Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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kristinannie
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Posted: May 08 2013 at 5:11pm | IP Logged Quote kristinannie
We are doing CM style language arts. My son does copywork daily. I usually write something that is about 4 lines long and then he does one line a day. How much do you discuss grammar, punctuation, capitalization, etc. and how much do you just let the child see it written properly? I have been doing copywork selections with quotation marks so we had a short discussion yesterday about why there needs to be a comma or a period before a quotation mark. This discussion was spurred by my son asking a question about that. It got me thinking that maybe I should be actually discussing more of these items with him. The fact that he was asking a question did tell me that he at least noticed this trend. I would love to hear your thoughts on this! Thanks!

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Mackfam
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Posted: May 09 2013 at 4:26pm | IP Logged Quote Mackfam
kristinannie wrote:
How much do you discuss grammar, punctuation, capitalization, etc. and how much do you just let the child see it written properly?

For a 6 yo? Not often. I mostly let them see the sentence written correctly, spelled correctly, and direct them to copy it EXACTLY as they see it written - slowly and with their best effort. I don't require a minimum amount of work written - but I do set a timer for a short time. We stop even if the child is in the middle of a line.

Once a child is reading well, I may introduce very, very basic grammar ideas - but not before 3rd grade. I want copywork to solidify good penmanship habits before I begin to take a new road/focus with copywork. Dictation lessons come soon enough and I can approach more grammar/spelling through these dictation exercises when the child has really built the habit of correct form in penmanship.

These are the only things I introduce in later copywork years before dictation lessons:

** Sentences begin with capital letters.
** There is punctuation at the end of every sentence.
** Commas are used to separate items in a list. (There are other reasons for commas but this is all I introduce at this age).

kristinannie wrote:
This discussion was spurred by my son asking a question about that.

The fact that he was asking a question did tell me that he at least noticed this trend.

Yes, when they notice something like that and ask directly, I do explain very simply. But I don't do this regularly, and usually don't point anything grammatical/mechanical out in a copywork lesson since the purpose of copywork is really just to solidify penmanship and I want that habit developed and useful by the time we hit 4th grade and dictation lessons.

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kristinannie
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Posted: May 09 2013 at 8:06pm | IP Logged Quote kristinannie
Jen, thanks for taking the time to respond when you have your new baby to take care of!!! Thanks for setting my mind at ease. I started feeling like I wasn't doing enough, but I will just keep doing what I have been doing!

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