Handwriting Practice with Homeschool Copywork, A Review

Review: Homeschool Copywork

4/12/2016

You know how sometimes you pick up a product for schooling your children and it surprises you at how your children react to it? I recently experienced this lovely phenomenon with my son as we dove full-heartedly into our lifetime membership with Homeschool Copywork.

So just what is the lifetime membership into Homeschool Copywork all about?

It's all about learning to spell, use good punctuation and great vocabulary.    It engages the mind with interesting ideas, captures imaginations and helps children increase their reading and comprehension skills. As children engage in copywork it helps to organize their thoughts as well.

What I see in my lad?    "Mom, Can you print me off another Dragons Verse?"   Asking, not me telling, a boy asking.   I hear "Mom!   Look at this one?   Isn't he interesting?"

This is me is what copywork is.   It's my boy finding something he is interested in, and then finding sentences he can write down about it.   That joy in his eyes as he sees interesting pictures to go along with those writings. I LIKE IT. :)

How does the Program work?

Go toHomeschool Copywork. Find the unit you want to use. You can use it as a stand alone copywork program OR use it to supplement another unit of study.

Download, save to your computer.

Print off the pages that you want.

We focused on the Dragons study. This comes with print and cursive font.

Illustrations can be coloured.

The copywork is generally found at the top of the page, with plenty of lines for writing. My son REALLY liked that. He's done some copywork that had insufficient lines or space, and had to use backs of sheets and he just finds that aggravating because it's too hard to keep it all neat. My lad takes pride in doing the job neatly and despairs of the cursive both his parents employ. :) (neat we are definitely not)

One of the things I like about this program, even though it is not immediately obvious, is how easy it is to find what you are looking for. If you go to the Member Login page, it brings up these good divisions, makes finding what you want so easy. :)

How did we use this?
My son has been learning to write cursive for the past bit.   He's been enjoying learning it but said "Mom, I don't get to practice my capitals enough AND I want real sentences."   Therefore when this review came up I asked him what he thought and he was quite open to it.. Dragons, Armour of God etc.. interesting things for boys. AND it could take the place of learning his cursive. Writing in sentences about things he was interested in.

When I showed him all the different options they had (they have LOTS of options) he immediately asked to do the dragons one.

Everyday he would write out a passage (I would print off five handwriting worksheets the Friday before).   He would pick the one he desired and write it out. When he started out he would pick the shortest piece, then he started picking out the ones where he liked the dragon the best, then he started reading the passages, and picked out the passages that interested him. "Mom, is it true?    Does this passage really say there were dragons in palaces?"     It gave time for discussion. He is learning about different bible translations, and why word choices were made. It was so interesting to me to watch that change in him.

I have to admit, I've become a convert. I've been so skeptical to benefits of copywork, seeing it as busy work only, but here's my lad... DELIGHTING in his handwriting practice. Learning, asking questions, engaging in conversation over dragons and bible translations, being excited about doing this work (when normally he's a boy child who would rather do anything other than school work)... but with his copywork, doing it with no complaints.. Ah now THAT is a goodly thing. :)

Now I have to tell you something about using Homeschool Copywork. If something happens where you have to set it aside for a while, it is so easy to pick it up again..

Homeschool Copywork is so very, very, very easy to work with. I am SO glad that I had a chance to review it and will continue to use it.

When we are finished with Dragons my son wants to do the following.

Product Details:
Received:L ifetime membership
Vendor: Homeschool Copywork
Membership details: I received lifetime membership which differs from the free membership (limited selection), Full membership (one year subscription) $29.95, and Lifetime Membership (which is of course.. for a lifetime). $45.00 :)