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Copywork

August 6, 2009 by Imaan 2 Comments

A Child should Execute Perfectly. No work should be given to a child that he cannot execute perfectly, and then perfection should be required from him as a matter of course… Set him six strokes to copy; let him, not bring a slateful, but six perfect strokes, at regular distances and at regular slopes. If he produces a faulty pair, get him to point out the fault, and persevere until he has produced his task; if he does not do it to-day, let him go on to-morrow and the next day, and when the six perfect strokes appear, let it be an occasion of triumph. So with the little tasks of painting, drawing, or construction he sets himself–let everything he does be well done… Closely connected with this habit of ‘perfect work’ is that of finishing whatever is taken in hand. The child should rarely be allowed to set his hand to a new undertaking until the last is finished.
~ Charlotte Mason

I have done precious little of copywork with Ms M for someone who is supposed to follow the Charlotte Mason approach in homeschooling. I have been striving to remedy that since relocating to Pakistan and alhamdulillah, Ms M is now enjoying writing. She has a journal in which she scribbles her stories and thoughts. Her copywork book is used not only for penmanship but also reading and narrating.

So just what does copywork entail? In it, a child is expected to copy a selection of meaningful and well-written work in his best penmanship. However, it is more than just perfecting handwriting – it is about instilling and perfecting proper grammar, spelling and phrasing through copying great literature.

The child learns to spell well by looking at the word, seeing it with his mind’s eye and then writing it from memory. A friend of mine who does a great deal of copywork points out that you must not allow a child to spell a word wrongly on paper because this will create an impression of the wrongly spelt word in his mind. In my elder daughter’s case, copywork is ideal – she is highly auditory and while she reads very well, is weak in visualising words for spelling.

Copywork helps to improve writing techniques because the child is exposed to a wide variety of quality literature and thus, diverse writing styles and techniques. It is a nice way of teaching punctuation and grammar – he gets to see it in action as opposed to learning the mere mechanics, which can be so dry.

These are a few things that might help make copywork a success:

  • Keep copywork sessions short. Since Ms M has yet to master neatness, trying to shape her letters nicely and meticulously tires her. I try to keep copywork sessions to no more than 15 minutes.
  • Use a variety of interesting sources. We use Qur’anic verses, ahadeeth, meaningful passages from books that my kids love, Aesop’s fables, poetry (sometimes funny ones help!) and quotes or idioms. Basically, copywork sessions are fun because Ms M knows that she gets to read something really interesting each time. I reproduce the full poem or short story because likes a good yarn and because she is a context kind of girl, but she only has to copy a small selection of it, which I have formatted in bold.
  • Make the book all the child’s own. We made our own copywork book. I kept in mind Ms M’s interests when I compiled the material. Her book’s cover has her name and vintage clip art which she loves.
  • Incorporate copywork with other subjects. Umm Tafari of River City Homeschoolers says that she alternates with science, history, and Islamic studies passages. I can see the wisdom in this – if the child is already journalling or notebooking, then we can compromise and ask him to write extracts of his studies in his best writing so he doesn’t have to do copywork as an exclusive subject.

Umm Tafari uses the Startwrite programme, which looks very handy ma shaa Allah, and Handwriting Without Tears. You can download lots of notebooking and copywork pages from sites like Notebooking Pages and Notebooking Nook.

I prefer using the writing exercise books available here in Islamabad and my own pages that I format using MS Word. I use 4 lines instead of 2 or 3. The letters sit on the third line – capitals and tall letters like (b, d, h, l etc.) go all the way up to the first/top line. The second line is the midway point and is shorter letters (like c, e, m, n, o, etc.). Hanging letters like (g, j, p, q, etc.) go down to the fourth line. I don’t know if this makes sense – I’ll upload a copy of our copywork book if anyone is interested :) (EDIT: OK, did some more research – I use top, middle, bottom & descender lines.)

I’ve recently purchased Penny Gardner’s Italics, Beautiful Handwriting for Children because my daughter wants to try cursive. I think this was a little premature though :)

We need to do more Arabic copywork… this Ramadan in shaa Allah. Any ideas?

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Reading time: 4 min
Homeschool

Geography Resources

by Imaan No Comments

If you are a book and curriculum junkie like me, you might like these :)

I found these vintage Geography books – they are so charming. It has a conversational approach so I think children will like them. They are now public domain and available for download:

  • Home Geography by C.C. Long
  • Elementary Geography by Charlotte Mason

I also discovered two other free textbooks – one for Geology and one for Geography – at Kids Geo. I have not gone through all of it but it looks promising. You can read them here:

  • Kids Geology Online
  • Kids Geography Online

We follow a living books approach to our studies so we like using literature. Penny Gardner has a list of such books and Simply Charlotte Mason has a good bookfinder.

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Reading time: 1 min
Homeschool

Around The World In 80 Days

by Imaan No Comments
Around The World In 80 Days

I have so much to say about this book but Bear is begging for a game of “Bus Stop”, so watch this space. :)

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Reading time: 1 min

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Yesterday, I had a sobering chat with my friend wh Yesterday, I had a sobering chat with my friend who is a member of a minority group here. (I am keeping things vague for her safety and mine.) She has a relative who is also a friend of mine. 

In both my early encounters with them, I’d always sensed an air of reserve and secrecy. I understood that we had different beliefs, but I could not understand what I perceived as fear. Not being a native here in Pakistan, I’d had my share of bewildering and unfathomable encounters, so I’d left things at that. Maybe I’d understand in time to come, I thought.

They had always been very kind to me and I tried to reciprocate as best I could. For all our (acknowledged) differences in opinion and belief, we found some common ground and focused on doing some good. My friend’s relative donated science kits as well as books for my homeschooling gang and I’ll always be grateful for that. 

I read news yesterday about how my friend and her people do in fact live in danger. She told me how she fears for her husband’s life every single time he leaves home. She jumps every single time her doorbell rings. She worries about sending her daughter to school for fear of bullying or worse… Target killings of her people are a reality.

It made me feel so ashamed because this is tragic and downright disgraceful for any country, but even more so for a Muslim one. 

It’s OK to disagree. It’s OK to debate. It is NOT OK to terrorize and it is NOT OK resort to violence. It is wrong and it is unjust and it is EVIL to do so. When dealing with people of different beliefs, can we not be civilised? Can we not be HUMAN? Can we not behave the way our deen taught us? 

We need to find a way to make things better. It is not right to allow people who know precious little about Islam to desecrate it. 

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#islam #minorityrights #knowyourreligion #pakistan
Journalists say this time it is different. Rushdi Journalists say this time it is different.

Rushdi as-Sarraj, Yasser Murtaja’s friend, told Al-Jazeera, “This task is difficult under normal circumstances, so you can imagine working under a fierce offensive that does not distinguish between a journalist, a civilian or a military leader.” Israel is working hard “to silence the image and voice, and to ban any news or information that exposes its crimes”.

He also says, “My family doesn’t stop calling me, fearing that I could be harmed. It is an endless circle of fear and exhaustion. But we must continue sharing our message.”

Praying for Muna El-Kurd @muna.kurd15 , her brother @mohammedelkurd and all the journalists putting out the truth. 

#palestine #freepalestine #freemunakurd #freemunaelkurd #savesheikhjarrah #savesilwan #savelifta #savemohammedelkurd
«THROWBACK, Summer + Winter 2019» «We returned «THROWBACK, Summer + Winter 2019»

«We returned to the park after the lockdown earlier this year… sadly our tree for all seasons is no more 😢»

FOREIGN LANDS by Robert Louis Stevenson
Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.
I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.
If I could find a higher tree
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the sea among the ships.
To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive.
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#throwback #pakistan #islamabad #lifeinpakistan #lifeinislamabad #homeschool #homeschooldays #homeschoolcoop #homeschoolinislamabad #homeschoolinpakistan #naturediary #naturejournal #science #charlottemason #charlottemasoninspired #charlottemasoneducation #charlottemasonnaturestudy #charlottemasonliving #charlottemasonhomeschool #cmnaturestudy #cmnaturejournal #naturewalk #natureramble #naturestudy #naturejournal #homeeducation #outandabout #ilookisee #islamabadhomeschoolers
A couple of you asked me to make a post of my stor A couple of you asked me to make a post of my story in response to LV’s despicable use of the keffiyeh design. Pictures in this post are from hirbawi.ps and @palestine.pixel … 

EDIT: yes, my second slide should have been edited and it is bugging me. I repeated 1930s… sorry! If you want a more polished version, DM me. You get my meaning anyway, right? 
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#palestine #freepalestine #keffiyeh #gaza #jerusalem #savesheikhjarrah
«YET ANOTHER THROWBACK, Jan. 2020» I was feelin «YET ANOTHER THROWBACK, Jan. 2020»

I was feeling a little out of sorts (again) – I’d left the house a mess (again) and the boy and I were in a rush to get to the Art Co-op. Habiba @ourlivinghomeschool was doing a session on Wassily Kandinsky that day. 

We were delayed by a massive traffic jam and our stress levels rocketed when an obnoxious motorist kept sounding his horn repeatedly as if to shoo other cars out of the way. What was everyone else to do but wait for the jam to ease? 

We made it just in time though…barely! As we ran towards the gathering, it was as if a huge weight was lifted away. This gorgeous view greeted the boy and me, alhamdulillah. When we got down to studying Kandinsky, we felt more than fine.

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#pakistan #islamabad #lifeinpakistan #lifeinislamabad #homeschool #homeschooldays #homeschoolcoop #homeschoolinislamabad #homeschoolinpakistan #naturediary #desidiaries #charlottemason #charlottemasoninspired #charlottemasoneducation #charlottemasonnaturestudy #charlottemasonliving #charlottemasonhomeschool #cmnaturestudy #cmnaturejournal #naturewalk #natureramble #naturestudy #naturejournal #homeeducation #outandabout #ilookisee #islamabadhomeschoolers #artcoop #artoutdoors
«THROWBACK, Mar. 2019» Once upon a time before «THROWBACK, Mar. 2019» 
Once upon a time before Covid.

The calm before…

We had our Monday meet up again at Fatima Jinnah Park. The air was cool and crisp and the skies sunny when the nature gang got together. Then, it was on to a jolly game of Simon Says – Katelynn’s @_k8erpotater clever way of teaching the kids about body parts and how they move.

The kids did their usual tree climbing and exploring. Then, the dark clouds started rolling in. We took a while to decide whether or not to leave – the park literally looked dark and ominous on one side and cheery and bright on the other. We only started rushing for home when lightning split the sky. The kids were not to be hurried, however. They felt little pellets hitting them and stopped to investigate… hailstones!

Our ramble was cut short and I got cold and wet, but I think it was a gorgeous day. We got to learn about nature in a very real way.
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#pakistan #islamabad #lifeinpakistan #lifeinislamabad #homeschool #homeschooldays #homeschoolcoop #homeschoolinislamabad #homeschoolinpakistan #naturediary #naturejournal #science #charlottemason #charlottemasoninspired #charlottemasoneducation #charlottemasonnaturestudy #charlottemasonliving #charlottemasonhomeschool #cmnaturestudy #cmnaturejournal #naturewalk #natureramble #naturestudy #naturejournal #homeeducation #outandabout #ilookisee #islamabadhomeschoolers
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