The Benefits of Homeschool Copywork

I used homeschool copywork when my children were younger. I had them practice their handwriting by copying letters, words and sentences. But there are other benefits to copywork.

Handwriting

What child has not done some copy work in kindergarten and first grade. When a child first learns his letters he is given a worksheet with one letter on it. He has to trace the letter and make a couple of letters by himself. After he knows how to make several letters the worksheets will have some simple words to copy.

A lot of the time copywork is used just to teach handwriting. It is stopped after the child can print his letters. The child might be given worksheets to copy again when he is learning to do cursive writing. I feel that there are more benefits to homeschool copywork.

Memorizing

It can be used to memorize scripture. Some children learn best by doing. Writing can help children feel what the words in the verse. Besides scripture copywork can be used to memorize poetry or great works of literature. Your child could also learn historical documents.

Grammar

Grammar is another area that can be taught with copy work. When he copies good writing your child will see what good grammar looks like.

Your child will learn to pay attention to details. When he first begins to copy your child will look at each letter. Later he will be able to write words. Besides making sure that each word is spelled correctly he will have to pay attention to capitalization and punctuation. It is also a good idea to have your child correct his copy work and make it perfect.

Learning Language Arts through Literature integrates the learning of grammar with copying the passage. After the child copies the passage he may be required to circle one of the parts of speech. A passage of literature is studied for at a week.

Spelling

Homeschool copywork can help with learning how to spell. When your child is copying a passage he will see how words are spelled. Some children also like to copy the words on their weekly spelling lists.

Points to Remember

• Choose an item to copy that is at your child's reading level or maybe slightly below.
• Don't make the passage to long especially in the beginning.
• Have your child correct his work.

Where to Find

You can find handwriting worksheets for teaching the alphabet on the internet. I have also seen some simple sentences and scripture. You can find worksheets to practice printing and some for cursive writing.

There are also several handwriting books that you can buy through your favorite homeschool supplier.

If you want to teach language arts with copy work you will need to find a curriculum such as Learning Language Arts through Literature. Another way would be to have your child copy passages out of the Bible or a book that he is reading. You could point out the parts of speech and the punctuation.

Homeschool copywork can be used to integrate language arts.

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