A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Hi Julie!

I have to tell you that we are one week post-copywork/dictation seminar and our copywork experience has been completely transformed! We had a pretty dry/boring routine previously, whereby I would assign passages from their readings, and they would copy them onto loose leaf pages that I would insert in their “Language” binder. It was pretty uninspired, and a bit of a chore. After your webinar I told them we would do things differently and they would have much more ownership over the exercise.

New to copywork? Learn more here.

Skip to now: the kids are ready with their own personal, sparkly notebooks and fancy pencils, jotting down whole pages from the books they are reading. For when they lack their own inspiration, an old jar has been dug up, dusted off and filled with quotes from our favourite books – Harry Potter, Pippi Longstocking, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Phantom Tollbooth! Last night after my kids had gone to bed, I saw my youngest daughter doing copywork by the glow of the hall light, propped up on her elbows in bed. Of course, I let her turn her light back on.

Such a difference! Thank you for the tips and inspiration to make this a much more pleasant and meaningful experience!

Just to add – my only rule is for them to write their passages down with the correct grammar, punctuation, etc from the original passage. Despite their best efforts, sometimes mistakes are made, and handwriting is not always perfect. I am overlooking this right now to keep their enthusiasm up. There will be time for that as we go along, I figure. I know that they are already learning from it, since my 8 year old keeps telling me, looking up from her page, that, “Mom, I think I know how to spell ‘business’ now…”. Or, “forgotten” or “Hermione.” What a gift to see such results so quickly!

The marvel isn’t really mine – that’s the best part. I actually just handed it over to them, and told them to utilize the materials that were meaningful to them – and look what happened! Relinquishing the control and trusting the process was obviously the key, and the transformation unfolded organically from there.

~Jennifer

P.S. I am starting my own copywork journal today! I am excited to start!

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