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The Benefits of Copywork
What is Copywork?
Have you ever heard of copywork? If you have been around anyone who uses the Charlotte Mason approach, you have probably at least heard the term. But do you know what it is? In a nutshell, copywork is copying written text. That sounds simple and obvious, doesn’t it? What is the big deal about copywork?
Are you surprised that it helps with so many things? I was. I didn’t think that any good could come from it the first time I heard about it. I had an aversion to any kind of copying. I just saw it as busywork. But as I heard others describing all of the benefits of copywork, I began to understand the concept. Now I’m a true believer in the benefits of copywork.
Now that you’re convinced that copywork is important and beneficial 😉, how do we do copywork?
We can find good things for our kids to copy that will instill good values and character traits. Things like Scripture or passages from great literature or quotes from great people. You can have your children copy poetry. They can copy lists of famous inventors or favorite dinosaurs.
When we copy written words, especially of great writers or from inspirational literature, our thinking is inspired, and we learn it on a deeper level. It helps with memorization too.
It also helps with building our vocabulary, spelling skills, handwriting, grammar, and information retention.
Here are some of the benefits of using copywork in your homeschool:
1. A Focus on the Mechanical Skills of Handwriting
Children can practice writing without having to come up with original content.
2. Gently Teaches Grammar
By copying great writing children learn the natural flow of language. They start to grasp the syntax of composition. They learn about capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
3. Builds Vocabulary
By giving your students quality sentences, quotes, living books, and poetry that contain rich vocabulary, you will be challenging them to learn the meanings of and to broaden their use of various words.
4. Grows the Skill of Spelling
Every time you write a word correctly, you are improving your spelling. Doing copywork for spelling strengthens our neural pathways through the repetition of writing.
5. Builds the Habit of Attention
When your kids write words (copy them) they have to pay attention to each letter. They begin to realize and understand how words are put together. They learn the phonics and grammar rules intuitively and without having to go through and memorize a boring list of rules.
Developing the habit of attention will benefit them for the rest of their lives.
6. Exposure to Literary Geniuses
Copywork allows us to build relations with great works of literature and the talented authors who wrote them. It gives them experience with significant concepts, deep ideas, and the beauty of written words.
Copywork, the act of writing those words, allows the reader time to digest the thoughts, ideas, and words of these great authors.
As Charlotte Mason said:
Thought breeds thought. Children familiar with great thoughts take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body takes to growing; and we must bear in mind that growth, physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the sole end of education.
She also said that ideas are mind food. The mind lives and grows and is nourished upon ideas.
Put your children in touch with great thinkers and great authors.
Another great Charlotte Mason quote that can help us choose good books to read aloud to our own children and to read for themselves, and to use for copywork is:
The children’s lessons should provide material for their mental growth, should exercise the several powers of their minds, should furnish them with fruitful ideas, and should afford them knowledge, really valuable for its own sake, accurate and interesting, of the kind that the child may recall as a man with profit and pleasure.
7. Short, Effective, and Concise Lessons
Charlotte Mason advocated using short lessons to keep children from getting exasperated with lessons and to easily keep their attention. Copywork is a simple task that can be accomplished within 10-15 minutes and yields good results in the areas of handwriting, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and literacy.
8. Information Retention
When we write things down we remember them better. The brain-to-writing connection that we get from copywork helps us to remember the meaningful things that we choose to jot down.
And one more quote from Charlotte Mason that I find so inspiring:
To introduce children to literature is to install them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring a continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast exquisitely served. But they must learn to know literature by being familiar with it from the very first. A child’s intercourse must always be with good books, the best that we can find.
To make the most of copywork, we should provide our children with high quality literature, quotes, and inspirational materials that will build their character as well as their Language Arts skills.
Here are some good quotes about how copywork can be a blessing to your homeschool.
“Children should transcribe favourite passages. ––A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription their favorite verse in one poem or another… But a book of their own, made up of their own chosen verses, should give them pleasure.” ~ Charlotte Mason (1842-1923)
“Its purpose is to improve the child’s handwriting, expose them to noble thoughts, good sentence structure, rich vocabulary and introduce basic punctuation and capitalization rules. Even grammar is incidentally taught but this is just an added benefit and not the purpose for copywork.” Linda Johnson, Charlotte Mason Help
This site Practical Pages is a great place to get some good copywork and other notebooking pages.
Another good source is homeschoolcopywork.com
I really like to use Character Handwriting, too. I prefer teaching my kids Italic handwriting, so I use the Italic version of these Character copywork books. But they also have workbooks in D’Nealian and Zaner-Bloser.
And I have put together a Copywork Journal that you can get HERE for free at TeachersPayTeachers.com
Functional Family Schooling
DysFunctional Family Schooling
Family is the building block of society
It starts at home.
What starts at home?
Everything in a person’s life!
There are SO many things that children learn at home from their parents and from living in a family.
Children learn at home how to:
– treat people well
– love unconditionally
– forgive
– walk in love
– walk in truth
– walk in the Spirit.
They learn proper ways to handle conflict.
They learn:
– respect
– honor
– obedience
– trust
– unselfishness
– servanthood
– leadership
– independence
– self-control
– sharing
– loving others more than themselves
– taking care of those who are younger or weaker and teaching them
– working together as a team
– how to make the family successful and a pleasant place to dwell together in unity and mutual respect and love.
After providing our children with this knowledge and skillset, we send them out into society prepared and equipped and ready to bring benefit and add value everywhere they go. They shine the light of Jesus and preach the Gospel – in word and in deed.
This is how we set them up for a successful Christian life.
In a homeschooling context, what do we teach and how do we go about planting these values in the hearts of our children?
There are many important avenues for teaching these kinds of ideas and values.
Some of these are tying heart strings, building the family that you want, teaching how to do relationships the right way, and prophetic parenting.
Let’s start with tying heart strings. How do we draw our children close to us? We must do the obvious things like spending time with them and encouraging them and treating them with love and respect. But we also need to share our experiences with them and let them see that we are human and understand how they feel. Of course, we have to make sure that they are at an age and developmental level that is appropriate for whatever topic we are addressing. For instance, if we want to teach our child about compassion, we might share a story of a time we forgave someone for something that was very hard to forgive and reached out in an act of kindness. But if they are too young to understand, we should save that topic for a later date when they are developmentally able to understand that level of forgiveness and compassion.
When it comes to correction and discipline, we should make sure that we have deposited enough love, warmth and affirmation along the way. Then when they need correction it is easier for them to receive it from us without feeling condescended to or rejected. They need to feel like they are understood and that we are not asking anything of them that they are not capable of. We need to make sure they see us as a loving parent who wants what is best for them and not a harsh ruler on a power trip. And that shapes their fundamental beliefs about authority and its true purpose. And the upside is we keep the connection and preserve a good relationship with the child.
The heartstrings get cut when we react toward our children in anger, frustration, or irritation. When we react out of negative emotions, such as frustration, we cause them to fear us. Correction becomes something to avoid, which can lead to dishonesty and hiding. Yelling and snapping at them is never beneficial in any way. If we do lose our temper, we need to go to the child and apologize. We are setting an example for them in everything we do. And we should be teaching them how to preserve connection with other people even in times of conflict.
Build the family that you want. Read, research, and raise your children in the ways of the Lord. Read good books about the importance of family and how to raise a godly family. Set the tone and the ground rules in your home for a pleasant, safe, and fun experience for everyone in your family. If you want to build a Christian family, then do the Christian disciplines alongside your children. Pray together as a family. Read the Bible and discuss it together. Go to church together or worship together at home. Do service activities together as a family. Practice hospitality and invite guests for meals, and have the children help with preparation, serving, and entertaining the guests. If other values are important to you, build those into your routines, your family culture, and the conversation in your home. Your family will have their own unique culture. Talk about it with your children and emphasize that they belong to a family that has specific values and goals, and that each person is important and needed. Help them to feel proud of being a part of this amazing family that God has put them into.
Teach them how to build good relationships. The skills for building good relationships are learned at home. Our children learn to share, compromise, negotiate, forgive, apologize, and redirect attention through their interactions with siblings and with their parents. In homeschool families, we don’t send our children out to figure out on their own how to deal with bullying or other immature and harmful behaviors that are inevitable among groups of children. Help them choose good friends and help them through conflicts and disagreements that arise in those relationships, too.
We can also practice prophetic parenting. When you pray for your children, ask God to show you what He wants you to say to them and how He wants you to guide them into His path for their lives. Ask the Lord for words of wisdom, words of knowledge, and actual prophetic words to speak over their lives and to speak to them so that they can experience for themselves God speaking to them. This will help you to be sure that you are giving them good guidance, and it will encourage them to ask God to speak to them personally.
Homeschooling is more than giving our children an academic education at home. It’s more than making sure that we provide the best curriculum and materials and learning experiences for them. If we do it right, we will teach them character, integrity, honesty, and consideration for others. We will help them to become well-rounded people who will become excellent friends, spouses, leaders, and citizens. Familyschooling is more likely to produce these results. So many important skills and values are learned through a strong family that is committed to loving each other and learning together how to handle adversity and leaning on each other when they need help. Strong families build strong people. And strong people build strong communities. And strong communities build a strong society. Your family is that important. Make it a priority to steward it well.
Newsletter for March
Greetings from Ohio,
Ohio has become famous! Everybody’s talking about Ohio. We are on the opposite side of the state from East Palestine, Ohio, but I’m not sure if we have been affected or not by the chemicals they released into the air and the water. I’m praying for the water and air in Ohio and the surrounding states. It could be the worst disaster in America, but the media is not covering it. President Trump visited East Palestine, Ohio while Biden went to Ukraine.
Another big thing that is happening, which is much more positive, is the revival at Asbury University in Wilmore, KY. It has gone for 10 days at the time I’m writing this (2/20/23), but the university president has decided that they need to shut down the main building for anyone except young people for the next week. Revivals are breaking out all over the place, many sparked by the revival at Asbury. These are places that have revivals breaking out:
1. Asbury
2. The Ramp
3. Jackson Georgia High School
4. Cedarville University (Ohio)
5. Ohio Christian University
6. Lee University (Tennessee)
7. Bethel – Austin, TX
8. Park Hill, Missouri
9. Indiana Wesleyan University
10. The Gate – Charlotte, NC
11. Kingsway – Birmingham, AL
12. Kingdom Life – Waterville, Maine
13. Israel
14. Uganda
15. University of Kentucky
16. EKU (Eastern Kentucky)
17. KCU (Kentucky Christian)
18. Christ for the Nations – Dallas, TX
19. Radiant church Kalamazoo, Michigan.
21. River church Nortonville, Kentucky.
22. Christ fellowship church Dawsonville, Georgia.
23. Life in Christ church Marion, Kentucky
24. Belmont University Nashville, Tennessee
25. New Zealand.
26. São Luís, Brazil
27.Mazatlán Mexico
28. Radiant Church Richland, Kentucky.
29. Pulse Headquarters Minneapolis, Minnesota.
30. Sunshine Coast, Australia
31. Melbourne, Victoria
We’ve been praying for a move of God among the young people, especially since we saw the outbreaks of violence in Minneapolis and the riots by Antifa and Black Lives Matter. As I watched the riots, I felt such a sorrow for this generation of young people. They have been so confused and mixed up because of the teaching at school about gender “fluidity” and CRT, among other false and dangerous teachings that have been a part of public education for a long time. The messages coming out of Hollywood, social media, the news media, TV, and the policies of businesses, the medical field, and even churches have left young people without an anchor for morality, and they are hopeless and angry. When I saw the riots happening, I felt their confusion and realized how deceived they have been. So I am so excited to see this revival breaking out in the colleges among the young people.
Dinesh D’Souza has reported that millions of Muslims are converting to Christianity. This has never happened before, and the astounding explanation given by many converts is that they are seeing visions and dreams of Jesus.
Switching gears, let’s talk about some international leaders who are making a lot of sense.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
In a recent speech, Putin said about the Western nations:
– “See what they do with their own peoples – the destruction of the family, cultural and national identity, perversion, mockery of children and pedophilia are declared the norm.”
– “Look at the Holy Scriptures…the family is a union of a man and a woman.”
– “The Anglican Church, for example, considers the idea of a gender-neutral God…forgive us, Lord, for they don’t know what they do.”
– “We must protect our children.”
This is why the Global Satanic Pedophile Cabal hates Putin!
President Putin has been speaking out against the New World Order and their promotion of pedophilia for years.
Putin, like Trump, is a Christian, a nationalist, a staunch anti-globalist/NWO and an outspoken critic of pedophilia. During Putin’s 2016 Christmas speech, something you’ll never see in the MSM, he spoke out against the New World Order agenda to promote pedophilia. He stated that Western culture is promoting that “faith in God is equal to faith in Satan”. Putin said this about pedophilia:
“The excesses and exaggerations of political correctness in these countries indeed leads to serious consideration for the legitimization of parties that promote the propaganda of pedophilia.”
https://lizcrokin.substack.com/p/revisited-trump-sex-trafficking-and?r=17d7ph&utm_medium=ios
Russian President making a landmark speech in Moscow:
Putin: “We are not at war with the people of Ukraine, they became hostages of the Kiev regime and Western masters who occupied this country.”
Putin : the promises and statements of Western rulers turned into forgery and cruel lies. The West supplied weapons, trained the nationalist battalions. Even before the start of the SMO, negotiations were underway on the supply of air defense systems and aircraft. We remember Kyiv’s attempts to obtain nuclear weapons.
Putin: The United States deployed bases and biological laboratories near our borders, mastered the theater of military operations, prepared Ukraine for a big war.
Putin: while Donbass was on fire and blood was shed, and Russia was sincerely striving for a peaceful solution, the West was playing on people’s lives, playing with “marked cards”. They behaved the same way, destroying Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria. The concept of honor and decency is not for them.
Putin: in response, we received an indistinct, hypocritical reaction. NATO expanded to our borders, new missile defense position areas were created.
Putin : they spare no expense to encourage unrest and coups around the world. At a conference in Munich, Russia was blamed so that everyone would forget what the West had done in recent decades. Entire regions are in chaos. American experts say that as a result of the wars unleashed by the United States after 2001, more than 900 thousand people died, more than 38 million became refugees.
Putin : Recently, one of the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was given the name “Edelweiss” as a Nazi division that participated in the deportation of Jews, executions of prisoners of war, and punitive operations. SS chevrons are very popular in Ukraine. Wehrmacht marks are applied to the equipment.
Agenda47: President Trump Announces Plan to End Crime and Restore Law and Order
Mar-a-Lago, FL—President Donald J. Trump unveiled his new plan to stop out-of-control crime and keep all Americans safe. In his first term, President Trump reduced violent crime and stood strongly with America’s law enforcement. On Joe Biden’s watch, violent crime has skyrocketed and communities have become less safe as he defunded, defamed, and dismantled police forces.
“Joe Biden and the ‘Defund the Police’ Democrats have turned our once great cities into cesspools of bloodshed and crime,” President Trump said.
President Trump’s Plan to Keep American Communities Safe
1. President Trump will sign a record investment in hiring, retention, and training for police officers. The bill will increase vital liability protections for America’s law enforcement officers.
2. President Trump will require local law enforcement agencies receiving DOJ grants to return to proven policing measures such as stop-and-frisk, strictly enforcing existing gun laws, cracking down on the open use of illegal drugs, and cooperating with ICE to arrest and deport criminal aliens.
3. President Trump will take on the radical Marxist prosecutors who have abolished cash bail and refuse to charge criminals. President Trump will direct the DOJ to open civil rights investigations into radical leftist prosecutor’s officers, such as those in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco to determine whether they have illegally engaged in race-based law enforcement.
4. President Trump will instruct the Department of Justice to dismantle every gang, street crew, and drug network in America. President Trump has also called for the death penalty for drug dealers and human traffickers.
5. President Trump has committed to deploying federal assets, including the National Guard, to restore law and order when local law enforcement refuses to act.
6. President Trump will order the Education and Justice Departments to overhaul federal standards on disciplining minors.
7. Finally, President Trump will sign concealed carry reciprocity legislation, fully secure the border, dramatically increase interior enforcement, and wage war on the cartels.
DID YOU KNOW: Blue Cross Blue Shield pays pediatricians a $40,000 bonus for fully vaccinating 100 patients under the age of 2.
BUT pediatricians lose the whole bonus unless at least 63% of patients are fully vaccinated, and that includes the flu vaccine.
And here’s a bit of true history that you have probably never heard. I hadn’t!
https://t.me/freedomforcebattalion/36438
It’s on Telegram, so hopefully you have an account there or will get one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~HOMESCHOOL CORNER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here’s a tip for getting everything done:
As a mom of 10 kids who has homeschooled all the way through, I have found some tips and tricks that have helped me maneuver the MANY trials and tribulations that come with having everybody at home ALL the time.
Keep things simple.
Relax your expectations.
Make your expectations known to your children.
Enlist the help of your children.
Enlist the help of your husband and other family and friends.
Keep God in the center of all you do and spend time with Him at the beginning of each day.
This is taken from my new book that will be coming out soon, “Dear Struggling Homeschool Mom, I See You”.
Jessica Anderson and I are currently accepting new members in our Intentional Homeschool Planning Community Membership group. We would love to have you join us if you need fellowship with and encouragement from real moms with years of experience homeschooling. We have a wonderful close-knit group that is very welcoming to new members. We have all seen great fruit from our time together. We get together 3 or 4 times a month for different purposes. We have coaching, accountability, and a fun time for our kids. If you are tired of trying to homeschool on your own without being able to talk to anybody who understands, please give us a try.
We also have a wonderful Book Club where we read books about homeschooling, parenting, and family management. Join us this month for the book “Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World” by Kristen Welch.
I have started a store at Teachers Pay Teachers for my curriculum HERE
One thing that I have recently created that you may not know about is a Gratitude and Listening Prayer Journal. You can find it HERE. It is a journal with pages for counting your blessings and keeping your eyes on what God has been doing for you. But there are also pages that you can use to write down your prayers and what you hear God saying to you.
Thanks for reading!
Blessings from Safe Haven Homeschooling!
Penney Douglas, B.S. in Ed.
Changed By Love blog – Homeschooling, Christian life, Family, and Faith
linktr.ee/penneydouglas
My Pinterest
Copyright © 2023 Safe Haven Homeschooling, All rights reserved.
What Are Living Books?
Here’s a short video explaining what living books are. Living books are used in a Charlotte Mason education.
Living books are 1. written by one author in a narrative, story, conversational form; 2. Well-written, story well-told; 3 It touches your emotions, fires your imagination; 4. Contains ideas, not just dry facts.
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
