Hi Cindy,
I have a quick question for you. I’ve begun having my children spend ~8-10 minutes (3-4 times/week) typing out Scripture chapters/long passages that they’ve memorized in the past. I’m considering including some good literature passages, as well. What’s your opinion on this? Does their “Copywork” NEED to be done by hand, or can they receive the same benefit by typing good literature?
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FROM CINDY…
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Hi!
Super question!
There are really two different skills here. I type a good bit, almost all day long every day, but when I write by hand, I give out physically. *I* need to do both. How much more do our children?
There are indeed benefits of literature that come just by reading great literature. Typing literature is great too because it sticks even better if you are looking deeper at the passage as you type it in. Memorizing literature is great–you have it with you for life. ALL of these skills are super. AND literature is the most perfect content for learning the skills that your children will need for life because you are always getting more than typing ASDF_ or reading for a comprehension test. BUT, beloved, there is sooo much more that is taught in each and every one of these means. There are so many reasons to use each of these timeless models.
I believe that this is the reason that the schools of our day are so inferior. They have taken away the techniques that were used all throughout Scripture and used for millenniums to educate the world. They have stripped lessons of their “ideas” that feed the heart, soul, and mind. Now, we have no idea what we are to do or why we are to do it.
Copywork is rich. There is so much taught by that one little discipline, that I could write another whole book JUST on the riches of Copywork.
To answer your question, I would not substitute typing for handwriting. I consider them two different and very valuable skills. I recommend having BOTH in your lessons. If I had to choose ONE for a young, reluctant writer, I would still choose handwriting. They will never do anything in life that will not require good, clear penmanship. In addition, their character and literacy is judged by their penmanship. The key to creative writing and self-education, which will come as they get older, is developing endurance to read, study, and record every day in these younger years. These are the years that they need to learn not only how to write, but how to build those muscles up so they can write as long as their mind thinks later!
Hope this helps! Thanks for your question. If you need more help, just drop me a line!
Love,
Cindy
I must say I agree with Cindy that a good handwriting style is a good sign of character and education. I am strongly biased though as my grandfather had a beautiful script that he was very proud of and I treasure anything I have of his writing.
Also during my studying days as an Architectural Drafting student I had an assignment to copy out a paragraph six times with 6 different font styles by hand. The fun bit was changing height from 5mm to 3mm to 2mm and changing ink pen each time the size changed. I learnt from this exercise (that I did twice over due to failing the course first time) that it takes a lot of practice to have a neat style and that a unique personal style of hand writing that is readable takes a lot of time to develop.
My children are learning “proper” printing because of my strong belief in a good presentation, not printing that is almost script. Script IMO should stand on it’s own as a different style of writing.
Ooops, soap box,
Taking a bow,
Jen in Oz
I not only agree, I encourage mommy’s to write instead of type. We were without power this past weekend and I wanted to put a few things down, so to conserve my laptop battery I got my colored gel pens and some paper and started writing. It was pitiful, I knew I was out of practice, I had a hard time reading my own writing. I also knew that if one of my children had turned that in to me I would have asked them to please try again, I rarely do that unless it is unrecognizable, and that is just what my paper was. Even the pretty gel ink did not help to beautify a thing. I guess I need to pull out my old handwriting charts and do some tracing…..
Valerie Neal
I want to stress the “do both” part of this. Handwriting is so vital and there are so many times that we have to do it in our lives. We’re not always going to have time to turn on the computer and there are times when we aren’t going to be near the computer and have to record a thought. The other half of the answer, though, is to use copywork to practice typing skills also. “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. ” and “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.” are forever in my memory. How much better would it have been to type over and over “For God so loved the world he gave is only begotten son.” – something I only memorized a few years ago.
Elizabeth Bowen