From Cindy Rushton's Desk(TOP!)!

Our Next Talk-a-Latte Chat...TUESDAY!! Join Us!

WHY START A FAMILY BUSINESS

ON THE INTERNET

A Talk-a-Latte Chat with Steve Beck and Cindy Rushton

We are having a FUN Talk-a-Latte Chat this coming Tuesday night. Steve Beck, my friend who produced SITES THAT SELL, is getting ready to re-release the set. He will be joining us to share on the topic: WHY START A FAMILY BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET. Here are some of our topics (you can ask YOUR questions too!):

How did you get started in an online business?
How did you get started teaching about online businesses?
How are your kids involved in your businesses?
How easy is it to start an online business?
What about the technical issues?
What about the time issues?
Why do you do this?

Sound great? Join us! AND...bring your questions!
AND...a friend or two!

Steve's DVD Course, SITES THAT SELL, has been one of our "curriculum" treasures this year. Elisabeth wanted to learn more about web design, beginning an online business, and graphic design. Steve's set has been our core curriculum. We have BEGGED him to re-release it! Well! Super news! He will be re-releasing his set Wednesday, AND someone in our chat will receive the entire $400 set for FREE! Join us! It could be YOU! Just go to the link below and register. You have to register AND be present!

OH! AND also, this week he was interviewed by a homeschool mom. Actually, "grilled" was more like it! You can get that audio free
this week!

If you want to get on his FIRST NOTICE list to order your set or if you want to hear his free audio from an interview earlier
this week, check out his website here:

http://buildingsitesthatsell.com/

AND...plan to join us for Talk-a-Latte Chat Tuesday!
Here are the chat details:


Tuesday September 5, 2006
FREE!

Scheduled Start Time:
6:00 PM Pacific Time
7:00 PM Mountain Time
8:00 PM Central Time
9:00 PM Eastern Time

Free! Just grab a headset (or get those speakers plugged in!)
and get ready for a WONDERFUL night!

FROM THE MAIL-BAG: Notebooking with My Boy--Shhhh!

Hi Cindy - Last night when I turned off my boys light I just had to write
this story down.  I haven't changed my blog article to the proper tenses to be a letter to you but I so much wanted you to hear the story I am sure you'll get a kick out of it.

Love
Belinda Letchford
Australia


Notebooking with My Boy

Joshua, though an avid writer, has always been reluctant when it comes to Notebooking.   This has never been attitude but rather expressed as personal preference, something that we’ve dealt with light heartedly.  Through various “negotiations” we have agreed to come to a “compromise”.  Our vocab has been the biggest thing.  He understood certain words to mean one thing and I used  them to mean another.

Our compromise is like this….  We store all our written work in binders.
(He doesn’t do Notebook Pages for his Notebook!)  His preferred style is
paragraph writing, report writing - nothing creative, nothing anything like scrapbooking and we don’t call it Notebooking we call it written work /assignments.

Mind you I did get a little softening of the heart when he listened to Cindy Rushton’s presentation to Teenagers on Notebooking but he still maintained his style was not Notebooking.  He got a big kick out o hearing that Matthew Rushton and his sister were as different in their presentations and he and Jess are.

Tonight…He tells me, “I’ve started notebooking Isaac Newton’s style” - and he shows me 3 mini spiral bound note pads.

“What do you mean you’ve started Notebooking?”  I ask, trying to keep my voice nice and level.

“Well,” he replied, “Isaac Newton kept notebooks of all the things he found interesting - it worked for him so I guess it will work for me!”

“Mmmm” replied a stunned mother!!  “What have you written?”  He read a portion from a book on Knights where the author is comparing the hierarchy of the Knight society, of medieval times, with Business society of today. It was a very interesting couple of paragraphs that had a lot to think about in terms of business ethics today.  Josh told me he was copying the whole thing down.

He continued to tell me he also has started a Nature / Science Notebook (I won’t even start to tell you the story of disinclination with Nature
Journals!!!)  He has copied a recipe for blue paint (something along the
lines of berries and alum water) from Medieval times.

The temptation was strong…. Do I tell him that is what I am on about? …. Do I tell him he is doing copywork?  …. Do I tell him that it appears that he has a new style? (tongue in cheek!)  …. Do I??  Do I??

No…. I don’t!  I let him continue to think that he is copying Isaac Newton - a scientist whom he obviously has some time for and I keep my happy mummy smile to myself and my cyberspace friends!

Let's Try Notebooking Audio! FREE! Listen HERE!

Mom-to-Mom: Let’s Try Notebooking! Part One

Mom-to-Mom: Let’s Try Notebooking! Part Two
 

MTM Notebooking Popup 1
Click This Link To Play The Audio Message
http://PlayAudio-234.com/play.asp?m=308032&f=FQHTLW&ps=7&p=1

MTM Notebooking Popup 2
Click This Link To Play The Audio Message
http://PlayAudio-234.com/play.asp?m=308046&f=NBLDYM&ps=7&p=1

Need Help with Notebooking?

Check out my new Notebooking column online!

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has a special feature with notebooking articles written by me every week. You can find that column here:

 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HSBCompanyBlog/Notebooking/.

Check it out today! Not only will you find some of my new articles on creating notebooks with your children, but you will help me in our contest this week--we are having a contest among the writers to see who gets the most hits. Help me win!!!

Ready to Try Narration??? By Cindy Rushton

Read a book to your children.

Yes, why not grab a neat book today and cuddle up with your children for a nice time of reading aloud. There is something about reading aloud to anyone of any age that just nurtures and makes sweet memories. Learning becomes easy. If there is one thing that can bring life and closer relationships into the home, it is reading.

In our home, we love biographies. We just love digging into the lives of great people! Right now, we are reading biographies produced by Youth with a Mission (YWAM Publishing). They are just THE BEST! Through the years, we have gone back in time with those that leave their legacy with us through the life-stories. Why not pull out a biography today?

Of course, biographies are not the only great books for narrations. My son has always been a “fact” kid. He loved digging out information from non-fiction books, magazines, and research materials. He spent hours digging out information and then just poured out the information in his own “literary” style through oral narration (talking!). It was so natural! My only job as a teacher was to LISTEN! Can’t beat that!

Grab a great book, cuddle up, and read!

Let them retell the story to you.

That brings me to the next point…listen to them retell what you read to them. Don’t make it stiff or “school-y.” Make it a relationship thing!

Listen to them share what THEY are truly “getting” from the selection. Listen to what they deem as important. Goodness, all of those wonderful teachers manuals out there dig into questions that someone else deems as important. Many of those are written by adults who have lost the wonder of learning that is still locked up in our children. Their questions are not about the most interesting things in a book or material. In fact, many miss the whole point in many books or studies. They simply cannot see the great mind-food that is there!

So, instead of feeling as though your children need to learn a certain amount of information, sit back and enjoy just listening to all that they are extracting from the material. It will change YOUR life!

Just listening will help you to know that they are truly absorbing from their studies. You will never see education the same again! It will feed YOUR mind too!

Want to Write It Down? Sure! But first…

There is something in us from our school days that feels as though we need to have info recorded for education to happen. That is fine. Of course, before I tell you how, I want to caution about this. I simply LOVE paper trails. I love notebooks. I love to see LOTS of “proof” for what I do with our time. This is something I had to learn about myself as I began homeschooling. Without quite a bit of paper, I just do not always “see” what we have accomplished. If I cannot see it, I battle with feeling as though we are doing enough. Make sense? Well, you have to know this in order to understand that this is one of the reasons that we began notebooking and found notebooking to be such a blessing for our home.

With notebooking, we could SEE what was really being accomplished. It helped me to relax and enjoy learning with my children. Now, with that said, all things that we do must be used as tools. We cannot let anything be set up above ministering to the hearts of our children. If we do, then it will burn them out…and most likely, it will cause us to burn out too.

Ok…with that said, this is one of my greatest concerns with narrations.

After years of using narration, copywork, dictation, writing books, and making lapbooks, I see the danger in feeling that everything MUST be written down. One of the best perks about narration is that it CAN be entirely oral. There are so many fruits with oral narration—teaching our children how to express their thoughts, how to present what they are learning, how to share with others what they find important, on and on. It is a wonderful preparation for public speaking. They need all of those skills throughout their education. But, there is even more to education.

Even after they become great writers, keep in mind that they will always need to talk. Narration encourages us to develop a relationship with our children early—really listening to them. In the teen years, this is one of the most vital needs for our relationship with them. We need to keep them talking to us. So, as you move through the process of writing, don’t lose your children in the process. Move slow and steady. Keep them talking and sharing. Don’t sacrifice them on the “high places” of education.

Ok…Now…Let’s Write It Down!

You have read the book. Now, what? Either JUST listen or you can let them narrate the story while you take down the story with dictation on paper to keep in a notebook. I really want to stress that writing down narrations is a great way to train your young writers, but it can be very dangerous. Our children can share SO much more from very young ages when they share verbally. Don’t begin this step too early OR make it every day.

How do you know that you are ready? Well, let me share about what happened with my daughter one day.

Elisabeth was always so adorable when narrating. She usually shared twice as much as we would read! Actually, both of my children were like that—humm…could it be having a mom who is a writer? Ha! No, I really think that when we listen to our children and WANT to know what they know, they will all share verbosely.

Well, one day, we were reading while we were traveling. Normally, we would read while dad was at work, then when he would come in from work, the children would be about to bust to share with him every single detail about what we had read or learned during the day. He was a great sport in listening to them go on and on about what we had studied. But, until this day, he had never heard them listen to a story and then make it their own and share it back. I thought it would really excite him to see how much they grasp from their studies. Well, the lesson that day was not for anyone else, but me!

We read the book. It was such a great story. Then, I asked Elisabeth to retell it for Daddy. She had a perplexed look on her face and then asked, “But, Mom, didn’t he just listen?” This was going to get good here… I told her that Daddy HAD listened, but that I wanted for him to see how much she could remember and how neat she shared it back. Of course, my children have never “performed” in front of others like I wanted—it began when they were little and would not say those new words for anyone but me…or walk for anyone but me…or show ANY signs of genius for anyone but me! I always felt that they were trying to make me look like a nut in front of the world—actually, that is what I get for being so very excessively proud of my children! Ha!

Long story, short here…Elisabeth and I had a clash that day. It simply did not make any sense to her that she tell Daddy what she had learned when he could hear it at the same time as her. God whispered to my heart to just drop it that day. I was aggravated with her so much! Of course, God had a treat in store for me!

It was only about a week later. Harold was off work that day. They wanted to go to the park for lunch and to try out their metal detectors. I took my lawn chair and computer to enjoy writing outside. While we were there, Elisabeth ran up to me and asked me how it was going. She loved to hear me tell her what I was working on—in her mind, it was “my schoolwork” that I worked on. I told her what I was doing—working on my Homeschooling The Easy Way Magazine. She asked me if she could do a narration for me—on the same book she would not narrate the week before. Something in me wanted to choke her—in a non-abusive way, of course! Ha! (Why, oh why don’t they do their “tricks” when you want them too?) God had a treat for me!

She began to dictate her narration to me as normal—she would dictate to me, holding her thoughts bit-by-bit until I typed it in for her. By the way, this is SUPER training for the young writer. It helps them to learn how to keep their thoughts in mind while writing down the thoughts. They have to learn this skill before they can become great writers. Of course, there is so much to learn when learning to write—how to manually write, how to spell, how to set up writing, how to punctuate. All of those things are best learned by Copywork through the years.

Copywork works great alongside of Narration. They need to be learned parallel. Students are not ready for written narration until they can copy at least ¾ of a page of Copywork easily and effortlessly. Another thing that they really need to know well before beginning to write their own narrations is how to keep their thoughts while writing. This is best learned by learning how to dictate their narrations while mom or dad write them down.

Back to my story…She began the typical process of dictating her narration to me while I typed it into the computer. It was beautiful. The process was the same as so many other days. But, as she asked me to read back over it to let her “see how it sounded,” she had the “light-bulb” go on! She declared to me, “OH! Mommy! That sounds like the book! It is better than the book!” Yes! That was where we wanted to be. We want for our children to get the idea that THEY TOO can be a writer. We want for them to know that their words can be powerful too.

When they get here, then they are able to move into even more written narration and their own original composition. They will be great writers!

Wondering how much should be written? Well, I found that I personally got very weary helping them write down narrations. We decided that we would not do this with EVERY book we read. We just read too much material. It was too artificial to have a written narration on everything that we read. It’s perfectly OK to just listen to them as they share oral narrations along the way. In our home, we only use written narration as a tool to train our children to compose on their own or to write easy homemade books. This keeps it fresh and fun, but never artificial!

Using Narrations as Copywork

Before we move on, one thing that we enjoyed doing during the process of training our young writers was to use our narrations for copywork. When they narrated to me, I took the narration down by dictation. Then, I re-copied the narration for them to use as Copywork assignments or I typed them into the computer for a printed copy of the narration for their notebooks.

This worked great for my children. Usually we would sit down for me to take down their narration and I would set it up for them to use as Copywork selections over a period of several days (their narrations were so long). These made nice “stories” for their notebooks and mini-books. Plus, it trained them to copy longer and longer passages. This was perfect training to help them stretch into writing more and more. In addition, this made it easy for them to become accustomed to getting those narrations on paper. Eventually, they no longer needed for me to take down their dictation, they could hold their thoughts until they could get it all on paper. It was amazing to watch the process. Since we allowed it to happen naturally, they never decreased the amount of material that they narrated. They naturally had nice, long, descriptive writing—the easy way!

So…What Now? In High School?

Now, as our children have grown up, they continue to use narration on a daily basis. What does it look like? It looks like real writing today!

You see, nothing is new under the sun. All writing is a form of narration. All speaking is a form of narration. We are retelling what we have learned. Sure, much of what we learn comes from a variety of sources—books, people, real life, personal experiences, etc. As I share this article, I am retelling things I have learned by reading, by experience, by learning from my children, and by God’s leadership in my life. The same happens with our children too.

As they grow into the high school years, they begin to research areas that need to be learned for a complete education. They research areas of study that they want to pursue for their professions and for marriage and parenting. They can use these skills for that education. In fact, if they haven’t had a good background in narration, this is a MUST for the high school student. They need to know how to read material, make it their own, and share it back in an articulate manner.

These are the years that they can research topics deeply, decide what they think is interesting and share that information in research papers, articles, homemade books, or very deeply detailed narrations. Of course, one of my favorite methods for High School students to use narration is by just “talking” with them. We have had incredible discussions based upon what my children have been reading and studying through the years. We have kept the communication lines open by talking, discussing, debating, and problem solving ideas from books and studies. Completely priceless!

So…What About Narration?

Narration is one of those old-paths in education that has been around from the beginning of time. It is the method that God used to preserve His Word. It is the method He instructed parents to use to teach their children about Himself. It has been used all throughout history to teach, to learn, to share. Narration is in REAL LIFE...it happens naturally as you go along the way, talking with one another about life and what is being learned. What could be a more effective way to teach our children? A sure-fire method. A GREAT education. Sweet memories.

Relationships. Plus! It is just that easy! So, why not dig in today???

Happy Homeschooling!
Cindy

~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

About Cindy Rushton…

Cindy Rushton is the wife of Harold Rushton and the mother of Matthew (19) and Elisabeth (almost 16) who have always been homeschooled. Matthew graduated in 2005. Cindy lives in the beautiful mountains of North Alabama in her dream cedar cabin. Cindy is the author of over 80 books, Bible studies and homeschool resources. She edits and publishes two magazines, Time for Tea and Homeschooling The Easy Way. She has become a beloved and favored speaker for homeschool conventions and retreats across our country. You may contact her through email: time4tea@hiwaay.net. See her online at: http://www.cindyrushton.com, http://www.CindysDesktop.com, http://www.Mom2MomDiscussion.com, http://www.MomtoMomRadioShow.com and http://www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/CindyRushton.

Ready to Try Narration? by Cindy Rushton

Yes, why not grab a neat book today and cuddle up with your children for a nice time of reading aloud. There is something about reading aloud to anyone of any age that just nurtures and makes sweet memories. Learning becomes easy. If there is one thing that can bring life and closer relationships into the home, it is reading.

In our home, we love biographies. We just love digging into the lives of great people! Right now, we are reading biographies produced by Youth with a Mission (YWAM Publishing). They are just THE BEST! Through the years, we have gone back in time with those that leave their legacy with us through the life-stories. Why not pull out a biography today?

Of course, biographies are not the only great books for narrations. My son has always been a “fact” kid. He loved digging out information from non-fiction books, magazines, and research materials. He spent hours digging out information and then just poured out the information in his own “literary” style through oral narration (talking!). It was so natural! My only job as a teacher was to LISTEN! Can’t beat that!

Grab a great book, cuddle up, and read!

That brings me to the next point…listen to them retell what you read to them. Don’t make it stiff or “school-y.” Make it a relationship thing!

Listen to them share what THEY are truly “getting” from the selection. Listen to what they deem as important. Goodness, all of those wonderful teachers manuals out there dig into questions that someone else deems as important. Many of those are written by adults who have lost the wonder of learning that is still locked up in our children. Their questions are not about the most interesting things in a book or material. In fact, many miss the whole point in many books or studies. They simply cannot see the great mind-food that is there!

So, instead of feeling as though your children need to learn a certain amount of information, sit back and enjoy just listening to all that they are extracting from the material. It will change YOUR life!

Just listening will help you to know that they are truly absorbing from their studies. You will never see education the same again! It will feed YOUR mind too!

There is something in us from our school days that feels as though we need to have info recorded for education to happen. That is fine. Of course, before I tell you how, I want to caution about this. I simply LOVE paper trails. I love notebooks. I love to see LOTS of “proof” for what I do with our time. This is something I had to learn about myself as I began homeschooling. Without quite a bit of paper, I just do not always “see” what we have accomplished. If I cannot see it, I battle with feeling as though we are doing enough. Make sense? Well, you have to know this in order to understand that this is one of the reasons that we began notebooking and found notebooking to be such a blessing for our home. With notebooking, we could SEE what was really being accomplished. It helped me to relax and enjoy learning with my children. Now, with that said, all things that we do must be used as tools. We cannot let anything be set up above ministering to the hearts of our children. If we do, then it will burn them out…and most likely, it will cause us to burn out too.

Ok…with that said, this is one of my greatest concerns with narrations. After years of using narration, copywork, dictation, writing books, and making lapbooks, I see the danger in feeling that everything MUST be written down. One of the best perks about narration is that it CAN be entirely oral. There are so many fruits with oral narration—teaching our children how to express their thoughts, how to present what they are learning, how to share with others what they find important, on and on. It is a wonderful preparation for public speaking. They need all of those skills throughout their education. But, there is even more to education.

Even after they become great writers, keep in mind that they will always need to talk. Narration encourages us to develop a relationship with our children early—really listening to them. In the teen years, this is one of the most vital needs for our relationship with them. We need to keep them talking to us. So, as you move through the process of writing, don’t lose your children in the process. Move slow and steady. Keep them talking and sharing. Don’t sacrifice them on the “high places” of education. 

You have read the book. Now, what? Either JUST listen or you can let them narrate the story while you take down the story with dictation on paper to keep in a notebook. I really want to stress that writing down narrations is a great way to train your young writers, but it can be very dangerous. Our children can share SO much more from very young ages when they share verbally. Don’t begin this step too early OR make it every day.

How do you know that you are ready? Well, let me share about what happened with my daughter one day.

Elisabeth was always so adorable when narrating. She usually shared twice as much as we would read! Actually, both of my children were like that—humm…could it be having a mom who is a writer? Ha! No, I really think that when we listen to our children and WANT to know what they know, they will all share verbosely.

Well, one day, we were reading while we were traveling. Normally, we would read while dad was at work, then when he would come in from work, the children would be about to bust to share with him every single detail about what we had read or learned during the day. He was a great sport in listening to them go on and on about what we had studied. But, until this day, he had never heard them listen to a story and then make it their own and share it back. I thought it would really excite him to see how much they grasp from their studies. Well, the lesson that day was not for anyone else, but me!

We read the book. It was such a great story. Then, I asked Elisabeth to retell it for Daddy. She had a perplexed look on her face and then asked, “But, Mom, didn’t he just listen?” This was going to get good here… I told her that Daddy HAD listened, but that I wanted for him to see how much she could remember and how neat she shared it back. Of course, my children have never “performed” in front of others like I wanted—it began when they were little and would not say those new words for anyone but me…or walk for anyone but me…or show ANY signs of genius for anyone but me! I always felt that they were trying to make me look like a nut in front of the world—actually, that is what I get for being so very excessively proud of my children! Ha!

Long story, short here…Elisabeth and I had a clash that day. It simply did not make any sense to her that she tell Daddy what she had learned when he could hear it at the same time as her. God whispered to my heart to just drop it that day. I was aggravated with her so much! Of course, God had a treat in store for me!

It was only about a week later. Harold was off work that day. They wanted to go to the park for lunch and to try out their metal detectors. I took my lawn chair and computer to enjoy writing outside. While we were there, Elisabeth ran up to me and asked me how it was going. She loved to hear me tell her what I was working on—in her mind, it was “my schoolwork” that I worked on. I told her what I was doing—working on my Homeschooling The Easy Way Magazine. She asked me if she could do a narration for me—on the same book she would not narrate the week before. Something in me wanted to choke her—in a non-abusive way, of course! Ha! (Why, oh why don’t they do their “tricks” when you want them too?) God had a treat for me!

She began to dictate her narration to me as normal—she would dictate to me, holding her thoughts bit-by-bit until I typed it in for her. By the way, this is SUPER training for the young writer. It helps them to learn how to keep their thoughts in mind while writing down the thoughts. They have to learn this skill before they can become great writers. Of course, there is so much to learn when learning to write—how to manually write, how to spell, how to set up writing, how to punctuate. All of those things are best learned by Copywork through the years. Copywork works great alongside of Narration. They need to be learned parallel. Students are not ready for written narration until they can copy at least ¾ of a page of Copywork easily and effortlessly. Another thing that they really need to know well before beginning to write their own narrations is how to keep their thoughts while writing. This is best learned by learning how to dictate their narrations while mom or dad write them down.

Back to my story…She began the typical process of dictating her narration to me while I typed it into the computer. It was beautiful. The process was the same as so many other days. But, as she asked me to read back over it to let her “see how it sounded,” she had the “light-bulb” go on! She declared to me, “OH! Mommy! That sounds like the book! It is better than the book!” Yes! That was where we wanted to be. We want for our children to get the idea that THEY TOO can be a writer. We want for them to know that their words can be powerful too. When they get here, then they are able to move into even more written narration and their own original composition. They will be great writers!

Wondering how much should be written? Well, I found that I personally got very weary helping them write down narrations. We decided that we would not do this with EVERY book we read. We just read too much material. It was too artificial to have a written narration on everything that we read. It’s perfectly OK to just listen to them as they share oral narrations along the way. In our home, we only use written narration as a tool to train our children to compose on their own or to write easy homemade books. This keeps it fresh and fun, but never artificial!

Before we move on, one thing that we enjoyed doing during the process of training our young writers was to use our narrations for copywork. When they narrated to me, I took the narration down by dictation. Then, I re-copied the narration for them to use as Copywork assignments or I typed them into the computer for a printed copy of the narration for their notebooks.

This worked great for my children. Usually we would sit down for me to take down their narration and I would set it up for them to use as Copywork selections over a period of several days (their narrations were so long). These made nice “stories” for their notebooks and mini-books. Plus, it trained them to copy longer and longer passages. This was perfect training to help them stretch into writing more and more. In addition, this made it easy for them to become accustomed to getting those narrations on paper. Eventually, they no longer needed for me to take down their dictation, they could hold their thoughts until they could get it all on paper. It was amazing to watch the process. Since we allowed it to happen naturally, they never decreased the amount of material that they narrated. They naturally had nice, long, descriptive writing—the easy way!

Now, as our children have grown up, they continue to use narration on a daily basis. What does it look like? It looks like real writing today!

You see, nothing is new under the sun. All writing is a form of narration. All speaking is a form of narration. We are retelling what we have learned. Sure, much of what we learn comes from a variety of sources—books, people, real life, personal experiences, etc. As I share this article, I am retelling things I have learned by reading, by experience, by learning from my children, and by God’s leadership in my life. The same happens with our children too.

As they grow into the high school years, they begin to research areas that need to be learned for a complete education. They research areas of study that they want to pursue for their professions and for marriage and parenting. They can use these skills for that education. In fact, if they haven’t had a good background in narration, this is a MUST for the high school student. They need to know how to read material, make it their own, and share it back in an articulate manner.

These are the years that they can research topics deeply, decide what they think is interesting and share that information in research papers, articles, homemade books, or very deeply detailed narrations. Of course, one of my favorite methods for High School students to use narration is by just “talking” with them. We have had incredible discussions based upon what my children have been reading and studying through the years. We have kept the communication lines open by talking, discussing, debating, and problem solving ideas from books and studies. Completely priceless!

Narration is one of those old-paths in education that has been around from the beginning of time. It is the method that God used to preserve His Word. It is the method He instructed parents to use to teach their children about Himself. It has been used all throughout history to teach, to learn, to share. Narration is in REAL LIFE...it happens naturally as you go along the way, talking with one another about life and what is being learned. What could be a more effective way to teach our children? A sure-fire method. A GREAT education. Sweet memories.

Relationships. Plus! It is just that easy! So, why not dig in today???

Happy Homeschooling!
Cindy

********************************************************

About Cindy Rushton...

Cindy Rushton is the wife of Harold Rushton and the mother of Matthew (19) and Elisabeth (almost 16) who have always been homeschooled. Matthew graduated with the Class of 2005. Cindy lives in the beautiful mountains of North Alabama in her dream cedar cabin, built by her husband.

Cindy is the author of over 80 books, Bible studies and homeschool resources. She edits and publishes two magazines, Time for Tea and Homeschooling The Easy Way and Scrap-A-Latte Newsletter. She has become a beloved and favored speaker for homeschool conventions and retreats across our country.

Cindy began homeschooling Matthew and Elisabeth over fifteen years ago. Her homeschooling journey, tips, and ideas that she has learned along the journey are recorded in her books and articles her humble effort of sharing an EASY way to homeschool.

As you pour yourself a cup of tea and pour through the following pages, you will find a dear, dear friend to give you a great big hug, loving smile, and take you by the hand into a journey of homeschooling the EASY WAY! Get ready...you are definitely in for a treat!

Contact Her Through The Following:
Rushton Family Ministries
1225 Christy Lane
Tuscumbia, Alabama 35674
Cindy@CindyRushton.com

Also, see her online here:
http://www.CindyRushton.com
http://www.CindysDesktop.com
http://www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/CindyRushton
http://www.Mom2MomDiscussion.com
http://www.MomtoMomRadioShow.com
http://www.MomtoMomPodcast.com

It's Spring! Let's Begin a Science Notebook! by Cindy Rushton

Today being inside just tortures me! It is STUNNING outside! Even the little birds are begging us to go outside. 

Are you like me, dying from “cabin fever” and ready for spring? This is the perfect time to begin Nature Notebooks! Not only will you have an abundance of treasures awaiting your exploration, but these are perfect days to try something fresh. Ready? Let me help…

Chances are you already have many things that could be included in a Science Notebook around your home. Look for those “goodies” that do not have their own special place and add them to your Science Notebooks. This is the perfect opportunity to develop “a place” for those “goodies” while developing a nice product for displaying all the growing knowledge of nature all while your children are keeping special memorabilia! One of the things that I like about using supplies intended for scrapbooking is that there are so many products that enable us to keep bulky materials safely inside of our notebooks. Not to mention, scrapbooking makes EVERY notebook so much cuter!  And…to imagine that we call this “school!”

Want some ideas of things to include in your notebooks???

• Sketches...Don’t forget to include date, time, place, Latin name, and common name. Oh! Don’t forget to document where you found it.
• Snapshots…Don’t forget to journal about your snapshot!
• Pressed flowers, leaves, feathers, butterflies, etc.
• Glossary of terms studied…
• Artwork… (Nature art, original drawings, coloring pages…)
• Diagrams…
• Poetry…
• Information about discoveries…
• Lists of new findings…
• Handouts from trips…
• Narrations from trips, outings, hikes, nature walks, books read about nature or scientists/naturalists…
• Timeline…Mark your excursions, inventions, famous men and women, so on!
• Instruction Sheets on “How to Care for...” or “How to Collect...” etc.
• Booklets...
• Project data...
• Bible verses...
• Hymns…
• Nature devotions…
• Current events…
• Stories...nature, pets, metaphors, about outings!
• Journal entries…
• Details from outings…
• Favorite quotes about nature…
• Reading list…
• Research...
• Reports...
• Essays…
• Science experiment logs…
• Notes from any Science study…

You can add a lot of life to your Science Notebooks with special supplies you find along the way! I have found that the little touches have made our notebooks so much more fun and in the process hooked my children.

Encourage your children to use die-cuts, frames, stencils, shapes, and edgings galore to make their notebooks fun and beautiful! My children now beg each weekend to work on our binders/scrapbooks. We have taken these simple skills into other projects for our Science studies such as creating books or booklets…making cards with pressed flowers, sketches, poetry and Scripture verses…and displaying our collections. The key is to just have fun and enjoy making your notebooks all yours!

Happy Notebooking!

Cindy

~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

About Cindy Rushton…

Cindy Rushton is the wife of Harold Rushton and the mother of Matthew (19) and Elisabeth (almost 16) who have always been homeschooled. Matthew graduated in 2005. Cindy lives in the beautiful mountains of North Alabama in her dream cedar cabin. Cindy is the author of over 80 books, Bible studies and homeschool resources. She edits and publishes two magazines, Time for Tea and Homeschooling The Easy Way. She has become a beloved and favored speaker for homeschool conventions and retreats across our country. You may contact her through email:
time4tea@hiwaay.net. See her online at:

http://www.CindyRushton.com
http://www.CindysDesktop.com
http://www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/CindyRushton
http://www.Mom2MomDiscussion.com
http://www.MomtoMomRadioShow.com
http://www.MomtoMomPodcast.com

A Note About a Fellow Binder Queen! TOO CUTE!

It's ALMOST Easter! Make a Notebook! by Cindy Rushton

It's ALMOST Easter! Make a Notebook!
by Cindy Rushton

Ready for Easter? We are on the countdown! In less than two weeks, we will celebrate again!

Getting ready? Why not make a notebook? The holidays are a perfect time to give notebooking a try. As matter of fact, if you have never tried notebooking, you MUST begin now keeping those precious holiday memories! I am sure you will be hooked! The following are some ideas of different Notebooks (or items that you may want to add to one big notebook!) that have a holiday theme:

==> Family Holiday Recipes… One of my most precious treasures is my collection of family recipes. In fact, I made a copy of all of our recipes and traditions as a Christmas gift for my daughter one year. This began a tradition. Now, we collect recipes for all holidays from all of our family and friends. We add them into a notebook—one for each of us. J What an heirloom! Everyone loves great and easy recipes, but it seems to be even more special when the recipes are tied to the memories. Why not take time during the holidays this year to collect your favorite recipes from all of your family. Either add pictures of the process of baking the recipe or a picture of the author of that recipe. Don’t forget to use bright cardstock paper, stickers, die-cuts, and other scrapbooking supplies to make your notebook special. Want a great gift idea? Make copies of your notebook
pages and give them as gifts to those you love! Don’t forget to keep your own copy!

==> Family Traditions Notebook… Of course, this would be a great addition to your Recipe Notebook, but if you are like our family, you may want a whole separate notebook. Include those little traditions and the story behind them. You may want to include family stories from long ago and pictures of family members. Of all the projects in the world, this is one that is sure to be special for the rest of your life.

==> Holiday Song Notebook… We have always loved music, but had one problem with documenting music studies. Well, until we ran across Color the Classics. Included in each volume are great coloring pages (that even high schoolers enjoy), copywork, and even thumbnails that are perfect for our timelines. One of their books includes nothing but Hymns and songs. We began one big music notebook, but since then we have been able to add other songs and hymns. We just find pictures of the composers or draw original pictures to go along with the song. This is a fun project that would be great to begin during the holidays!

==> Easter Notebook… Yet another notebook that can probably be filled to
overflowing before the holiday season is over. Anything can be added! Yes, anything that you do or study during the holidays: recipes, family traditions, the Passover and Resurrection story, songs, poems, short stories (copied or original), holiday card collections, pictures of crafts/cooking steps, etc. Begin a notebook now and continue it each year as a tradition. You will find it quickly becoming one of your most precious heirlooms.

==> Holiday Bible Study… We are having a blast this year with a wonderful study on Biblical Holidays (by my friend, Robin Sampson). She has incredible information that has everything prepared for you to use today—notebooking pages, information, links online. Her study is perfect alongside of our daily Bible Reading. You may want to try this one too—it is not too late to begin. Elisabeth is adding the typical goodies into her notebook--Bible verses, printable pages, narrations, and pictures from the studies, timeline figures, etc. Include these in your Bible Study Notebook or develop a special Holiday Bible Study Notebook. It will be a treasure!

Ready? Got ideas that will make Language Arts fun during the holiday season while you are making precious memories? Have fun and let us know how it goes!

About Cindy Rushton…

Cindy Rushton is the wife of Harold Rushton and the mother of Matthew (19) and Elisabeth (almost 16) who have always been homeschooled. Matthew graduated in 2005. Cindy lives in the beautiful mountains of North Alabama in her dream cedar cabin. Cindy is the author of over 80 books, Bible studies and homeschool resources. She edits and publishes two magazines, Time for Tea and Homeschooling The Easy Way. She has become a beloved and favored speaker for homeschool conventions and retreats across our country. You may contact her through email: 
time4tea@hiwaay.net. See her online at: 

http://www.CindyRushton.com
http://www.CindysDesktop.com
http://www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/CindyRushton
http://www.Mom2MomDiscussion.com
http://www.MomtoMomRadioShow.com
http://www.MomtoMomPodcast.com

About Our Notebooking Ebook!

A Testimony!

Hi Cindy

I just wanted to let you know how much I love your Ebook "Notebooking, Yes! You Can Be A Binder Queen."

I have been looking at purchasing this book for a number of months but was scared because in the past I have made "blind" purchases which have been disapointing. Not this time! I would have to say that this book rates as the best item I have purchased in my seven years of homeschooling. It is funny how God works in our lives, just recently I have felt led to persue a more "delight directed" avenue to homeschooling. I also wanted to make God and his word a priority. I didn't know how I was going to achieve this. When I received my Ebook and sat down to browse through it everything became clear. It was just what I needed to hear. I now have a fresh vision for my family. I am looking forward to this year with a new excitement.

Thank you Cindy for pouring your passion into this project. Your writing style is evident of the love that you have for notebooking. I am inspired!

Blessings from Jacqueline in Perth, Western Australia.

Let's Celebrate the NEW YEAR with a

Two-Day E-Book Sale!!!!

Buy One, and Get One Free!

Order from us and we CAN deliver your order in less than 12 hours!FOR REAL! Well, if you order E-BOOKS!

Want EVERYTHING??? We have TWO ways to save money! 

 

Check out our: Everything You Need to Begin Notebooking Set! $100.00! You save over $50.00!!

http://www.cindyrushton.com/EverythingYouNeedNotebooking.html

 

PLUS! Order today and you can get TWO MORE Ebooks for FREE! (Just list them in the MEMO section of our shopping cart!)

 

 

Our Special!

Order ANY of our Ebooks today and you can choose a FREE EBOOK for each purchase (choose one of equal or lesser value as your free E-Book)! All you do is use our shopping cart to order our E-Books...when you order, there is a MEMO Section on the order form. Just list your choice of a FREE E-Book!

 

Question and Answer: History Timeline Notebooks

Question:

I'm curious as to how the new e-book is set up for making your own history timeline.  Is it along the same lines at the Book of Centuries that Charlotte Mason talks about? I'm trying to make my own and I'm having a hard time.  I want to have enough room for drawings and writing.  If you could give me some more detail about it befor I decide to order it I would appreciate it.  It's hard for me to buy something without seeing it first.
Thanks,

Answer:

Hi!

Thanks for your email. I am happy to help you!

 

Yes, our History Timeline Notebooks are set up much like Charlotte Mason suggested in her books. We took a twist of those ideas mixed with some of our scrapbooking materials and came up with an easy way to make timeline notebooks.

 

Our Timeline Pages in our MAKE YOUR OWN HISTORY TIMELINE NOTEBOOK are set up with plenty of room for pictures--we found this to be one of our greatest needs. We add a sampling of so many things--thumbnails of art prints...mini-book covers (for the books that were written)...etc.  

 

There is a sample page that is undated on our website at the following link:

 

http://www.CindyRushton.com/articles.html

 

Just scroll to the bottom of the page for the printable notebook page. The difference with that page and the book is that the pages are already dated and only need to be printed. You can even print the divider pages on colored paper (we did that)...and you are ready to use! :)

 

I have a free Ebook with ideas for making your own History Timeline. I don't know if you are a subscriber to my ezine--if you are, just look in your past few issues of the ezine. There is a link to a free download of that Ebook. It is only going to be available free for a few more weeks. Then, we will switch to another free Ebook that I am finishing up right now--I try to give free Ebooks as I can finish up something fun!

 

If you are not on the ezine already, you can sign up at the following link and get the ebook free when we add you to the list:

 

http://www.CindyRushton.com/subscribe.html

 

Hope that this will help a bit! If you need anything else, just let me know! Have a great night!

Love,
Cindy

 

Seen our website lately? Grab a cup of tea and check out our home on the web at:
http://www.CindyRushton.com

 

Announcing!!! My NEW Blog! Grab a cup of tea and check out my tidbits FROM MY DESK(TOP!)!
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/CindyRushton

 

Are you a writer? Wanta be a writer? Get the help and encouragement that you need at our Writer's Nook! NEW! You will LOVE IT!
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AWritersNook

 

Ready to tune-up your marriage? Check out our FREE Romance Toolbox!
http://www.CindyRushton.com/RomanceToolbox.html

 

Are you on our ezine??? Sign up TODAY! Don't miss one issue!
http://www.cindyrushton.com/subscribe.html

 

¸...¸ __/ /\____ ____
,·´º o`·,/__/ _/\_ //____/\
```)¨(´´´ | | | | | | | || |l±±±± |
¸,.-·²°´ ¸,.-·~·~·-.,¸ `°²·-. :º°

 

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!

 

Hey! What ON EARTH is Copywork??? by Cindy Rushton

Hey! What ON EARTH is Copywork???

by Cindy Rushton

************************************************************
Excerpted from Cindy's NEW VERSION of Notebooking! YES!
You Can Be a Binder Queen Too!. NOW available in E-Book
AND on special! See below!

************************************************************

Copywork? What is that? How do you use it at home? What do I use? Where do I start? You are going to LOVE Copywork! It is PERFECT for training up your young writers! And...I think you have come to the perfect place to get started—TODAY!

How We Stumbled Upon Copywork...

Copywork has been an answer to my prayers. I felt in my heart that workbooks definitely were not the answer for teaching grammar, writing, spelling, and appreciation of wonderful literature. What would do the job while doing it more naturally? Why…Copywork, of course!

We stumbled upon the idea of Copywork during some of the most trying days of my life. I think that we all have expectations of what our children can do in regards to writing. Our clash began as the combination of my expectations of my VERY verbal child met my personal love of writing and found a reluctant writer. It seemed that everything that I was doing seemed to be the wrong thing to do if I wanted to reach this little one. It was then that I ran across a God-send. I found Ruth Beechick's small but mighty little book A Strong Start in Language. It seemed too simple! Certainly teaching children to how to write would need to be more difficult, right? Well….hear ye, hear ye! ! I found that teaching Language can be as natural when teaching our children how to write as when we taught our little ones how to speak.

Only Ruth Beechick herself can fully explain why to use Copywork. In her book A Strong Start in Language she shares the following: "This method is not new or experimental. It is an old and proven method, probably as old as writing itself. Great writers have used it and you have already used it with your child. But once children reach school age, we tend to shed the natural method for a slower, artificial method. Our society thinks grammar books or Language books somehow carry the secret of good writing, but few of them do."

So how do we teach writing? What is the best way to begin writing your training your little ones? Want to help your reluctant writer, buthave no idea where to begin?

Well, the key is how we taught our children to speak. Ruth Beechick shares that there is a “parallel.” She says, "Listening and speaking are to spoken language what reading and writing are to written language." She also says, "Children learn to write by writing." What better way to teach our children to write than by copying great models, then setting them up into a book of their very own?

Our Story…

When I began teaching my little boy, I tried to mimic my educators. The problem was that this method was laborious and when given opportunities to write, his work was difficult and very messy. The spelling was atrocious! I really saw this one-year at Christmas. When copying poems and writing letters, there were no blanks.

I decided to pull out Mrs. Beechick's book and use her method of copying to supplement my workbooks. It was not very long until Matthew (who was known to have a strong distaste for even holding a pencil!) fell in love with his work. He had a reason to write and it became a pleasure! Also, he was sure that the work was correct because it was taken from great literature--good examples to pattern after. He would proofread his own work using the model. By doing this, he was also learning one of the most important skills necessary for great writing—to proofread his own work. He took great pride in his work and soon began to keep special quotes, verses, passages, and poems in his school notebook. It was not very long until his work began to result in “finished” products—his own notebooks and homemade books.

There was a change in me too. I looked at his workbook with new eyes. This work was monotonous and did not really apply to what we were studying. I began to feel that all skills would be better learned if we could somehow make them apply to his studies because of his strong interest in them. That is exactly what we have done! So, here is what we are doing and how you can do it yourself!

Ready, Set, GO!

For the younger child, you will want to start by letting them copy their letters and later their name. For a fun notebook, make an Alphabet Notebook. Let them copy a letter per page and decorate that page with pictures cut out of a magazine or coloring book. If they are a little older, they can copy the letter and fill the page with examples of words using that letter. A fun and easy book!

All you have to do for a Copywork lesson is just print neatly on the top of a page, then encourage them to make theirs look like yours. I remember doing this with my mom when I was only a few years old. She would write names or words on paper in church for me to copy. Mom did this naturally...without any idea that this was a teaching approach. Now, the discipline is set in me—train up a child in the way they should go?

I was amazed at how much little ones learn from this. My little girl began on her own to teach herself how to write by copying signs and words on trucks as we would go down the road. She would copy from her storybooks, or even her brother's schoolwork. I was utterly shocked when this brilliant (Yep! I am biased!) four-year-old child began on her own to do Copywork. We were riding as a family to town when I looked back to see what was keeping her attention in the backseat. She was sitting there with a copy of Charlotte's Web copying the letters on the page. She had copied the title of the chapter and even several sentences without any prompting or even instruction. The only possible explanation of where she got the idea for this would be from this little genius catching the excitement from her brother's Copywork assignments! This was how painless it was to begin Copywork with a child.

As she got older, I continued to copy her work in a model that I wanted her to copy. She often chose the selections that she wants to copy, but most of the time I copied several weeks’ worth of work for her to copy from. I always sat down to “hand-write” her models at this time because she struggled with the mechanics of letter formation. We did this for about 4 1/2 years.

It seemed like overnight, but she was ready to copy directly from great books. We had expected to transition her into copying her own work directly from the original source by typing her models on the computer using a font like Lucida Handwriting (or a program like Start-Write). This might work great for you. Then, you can use the pages for other children. Just type on the computer in a larger font and leave lines for them to copy on underneath the model (we have some reproducible pages included on the CD that comes with this book for you to use for this). Do this for a bit until they are ready to copy those models directly into their copybook. Then, they will be unstoppable!

As I shared earlier, I began Copywork with Matthew when he was in the Second Grade and Elisabeth was Pre-school. It took watching the Copywork begin to produce fruit before I would trust it and throw away my workbooks L. We used Ruth Beechick’s little book A Strong Start in Language to supplement our workbooks for the Second Grade. It did not take very long for me to see that it was going to really work for Matthew!

I ripped out the pages that he had finished in the workbook, put them in his Copybook, then only used Copywork for the rest of the year. He made improvements in every area immediately! The neatest area was the transition from pencil-resistant to addicted to writing!

As he began Third grade, I often wrote an model for him to copy that could give an example of how to write the passage. We also used Learning Language Arts through Literature for formal grammar instruction. Matthew loved the nice, large print models to copy from their book. He also copied poems, Bible verses, and passages from his library books. His handwriting, spelling, and even grammar all improved so drastically that Copywork sold me!

In Fourth grade, I focused real heavily on oral narrations (which also make great books—more on that in the next chapter!). The children would orally narrate their stories back to me while I took down dictation. I would re-copy the passages as a model for them to use for Copywork. It only took about 6 months of this before Matthew realized that HE could create his own writing. He wrote his first essay that year without having to have a formal class in grammar. I was so proud. It sounded as if an adult had written the essay…only an adult would not possibly have had all of the humor and imagination that this wonderful little boy poured into that essay. I saw this wonderful fruit and realized that we were not only improving the basic mechanics of writing but we were also instilling a love of writing in this child. I was hooked!

Copywork healed this reluctant writer! In this short time, he was no longer frustrated, weary, reluctant, resistant! It was all beginning to fall into place!

In just a small bit of time, he was no longer scared of writing a bigger work like an essay! He considered it just as much of an adventure as curling up with a book, going back in time with an author’s work. He had spent so much time gleaning from these wonderful authors that he was ready to pour his heart out on paper!

This time of oral narrations and continued Copywork brought us into the next phase of writing for our family. Matthew was then ready for longer passages of

Copywork, which gave him a deeper discipline of writing each and every day. My husband casually mentioned one evening that it looked as if he were trying to skim by and copy the least amount he could. That was all it took for my 10-year-old to begin on his own to copy a full page a day!

He also was skilled enough to begin one of his greatest projects all on his own. One day he confided in me, “Mom, have you ever noticed that these Marine books never have a complete history in one book? That information is in all of these books. There needs to be a book on the complete history of the U.S. Marines.” I listened as he went on, “I guess I will have to write that one!” I about fell out on the floor! I encouraged him to begin studying, that he would do a wonderful job with that. He began to take every minute of his free time to compile information for his book. His notebook was getting filled up more and more by the day. This was in addition to the regular Copywork he did each day.

As Christmas break neared, he began to write the story. During the Christmas break he finished the rough draft for the book in his notebook and typed it into the computer… all completely on his own without any help from either of us (Yep! This is MY reluctant writer!). I was so proud to read such a nice piece of work. We went back through with me reading it to help teach about editing. I showed him how to use Microsoft Word’s Spelling and Grammar tool, which has a built in help function which tells you the rules that apply to your errors.

I also shared with him about how to develop a story by asking all of the questions that someone would want answered. I casually taught him that I was reading it as a novice (very ignorant mama!) wanting to know all about the Marines before I ended my time in his book (in which HE was the expert—vital if they are going to fill in all of the gaps!). I shared some questions about common words that he did not realize were not common to those who did not read as widely on that topic as he himself did. I was able to teach him that those were important gaps to be sure that his book detailed. I also shared questions that I had as I read. He was then off again writing his little heart out!

As Matthew wrapped up his Marine book, it set the stage for him to write other books on other topics of interest. The skills learned through writing that book prepared him perfectly for all other writing projects—notebooks on very neat topics, essays, articles, research papers, and of course, other homemade books!

Through the years, we continued to use Copywork (even now in the High School years!). Most Copywork lessons resulted in simple additions to their notebooks. But, we have also seen larger collections of copywork result in great homemade books. The text was there beggin to go into a special project. All that was needed was setup, illustrations (many were in the notebooks already), borders, and a special touch by the children to make it their own. To date, one our company’s best selling books is a book that was compiled from Matthew’s favorite Copywork from the Civil War. Famous Copywork of the Civil War was created after homeschool mothers began to see Matthew’s Civil War Notebook. They wanted some ideas to carry home to their young writers. The book was the perfect solution! Who knows? Your young writer may have a “best seller” just needing to be published!

Copywork is still a daily discipline—even as he finishes his Senior Year in High School. But, it is also a personal discipline. I can brag as much on the Copywork as my darling child because I know that Copywork took the artificial out of learning language. Now, Language Arts is alive with purpose! And...we also have tons of great notebooks and books!

What’s So Special About Copywork?

There are a few things that happen when children copy passages. First, they are able to see their own mistakes and correct them without it being a judgment about their personal work. This is crucial if we want to encourage our young writers.

In the early years, it absolutely crushed my children if they thought that I was not pleased with their work. Although correcting their work was not personal, they simply could not separate correction from acceptance. They had worked so hard on their work, it was VERY “personal” to them. Copywork was the perfect way to just “check up” on their attentiveness, teach spelling and grammar, and instill the basics of writing in a non-confrontational way.

For a moment, just think of how much your children want to please you? Have you ever thought over what is happening during their school lessons? They pour out their heart in writing. Then, we take our permanent red markers and mark on their special creations. Disheartening! Frustrating! And...we wonder why they become resistant and reluctant to write MORE!

Copywork takes away the “sting” of grading and correction while teaching our children important writing skills. When my children were young, checking their work FOR THEM and finding grammatical and spelling errors insulted them. Letting them copy a passage, go back over their work themselves finding the errors as they proofread the copy, helped me to transfer the process to them while they learned the skill of proofreading their work until they have excellence.

Another big plus for the Copywork is the good example. The writing style of the author contributes greatly to expanding your child's own style. Wouldn't you love for your child to have the benefit of sitting at the feet of Robert Louis Stevenson, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Martha Finley, or Mark Twain? Well, they can! By reading, copying, and-later even narrating their great works, your child can be educated by the masters!

My favorite thing about Copywork is that my child is taught correctly from the start. The work reinforces correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Chances are that if they SEE things done correctly, they will repeat it in their own work. I love what Ruth Beechick has to say about this, "Children who know the most grammar are not necessarily better writers." She adds, "...Students who are good writers can learn grammar better than students who are poor writers." She finally says, "You can teach the parts of capitalization, punctuation, spelling, sometimes grammar, and numerous other matters day by day in the dictation and copying lessons. Some of them you will consciously teach. Many others the child will learn without your conscious effort." Isn't this far superior to learning what things are but not learning how to use it?

Looking at Matthew's progress can see this superiority. It really has been so natural for me to teach him what good writing looks like. No, we have not been diagramming sentences, but he can write a fantastic essay! No, we have not spent years working through boring workbooks, but both of our children write professionally for magazines in areas of their personal/professional interest. No, neither he nor I can still figure out what a split infinitive is, but he loves to write and make homemade books! Yes, I do think this is superior to using these years laboring over the parts of speech before putting the pen in his hand!

How to Begin (and Keep On Growing) With Copywork:

First, begin with teaching the child to copy their name or the alphabet. Keep each page in a 3-ring binder (with sheet protectors! ). Begin slow and continue steady!

Next, copy short one sentence phrases-Bible verses, quotes, mottoes, etc.

Continue working up to longer passages. Lengthy passages will take several days to complete.

For challenging gifted and older writers, assign passages longer and more challenging than a standard paragraph such as dialogues, letters, news stories, speeches, historical documents, etc.

Share your favorites by creating neat books. Create books with collections of your favorite selections! What a fun and easy book project!

Easy? Yep...it is that easy! Now, want some specific help with some trouble spots?

Need tips for those little details that make it all easy? Here are some of those tips:

• Look for great Copywork everywhere! You may collect passages for copying from biographies, letters, Scripture, novels, poetry, history texts, classics, and so on.
• Get ready ahead of time! It would be best to prepare the night before and prepare some work for each day, as writing should be a daily assignment. Just read through your favorite living book that you plan to use for your family reading time. You can take a small quote and copy exactly as you would have your child write. After reading your selection the next day, allow time for your child to copy and check his work. It is that simple!
• Use Copywork to teach grammar EASILY! If you would like to have grammar lessons, you may want to explain why it is written that particular way, for example, today we might notice why all letters in the passage are capitalized and look up rules in a grammar text. Not only are they finding the reason for the particular use of that rule today in this passage, they are also hearing and thinking about other uses of capital letters as you read through the various rules. Talk about an easy and natural way to teach parts of speech, grammar, and spelling! It does not get any easier than this! In the early years, we used this method once a week to give the children a nodding acquaintance with the parts of speech. As the years have gone by, they have amazed me by looking up rules all along the way—OUT OF CURIOSITY! Still, they will find something in their lessons that they have never seen (or noticed) and decide to look up the rules to figure out why it is “done that way.” I cannot think of a better way to learn the rules and RETAIN what is learned—which is far better than the way that I was taught growing up J.
• Use as “text” for your homemade books! Yep! What a great way to create a fun and easy book! Your Copywork book can be a collection of neat quotes like Matthew’s Famous Copywork of the Civil War. Or another idea is to take a favorite passage and use that as the text of your book. Create your own illustrations. Then, you have a fast and easy book! One example of this was a book that Elisabeth created. She took her favorite Bible Verse, The 23rd Psalm, and used it as the text for her book The Lord is My Shcpherd. Each page has a phrase with an illustration. Cute and FUN! You may have many ideas similar to this. Really, the sky is the limit here. So, you can really let your brain go wild! Need some ideas? Check out our list of ideas at the end of this chapter. You are sure to find some cute ideas!

So...are you ready? Try your hand at Copywork. Use Copywork as the text for your notebooks. Illustrate the pages with cute borders and pictures that accent your passages. Make it fun and easy! The skills that they learn as they create their notebooks using their Copywork will help them to easily move to writing using their own creative writing. It will be as natural as when they learned to talk…and you will have guided them along the way!

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