and write 10 thank you notes in one sitting, or in his journal, or whatever. But to write just to write? Nope.
So, can you all make me feel better that we are throwing this part of home education out the window? I have struggled with this since he was little. I am finally giving up. Is it OK? Has anyone else done this?
Anne
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guitarnan
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| Posted: April 03 2008 at 9:51pm | IP Logged
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I have...dd hates copywork. She recently participated in a Junior Achievement "Biztown" business simulation, and I was astounded to see my "I hate writing" child write seven friendly letters, one job application, one resume, a couple of advertising flyers and more without one negative comment. ("But she never writes two paragraphs at home...")
I think some people just need to see a practical use for everything...and I've learned just in the last two weeks or so that my daughter is one of those people. She will write down anything she considers useful...recipes, reports, etc., but copywork has no immediate application in her life, so she dislikes it.
I hadn't thought about resurrecting her journal, but 10 is the perfect age for that. Thanks for the idea.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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BlessedMommy
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| Posted: April 03 2008 at 11:52pm | IP Logged
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Our copywork consists of 2-3 verses from the Bible. Maybe you could try that, my children have never moaned about it BUT they do moan about journaling. 
I'm definitely not a pro, we've only been doing copywork for a year, but if your son is willing to write I'm sure you're fine. I don't think you'd be "giving up" if you stop copywork. We all pick and choose what does and doesn't work for our family, so make a decision, but please DON'T think you are giving up if you decide not to have your son do copywork.
**Note to self- take my own advice! 
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 04 2008 at 12:22am | IP Logged
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Ummm...we can't stand copywork and dictation! Gave it up quite some time ago. I am a CM flop!LOL!
Writing with a purpose is, to me, just as good if not better than writing isolated passages from various sources. You can still do all of the spelling and grammar work that you would do with copywork and dictation exercises.You just do it in the context of their writing.
Others may (and probably do) disagree, but that's just how I see it.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Lauri B
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| Posted: April 04 2008 at 7:32am | IP Logged
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Your 10 yo might enjoy Wordsmith Apprentice. Both my older children used it around 10-12 or so.
FWIW (not to be devil's advocate!) my 18yo was tremendously good at manipulating me into dropping things she didn't enjoy. Being the oldest, I was susceptible to listening to her a bit too much. She's such a delightful person and hard worker (she works at the local library, runs her own business, and is a published knitting designer - so she's not a slacker in real life) and I wanted her to enjoy learning so much, it just was something we fell prey to. We ended up spending a lot of time looking for something that would "work" for her, when in reality she simply needed to just *push* through whatever scholastic work she set her hand to. Regardless of what it was. I tend to be a fun (but firm) mom, so it's something I am now more mindful of with my younger ones. Just a thought.
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Erin
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| Posted: April 05 2008 at 6:19am | IP Logged
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Well Anne I think you need to look to the purpose. For me the purpose of using copywork and dictation is to have my children writing 'something' to enable them to express themselves and become good spellers and write well.
If your son is already writing by choice than forget the dictation etc. You are achieving the goal 
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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TracyQ
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| Posted: April 29 2008 at 9:15am | IP Logged
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We just were never good at copywork with the boys, but Sarah loves it. I wonder if it's a girl vs. boy thing or not?
This year though, I decided I needed some guidance with it, in order to be more diligent, so we went with *Spelling Wisdom* from here http://simplycharlottemason.com/books/spellingwisdom/ It's been a huge relief to me not to have to plan out our copywork, and someone's done the work of making sure they're getting the words necessary to learn, etc. It's pretty inexpensive, and it's been definitely one of our biggest blessings this year! I love where they get their pieces of copywork from too.
That being said, I can see how our sons wouldn't have liked it, and how it may not have worked for them.
We too used Wordsmith Apprentice for both sons, in the ages 10-12 range, both loved it, and both thrived with it, and I believe it helped them very much.
The treasure I found for writing this year that has been a HUGE blessing for ALL three kids, various ages, 17,15, and 12, now 13 (last week), and both genders is http://www.edudps.com/. It's called Write With the Best, and I just absolutely love it!
God will lead you to the perfect thing for your kids. Just go with your gut, and ask the Lord to show you the best for your boys.
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Erin
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| Posted: April 29 2008 at 3:33pm | IP Logged
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TracyQ wrote:
The treasure I found for writing this year that has been a HUGE blessing for ALL three kids, various ages, 17,15, and 12, now 13 (last week), and both genders is http://www.edudps.com/. It's called Write With the Best, and I just absolutely love it!
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Tracy I remember you recommending this before and I followed up and checked shipping to Australia etc (which certainly added to the price) I was very interested but I'd love to hear more from you about it. What you and the children really think of it? What benefits the dc received? Where did they improve? What age would you recommend it for? TIA
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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Leonie
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| Posted: April 29 2008 at 4:41pm | IP Logged
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We do copywork on an ad hoc basis and its part of journaling for us. So, sometmes, we write in journals, sometimes we do nature journalling and sometimes copywork - and often the kids choose their own pieces to copy. The variety and the choice works for us.
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Leonie in Sydney
Living Without School
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TracyQ
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| Posted: April 29 2008 at 6:03pm | IP Logged
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Erin,
We've used parts of it thus far, depending upon where each kid was with their writing, and what they have done, etc. We all find it very easy to implement, adn in fact, depending upon the level of the student, as they get older, they can do this on their own, and then come to you for discussion, etc. I like that I can do that...the flexibility allows me to set it up whatever way is best for each student. I can have some do it on their own with relatively little help from me, and then our daughter who needs more direction can use this with no problem too.
I love that it's set up daily into units, and then each day of the unit. It's perfect for me, because I'm not a great planner, and this really helps with time too.
I love that it uses pieces of REAL literature to showcase the unit being studied. When I pulled out volume 2 to have my son do the Persuasive Essay unit between the two SAT exams that he took, she used Thomas Paine's *Common Sense* to illustrate it for that unit.
In terms of the benefits received, our son had a 6 out of 12 on his SAT essay for his first SAT. For his second SAT (which was about 5 months later, with not much extra writing practice other than working on this Persuasive Essay unit from Write With the Best, he improved his SAT essay the second time to a 9 out of 12, just with doing that unit alone. And his writing score went up 40 points!!! I was SO PLEASED with that to see such concrete results, that I'm SOLD on this program!
I'll be using all of the rest of it with the other two from start to finish. We have done a bit of the beginning so far, they have had some other writing to do this year as well. I intend to go full fledged into this next year. Volume 1 is geared for grades 3-12, and volume 2 from grades 6-12, but it can be used through adulthood as far as I'm concerned. I'm going to do this along with them next year to try to improve my writing as well.
You can see the program and have it explained as well here. There is a place to see the Table of Contents, and a sample too:
volume 1:
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no =477100&event=CF
volume 2:
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no =477102&event=CF
I hope this helps to explain why I like it. I just love using real literature to teach real writing, and I think the fact that they can SEE descriptive writing for instance, from a passage in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as Jules Verne has written it makes a huge impression on them, and makes them understand what is meant by it, much better than just a fill in the blank type of workbook. I LOVE many writing programs, and think there are great ones out there (and have bought many, and sold them because I couldn't seem to implement them well). For ME, and the way that *I* am though, having this all laid out for me in a daily format, including grammar, and writing, using wonderful real literature is about the best possible program for our homeschool.
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: It just isn't going to work
