When it comes to writing and handwriting practice, I wanted more than just random words repeated ad infinitum for my little guys. From my educational reading, boys tend to develop their fine motor skills later than girls, and I wanted an engaging program that focused on my children’s natural love of color and drawing, while engaging their minds as well. So I was pleased to receive a Lifetime Membership to Homeschool Copywork to review, which gives us access to a variety of e-books for copywork and handwriting pages.
Because I’m so excited about getting my kids enthused about learning, I’ve partnered with Homeschool Copywork as an affiliate, and so affiliate links have been used in this post.
What is copywork?
In case you’ve never been introduced to copywork, you might be wondering how it differs from regular handwriting practice. Copywork does so much more than give students the opportunity to practice handwriting (although yes, they get that skill in too!). Copywork is a series of carefully selected quotes and passages that offer a variety of experiences while children “copy” them:
- inspiring ideas and thoughts from famous inventors, thinkers and artists
- ingraining facts and concepts related to science and mat
- memorizing Bible verses and poetic passage
- developing accurate speech and sentence patterns in their memory
- enriching vocabulary
- modeling correct spelling and punctuation rules
Yes, all this can be achieved while children practice handwriting! These are truly handwriting worksheets that achieve multiple goals at the same time.
Why Homeschool Copywork?
Homeschool Copywork was created by Amy Blevins, homeschool mom, when she was looking for more inspiring handwriting practice pages. Finding lovely passages with beautiful illustrations inspired her daughter to enjoy the practice, and soon Amy was creating additional pages and ebooks for her daughter. Now she shares them with the rest of us on her website! Read more about what copywork is all about!
Why we’re loving Homeschool Copywork!
I took the Transportation ABC ebook, and had two copies printed and bound at Staples. This way, the boys each have a solid book to work out of, which I’ve found to be neater than stray pages, and lends an air of importance for the boys. Plus, it’ll be a nice memento of their schoolwork at the end of the year.
My three year old is just at the letter recognition phase, so he enjoys naming the daily letter, tracing it, and then coloring his picture. My six year old is just reading, so the “A is for Alligator” sentence is easy and quick enough for him to copy, getting some practice reading and writing, and then the reward is he gets to color the picture after he’s done. He loves to add to the scene by drawing backgrounds and stick figures all around.
We love to change up our materials with our copywork booklets: markers, crayons, colored pencils, but also stamper markers which the boys use to “fill in” the picture with various shapes and dots! Sometimes we put stickers on the pictures too.
Truthfully, I can barely pull the away from this work to move on to other lessons! The boys also love their blank shark pages, where they are inspired to invent stories about the sharks they are coloring.
How I’ll use Homeschool Copywork in the future
Homeschool Copywork has dozens of notebooking pages and ebooks for download. With my Lifetime Membership ($45), I’ll be downloading new copywork ebooks each year. A few I have my eye on already:
- Mozart and Van Gogh copywork ebooks for when we return to our classical studies of great artists and composers
- Armor of God copywork for our medieval studies next year
- Christmas Copywork KJV for use during our Advent Calendar time
You see, there’s really always something students could copy out to better learn a topic and practice handwriting, memory skills, and more! Copywork doesn’t have to be just for homeschoolers – I can see these ebooks being a wonderful after school or summer enrichment activity for all students!
At $45 for a Lifetime Membership, that’s a great deal, as new products are always being added. Plus, if you have more than one student, that’s just a huge bargain!
Keep up with Homeschool Copywork on Pinterest and Instagram for more great ways to use copywork in your homeschool! And see how other homeschool parents are using Homeschool Copywork by clicking on the banner:
