Hi
Just thought I'd share my experience with you. My ds is 7 also and we're in the last bit of Beyond (10 more units to go). When he first started doing the copywork he was using the handwriting paper with the dashed line in the middle (I'm sure it has a "formal" name but I can't recall). And his writing was big; a little shakey here; a little jumbled there; words too close together; too much space between letters of the same word.......
And to add on to all of that he did. not. like. copywork. at. all. Fun times.
So, because I figured for him the above mentioned issues were the most important for him to concentrate on I didn't worry about indentation, paragraph separation, etc. He needed the basics worked on: how to separate words, how to close in those letters in the words, straighten up those lines that are supposed to be straight, round out those p's, b's, and a's, keep the letters the same size - that's where the handwriting paper
really helped. It gave him the visual guidelines that regular ruled paper doesn't. And I sat with him while he did it so we could immediately address an issue and tried to keep the atmosphere between us light and gentle. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering that all of this is his first rodeo. All these skills and expectations of him are new in his little life. And it's my job to be there to guide and support.
It can get frustrating when it seems like there's no progress but I have found that as long as I stay calm and gentle with a willingness to help him through the issue we are able to accomplish more and walk away with smiles.
The next thing I did to help him was I copied the section for that day onto the paper leaving a blank line underneath each of my handwritten lines. That way he was actually copying my writing that was located directly above the line he was writing on. Clear as mud?
That kept him from having to look in the teacher's manual at the poem, then back at his work, then back at the manual, then back to his work. I think that took out a frustrating element for him.
Fastforward to now. He's using wide ruled paper and we have on occasion copied directly out of the manual. His spacing is better, his formation is better, and he can really put out some nice copywork when he commits himself fully. But I have noticed that the consistant letter sizing does suffer more on that paper than the handwriting paper with guidelines. But it's a learning process. He's still learning. And practicing. And gaining confidence in his skills and abilities as he sees himself improve. Now I don't sit with him anymore while he does copywork because I take that time to work with my daughter. But when he tells me he's through I tell
him to check it and correct anything that needs changing or attention. He knows by now what I'll make him fix and I figure this is a good lesson for him to learn how to be responsible for himself.
And I also wanted to add that I learned from one of the other fine ladies on this board that the copywork shouldn't be a long affair. I was guilty of setting a certain writing amount rather than a certain time allotment for copywork in the beginning of Beyond. But I learned it's better to have a small amount of quality work and an unfrustrated student than lots of mistake-ridden work and an upset student.
So we usually set copywork for 5-10 minutes (depending on how focused he is on his work vs. the birds or clouds or fly on the wall or.......
) That has served us well.
I hope some of this helps.
Many blessings!
Anyway I looked in some of the previous threads but still wondering....