Another week went by?

How did that happen?

January, 2007, has been quite a month. Stan is on his way to his nephew's funeral (stillborn at 39 weeks pregnant). Jacob went with him this time.

As I was reviewing how the kids are doing in their school, I realized Sarah and Joe needed a change. I had too much math in their notebook each day--they were both avoiding it. Sarah really doesn't like Explode the Code either. I adjusted their math to a little less and took out Sarah's Explode the Code worksheets altogether.

Instead of Explode the Code, I put in a page each day that has writing lines at the bottom of the page and nothing at the top. She read two stories from the Sonlight beginning reader about a rat and a cat, copied two sentences onto her page, and drew a rat from the book at the top of her page. She really liked doing this schoolwork:)

I was reading how copywork helps with spelling on Jeanie Fulbright's website. This is part of what she read in one of Charlotte Mason's books:

In copywork, the child should never copy each letter of a word in turn. They are to see the entire word, memorize its spelling, then copy the word without looking. If it is a difficult word, they should try to spell it outloud with their eyes closed and see if it correct before writing it.

I think most homeschoolers are not getting the full benefit of copywork (including me up to now). Copywork is widely used, but in this computer age the passage is typed at the top of the page and lines to write on at the bottom. That makes it very easy to copy letter by letter. If they have to copy from the book, they will be more likely to memorize the way the word is spelled. Copywork does have many other benefits though (grammar, memorization of the entire passage, encourages critical thinking (if discussed)...)