Copywork dilemma

[LynnH]

My ds is 14 and in MTMM. He has difficulty writing due to his Cerebral Palsy, so he types most things. However I have always made him do the copywork as scheduled in the guide. His cursive writing still has some issues, but it is much better than any professional ever predicted it would be, and I am sure that is due to HOD copywork. Now here is my dilemma. In MTMM each week he is to pick a significant portion of the document studied in Worthy Words and copy it. If he is going to have to write it he usually chooses the shortest passage he can find, sometimes it is significant and sometimes it really needs a few more sentences to really be complete. He won't add those sentences though because it is very tiring for him to write that much. He is asking to type it. He says if he types it then he can really focus on picking a better passage because he won't worry about the length. I am leaning towards letting him type it. I guess I am wondering at his age what is more important, doing copywork when I know writing will never be his main way of imparting information, or learning how to pick a significant passage out of a primary source document. He still does the copywork required in the Bible box and any that goes along with Draw and Write Through History, so it isn't as if he will not do any copywork. So do you think I should just let him type it?

[school4princesses]

I would venture to say that perhaps you can do both. Perhaps, every other week, he chooses a longer passage to type out, and then on the opposite weeks he chooses a shorter passage to do some focused cursive practice. He obviously realizes that he has some difficulties, but it is obvious that he wants to do as much as he can to overcome them. (I can tell that from your posts here and from your blog.) The copywork is great for his fine motor skills, but I can see how it would be overwhelming to think of how much time it would take each week to do the best job he can. Either way, I'm very impressed with his work. It is much more thoughtful and intuitive than my MTMM student who couldn't care less about her schooling and does as little as possible to just "get 'r done!"

Blessings.

[countrymom]

I agree that at this point he should pick the passage for its importance and significance, as this is a skill that should be learned. The pp had a good idea in doing every other week. If it were me I might just pick a week every now and then that he needs to copy since he is writing with other assignments.

[my3sons]

...He has difficulty writing due to his Cerebral Palsy, so he types most things... He is asking to type it. He says if he types it then he can really focus on picking a better passage because he won't worry about the length. I am leaning towards letting him type it. I guess I am wondering at his age what is more important, doing copywork when I know writing will never be his main way of imparting information, or learning how to pick a significant passage out of a primary source document. He still does the copywork required in the Bible box and any that goes along with Draw and Write Through History, so it isn't as if he will not do any copywork. So do you think I should just let him type it?

Because he is still doing the rest of the copywork, because ds does have cerebral palsy, and because ds is asking to type it for a very good reason - I think I'd tell him that first, he should choose the passage based on it significance, based on its worth not its length. But then, if the passage he chooses happens to be quite short - as in very short - he can copy it. If it is of medium length or longer, typing it is just fine. That is just my thought though! You will know best!

In Christ,
Julie

[LynnH]

Julie that is kind of what I did this week. I told him to pick what he thought was a significant passage and then I would decide. He picked one that wasn't too tough to copy so I had him copy it and he didn't seem to mind. I think I will just do that each week. He will probably then pick really long passages just so he doesn't have to write it .

[Maadrose]

I think it would also depend on your goal. He is an older child and most likely as he gets older any writing that he would need to do, for a career, college, or high school, he would be able to type it anyway. I think at this age, I'd allow typing. It's still copy work and you can still require perfection...all spelling, punctuation, etc....he should still be held accountable for that.