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Mama's Song: Joy in the Morning Light
Apr. 12, 2007
Copywork Breakthrough
We are experiencing a learning breakthrough today. I'm so excited. My son, Forest, has been plodding along doing drawings and copywork in the Draw Write Now. Some days he balked, there were tears on other days, but most days he did manage to complete a drawing and some copywork. My goals were that he would gain skill with the pencil, become more familiar with the formation of words and sentence formation, and would learn to form letters more correctly. I have seen these areas improving, but wondered how long we would have to keep it up until he could realize that he could write on his own also.
Well, it happened to day, much to my surprise. I strive to have the tools for learning easily available at all times for my kids. Yesterday Forest asked me if tomorrow he could draw a picture of his pet frog for copy work time, and make up his own copy work. He would have me write it down and he would copy it. Of course I gave an immediate "Yes!"
For the first time in weeks he eager to get started with copywork. Drawing his hoping frog was a challenge, but he persevered, and it turned out great. He brought some paper for me to write his copywork on and then quickly finished his work. I was thrilled! But the excitement didn't stop there.
Later, after breakfast, he got out our white board and started drawing. I didn't stop him, because he was doing good work. He drew his frog again and asked me how to write, "I like frogs." He copied it down as I spelled to him orally. Then he made a copy of his work on paper.
I remembered an old book from a garage sale for small children. It is like a simple spelling dictionary. There are common words children would like to use, with a nice color drawing beside it, to help them find what they are looking for. It is small enough to make it easy to handle. It doesn't have everything, but it has enough to keep a curious child busy. I got the book out for him and showed him how to find the words that he might like, looking for their beginning sound. He wanted to find giraffe. He quickly drew a giraffe on the white board and wrote. I like giraffes.
A camel and a sea turtle followed. Each was copied onto paper for his notebook.
He was so happy with his accomplishments. And I am so happy too. I'm happy that my child is learning, and in an environment where there is time for learning explorations. If my children were off at school, I would have missed this special learning milestone.
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Posted by
Karen 
Apr. 12, 2007 - Praise the Lord!
Another testament that homeschooling works!
Blessings,
Nadine