Copywork and Dictation: How Often? - A Brave Writer's Life in Brief A Brave Writer's Life in Brief
  • Start Here
    • For Families
      Multiple Ages
    • Ages 5-7
      Beginning Writers
    • Ages 8-10
      Emerging Writers
    • Ages 11-12
      Middle School Writers
    • Ages 13-14
      High School Writers
    • Ages 15-18
      College Prep Writers
  • Digital Products
    • Core Products
    • Bundles
    • Literature Singles
    • Practice Pages
    • Homeschool Help
    • Special Offers
  • Online Classes
    • Class Descriptions
    • Class Schedule
    • Classroom
    • How Our Classes Work
    • Our Writing Coaches
    • Classes FAQ
  • Community
    • Brave Learner Home
    • Blog
    • Podcast
    • Calendar
    • Brave Writer's Day Off
  • Cart
  • My Account
    • My Online Classes
    • My Account
  • My Account
    • My Online Classes
    • My Account
  • Start Here

    If you’re new to Brave Writer, or are looking for the best products for your child or family, choose from below:

    • For Families
      Multiple Ages
    • Ages 5-7
      Beginning Writers
    • Ages 8-10
      Emerging Writers
    • Ages 11-12
      Middle School Writers
    • Ages 13-14
      High School Writers
    • Ages 15-18
      College Prep Writers
  • Digital Products

    If you’re already familiar with Brave Writer products, go directly to what you’re looking for:

    • Core Products
    • Bundles
    • Literature Singles
    • Practice Pages
    • Homeschool Help
    • Special Offers
  • Online Classes
    • Class Descriptions
    • Class Schedule
    • Classroom
    • How Our Classes Work
    • Our Writing Coaches
    • Classes FAQ
  • Community
    • Brave Learner Home
    • Blog
    • Podcast
    • Calendar
    • Brave Writer's Day Off
  • Search
  • Cart

Search Bravewriter.com

  • Home
  • Blog

A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Thoughts from my home to yours

Copywork and Dictation: How Often?

Copywork and Dictation: How Often?

Common questions from homeschooling parents: what did copywork and dictation look like in your home and how often should it be done?

My response:

My oldest kids are in college (ages 21 and 18). I homeschooled both of them through high school, though the second one went part time to our local high school as well. Our third child is a junior in high school and goes full time. He was homeschooled through 9th grade. We have two more kids: 8th and 7th grades – all homeschooled.

Copywork and dictation can be done more frequently than weekly. The Arrow/Boomerang are designed to support the homeschooling parent, not to replace her own good judgment and her skills as a home educator. In fact, when I first designed the Arrow (which came first), I used to always say that the goal was to model how copywork and dictation can be done (how to select passages, how to teach them, how to make them more meaningful). I fully expected that mothers would then learn how to do it themselves and not need the Arrow any more.

I also included only one passage per week for a couple of reasons:

1) Some parents set out to do copywork/dictation more than a couple times per week and then when they fail to hit their target, they give up and stop doing it all together. I’ve found that copywork/dictation once per week is way better than not doing it at all while holding the ideal of doing it twice or three times or every day of the week. In fact, I’ve found that once a week adds up to a lot of copywork/dictation if done all year.

2) Some of the passages in the Arrow and particularly the Boomerang are long. They benefit from being broken up into multiple days of work.

3) Kids like to pick their own copywork. When the parent selects only one passage per week, kids have the freedom of choosing other passages to copy (song lyrics, poetry, quotes from a beloved book, sayings on refrigerator magnets). That way, you focus on ONE passage, really teach it, and then your kids can select the ones they want.

4) For reluctant writers, it is a lot to ask them to do handwriting work (in a book, for instance), copywork, dictation, freewriting, and any writing project all in a week. The Arrow and Boomerang allow you to feel that you are covering the material necessary to a good language arts program without putting your child through too much pencil trauma.

Brave Writer is different than other programs. I believe firmly in a parent’s role in the homeschool. We are supports to what you do. We offer products that teach you how to teach.

Of course you can do more copywork if you like. When one of my sons was 14, he copied things every day and did special handwriting therapies for his dysgraphia. When my daughter was 11, she didn’t like the passages I picked so she wrote in her journal and her Greek notebook every day, even in summer. On the other hand, one child successfully went straight into Honor’s English without having ever done a formal grammar or spelling program. He learned it all through less than once per week copywork/dictation over his lifetime.

Pay attention to your kids. Do what you believe nourishes them. Let them tell you what is working and what is not. Kids don’t learn as well when they are numb to the subject matter, when they feel obliged to fulfill your expectations without their buy-in. If once a week copywork/dictation is tolerable (even enjoyable) for you kids, they will learn a lot! There’s no reason to think that more is necessarily better.

The Arrow language arts program

This entry is filed under Brave Writer Philosophy, Dictation and copywork. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

« Working hard for you
Friday Freewrite: Olympics »

4 Responses to “Copywork and Dictation: How Often?”

  1. JoVE says:
    August 13, 2008 at 3:52 pm

    Hmm. I never assumed that the one passage meant once a week. In fact we often used that passage several times in a week. Particularly when just starting out, dictation feels like a big thing to do with a completely new passage. So we would do the passage as copywork first, possibly in two chunks if it was long, and then do the same passage as dictation on Friday. That way you can actually teach the passage, stopping to talk about anything that might be complicated as it occurs.

  2. teddiebear_hugs says:
    August 13, 2008 at 8:05 pm

    JoVE, what a great idea! My son is almost 10, and has only been doing copywork off and on for about a year. I feel he is not ready to move right into dictation. My plan was to do copywork for the next 6-12 months, move to French dictation, and do French dictation for about 6-12 months, and then dictation. I think I might have him use copywork Mon and Tues, French dictation Wednesday and Thursday, and dictation on Friday for the passage used in Arrow. He has been also doing free copywork two or three days per week, where he gets to choose what he would like to copy.

  3. Shannan Guzzetta says:
    June 3, 2011 at 5:03 am

    Man, talk about a fantastic submit! I?ve stumbled across your blog a few times within the previous, but I generally forgot to bookmark it. But not once more! Thanks for posting the way in which you do, I genuinely enjoy seeing somebody who truly features a viewpoint and isn?t definitely just bringing back again up crap like almost all other writers right now. Maintain it up!

  4. Shannon Solak says:
    June 13, 2011 at 10:40 am

    Hi! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone 4! Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the fantastic work!

  • Search the Blog

  • Julie Bogart
  • Welcome, I’m Julie Bogart.

    I’m a homeschooling alum -17 years, five kids. Now I run Brave Writer, the online writing and language arts program for families. More >>

    IMPORTANT: Please read our Privacy Policy.

  • New to Brave Writer? START HERE

  • FREE Resources

    • 7-Day Writing Blitz
    • Brave Writer Lifestyle Program
    • Brave Writer Sampler: Free Sample Products
    • Freewriting Prompts
    • Podcasts
  • Popular Posts

    • You have time
    • How writing is like sewing
    • Best curriculum for a 6 year old
    • Today's little unspoken homeschool secret
    • Do you like to homeschool?
    • Don't trust the schedule
    • You want to do a good job parenting?
    • If you've got a passel of kids
    • You are not a teacher
    • Natural Stages of Growth in Writing podcasts
  • Blog Topics

    • Brave Learner Home
    • Brave Writer Lifestyle
    • Classes
    • Contests/Giveaways
    • Friday Freewrite
    • High School
    • Homeschool Advice
    • Julie's Life
    • Language Arts
    • Movie Wednesday
    • Natural Stages of Growth
    • One Thing Principle
    • Our Team
    • Parenting
    • Philosophy of Education
    • Podcasts
    • Poetry Teatime
    • Products
    • Reviews
    • Speaking Schedule
    • Students
    • Writing about Writing
    • Young Writers
  • Archives

  • Brave Writer is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees (at no extra cost to you) by advertising and linking to amazon.com

    Content © Brave Writer unless otherwise stated.

What is Brave Writer?

  • Welcome to Brave Writer
  • Why Brave Writer Works
  • About Julie
  • Brave Writer Values
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Speaking Schedule

Brave Writer Program

  • Getting Started!
  • Stages of Growth in Writing
  • The Brave Writer Program
  • For Families and Students
  • Online Classes
  • Brave Writer Lifestyle

…and More!

  • Blog
  • Classroom
  • Store
  • Books in Brave Writer Programs
  • Contact Us
  • Customer Service
© 2025 Brave Writer
Privacy Policy
Children's Privacy Policy
Help Center