In this series of blog posts, we want to tackle some of the most common issues that parents face in a Charlotte Mason Homeschool. We hope that the questions we recommend can help you find solutions, and we refer back to Miss Mason’s principles to help you apply them practically in your homeschool. <\/p>
This week, we’ll talk about this issue: My child doesn’t like copywork, what do I do? <\/p>
Let\u2019s look at the following questions:\u00a0<\/p>
Society is increasingly pressuring us to teach our children to read and write at younger and younger ages, but the truth is that, physiologically, children\u2019s fine-motor skills develop more towards 6 years old or older.<\/p>
In the Charlotte Mason method, we only start copywork when the child is able to read the words. That means a child who is able to write the letters at a young age but who still could not read the words is not yet required to do copywork.<\/p>
Then, when copywork begins, we start with a short sentence, and slowly progress to longer passages. But because each child develops at a different pace, it\u2019s not easy to decide how many lines a child at a given age should be copying. <\/p>
An easier way is to set a timer for copywork. Start with 10 minutes for a child beginning copywork in Form 1, increasing to 15 to 20 minutes in the next couple of years. Whatever the child finishes when the timer rings, that\u2019s all he needs to do for the day. Do it again the next day. <\/p>
Charlotte Mason copywork has the added benefit of having the child copy selections from living books, which means that the passage sounds nice to the ear and also contains living ideas within that can capture a child\u2019s attention. This can be a hymn, a poem, a passage from a literature or history reading, or a passage from the Bible. We don\u2019t assign them to copy text from dry textbooks. <\/p>
In traditional school, we may have had the experience of being \u201cpunished\u201d by having to copy a sentence over and over all across the paper. These kinds of copying exercises are understandably boring and something we would want to get over with as soon as possible! <\/p>
In Charlotte Mason copywork, we make sure to copy from different books everyday, in order to provide variety while also giving our child the chance to emulate the writings from different topics. For example, we might copy a stanza from the month\u2019s hymn on Monday, a paragraph from a history reading on Tuesday, a passage from a literature book on Wednesday, and so on. Mixing up the types of things that the children copy (including some poetry-style writings, such as hymns, poems, or Psalms in the Bible) helps keep interest level up.\u00a0<\/p>
Copywork is a maintay in the CM method, and we hope this post has helped you figure out why your child is struggling with it. Do let us know how it goes in the comments below!<\/p>