Have Your Children Write and Illustrate Their Own Holy Week Book

Some years ago, when all my children were young, we enjoyed a hands-on Holy Week during which we did a different art project each day in conjunction with the readings. 

This year, we'll be continuing a writing and illustrating project that we began at the beginning of Lent - one that you could easily adapt into a Holy Week book in your home.

Our Simple Lenten Project

First, let me tell you about our simple project:

At the beginning of Lent, I was looking for a way to get my children and I back into regular Together Time studies including Bible reading.  I also wanted to highlight narration, writing, and handwriting skills.

Thus, when I spied three copies of Upon a Tree, a 2016 devotional booklet from Creative Communications, in my Lenten files, I decided that we would use the booklets for a simple Lenten project: Each of my children would write and illustrate their own book, retelling parts of Salvation History.

{Some links which follow are affiliate ones.} 

To do so, I placed three primary composition books (somewhat like these ones) and the devotional booklets near our kitchen table.  Then, daily, we took these out, along with our New Saint Joseph, Family Edition of the Holy Bible, pencils, and colored pencils, and I read the Bible verses noted in the devotional.

On some days, we chatted about what the Bible verses said, how they related to Salvation History, and what their application to our lives might be, while, on other days, we simply read the little poems in the devotional that went along with the Bible verses and then carried onto the next step.

That step was to have children either write and illustrate a narration about the verses which we had read aloud or to compose a poem or story segment related to them.

Then, I would help them correct their spelling, punctuation, etc. and comment on their handwriting efforts.

Some days this worked beautifully for all of us.

Other days, one child or another wasn't into it and rushed their work.

While, admittedly, on still other days, we neglected to get to our simple project and, then, played catch up later on.

Regardless, here we are, headed into Holy Week, ready to write the final portions of the story of the Passion before adding a page for the Resurrection on Easter Monday.

And I am pleased. For, although my children and I did not manage to make Bible reading a daily Together Time habit this Lent, we got closer to making it one and each of my children wrote their own simple Salvation History story.

How Could You Adapt Our Idea for Holy Week

I know what we have been doing is not rocket science - just reading the Bible, chatting, narrating/writing, and illustrating - but it is worthwhile, and because we are doing it in bound notebooks, it will become a keepsake for the kids that they can reread in future years.

You could do a similar thing this Holy Week, using an inexpensive primary composition journal, printing out free story writing paper, or using a blank book; then, reading the daily readings, and having your children write and illustrate.

Alternately, read a page or two of a favorite Lent/Easter picture book, such as The Easter Story, A Child's Easter,  He Is Alive,  Love One Another, or He Is Risen: The Easter Story each day, look up the Bible verses that would correspond to what you read, read those, then write and draw away.

In the end, you should have a lovely, child-written-and-illustrated book to read for years to come.

May you have a blessed and beautiful Holy Week!

Pray for All Souls with St. Gertrude's Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory (and Get a FREE Copywork Printable!)

Three years ago, we introduced the idea of actively praying for the souls in purgatory to our children.  

Then, two years ago, we joined in the tradition of consciously seeking to gain indulgences for the dearly departed throughout the year, and, especially, throughout November.  While, last year we began making an All Souls Prayer Box as part of Five Ways to Pray for All Souls.

Through these efforts, my children have learned a new (to them) way to practice our faith and to partake in a Spiritual Work of Mercy.  They have also memorized the Eternal Rest prayer, which we pray together each time we pass a cemetery.

This year, we are continuing our tradition of praying for all souls regularly, and been making special daily efforts to visit a cemetery to pray between November 1 and 8 in the hopes of gaining plenary indulgences for the dearly departed.  While doing so, we have added the Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory by St. Gertrude the Great to our efforts. 

Last year, I printed the St. Gertrude prayer out from the Catholic Company's website, but our family did not end up focusing on praying it daily as we were committing the Eternal Rest prayer to memory.  This year, however, my youngest is excited by the idea that every time we pray St. Gertrude's prayer piously we may be helping to release 1,000 souls from purgatory!  So, this prayer has become paramount to our daily treks to local cemeteries.

I have also made a simple copywork sheet set which includes the St. Gertrude Prayer in both cursive and print along with blanked lined sheets to copy the prayer onto.  My children will be using these this week and, in case your children might like to as well, I am sharing it freely here.

Enjoy using them, and, if you have a particular soul you'd like my family to include in our prayers, just let us know.

All Saints in Heaven, pray for us.  All Souls in Purgatory, we pray for you.

We've Found the "Easy Button" for Poetry Memorization!

(Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links for Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization by Institute for Excellence in Writing, because we enjoyed the resource so much upon reviewing it that we know we will be recommending it often.)

 At the beginning of this school year, my children and I invited some of our friends to join us in a newly hatched AMP club initiative in an effort to include more regular Art, Music, and Poetry study in our lives, while also enjoying learning and exploring alongside friends.  Thus, I was thrilled to receive an opportunity to review Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization by Institute for Excellence in Writing  (IEW), since I had a feeling it would dovetail perfectly with our AMP club endeavors.

Was I ever correct!

At the beginning of last fall, when my children and I kicked off our AMP club, we were so excited that we collected loads of poetry books, poured over them, picked out some poems to memorize, and set to memorization efforts.  However, as the weeks and months went by, more and more often, we found ourselves too busy to repeat our eager search-and-memorize process and ended up hosting a few gatherings with no poems to share.

Enter Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization, and our memorization efforts are back in full swing.  From the first day we cracked open the Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization student book and read its first poem (the cute and quick Ooey Gooey), my children began exercising their poetry memory muscles again with ease.  Since then, between listening to the CD's we received that accompany the book, and simply reading and reciting the other poems in the first section of the book on our own, the kids' mental muscles - and my own - continue to get a work out. 

Since we've had Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization at our fingertips, we have not missed being prepared with memorized poems for our AMP club.  Bonus, by reciting select poem from the program at our meetings and offering others a look at our student book, we've also drawn friends' attention to Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization and are, currently, considering using it as a collective "spine" for the poetry portion of our club next year. 

One mom thinks Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization looks great and another mom, who was absent at our last gathering, is going to take a peek at our copy of the program, too.  Then, if she and her children are as excited about it as we are, we might make Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization our club's official "spine" for 2016-2017. 

If our club does not elect to use Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization, however, the curriculum will still remain the go-to source our family's club preparations.  The program just makes selecting and memorizing well-written poems so easy and engaging.  We value its simplicity and its selections and the children enjoy reciting poetry learned from the program on the "stage" of our front porch during AMP gatherings.

Complete and Easy


Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization came to us nicely packaged in a sturdy box that contained a 200-page, soft-cover, spiral-bound teacher's manual, a 172-page, soft-cover, spiral-bound student book*, and a leather-bound case with five CD's and one bonus DVD in it.  Within these materials, we found quick access to:

• poems and speeches divided into five different levels which are presented in large font with illustrations in the student book, are written in smaller font in the teacher's manual, and are also read on the CD's, thereby giving both visual and auditory learners easy access to the selections.

• clear instructions for smooth teaching of the awesome selection of poems and speeches.  Better still, the teacher materials included not only how-to's for teaching poetry memorization, but also answered the question of why.  (Isn't it always easier to approach something when you know why it is important and how your investment of time and energy may bear fruit?)

• memory charts for tracking progress.  These are perfect for parents and chidlren who thrive on checklists and can be ignored by those who don't (even if that's not officially recommended.)

• certificates for noting when student's complete each level of the program.  These can work as effective motivators for some children.
 

• brief poet biographies.  These are listed in an alphabetized format for easy access.

• suggestions for connecting poetry memorization to related studies across various curriculum areas.  Areas include history, music science, and even topics like nutrition and Latin. 

• information for accessing seven audio MP3's and a 170-page student book in pdf format.  (Who does not love information, tips, and encouragement to feed parent's souls and intellects?)

• a bonus DVD of Andrew Pudewa’s conference talk called Nurturing Competent Communicators.  (Again, feeding the parents!)

When you add up all the components of Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization, you get a simple system of poetry memorization that acts as a fulfilling feast for children and parents alike. With this feast on the table, my children and I been learning poetry, and I have been getting some virtual homeschool conference time in, too.  Love it!
When I get free moments, I enjoy  "Mama conference time" through the DVD's and MP3's. Then, in the minivan, my children and I practice poetry review and memorization using the CD's.  Likewise, during many of our daily read aloud times, we open the student or teacher books to review poems we've mastered or begin new ones.  Finally, at our AMP club (and sometimes just for fun, too), we test ourselves by delivering the poems.

I also browse the notes next to the text of each selection in the teacher's manual and the lesson enhancement ideas towards the back of the manual to prompt chatting points or further exploration when we have time.  And, the children and I sometimes make up our own poetry modeled after that which we read. 

Oh how many vegetables can be stewed to develop jaws and how many creatures can become ooey gooey when imaginary mishaps happen as we create our personal poetry!  And, oh, what fun we've been having adding more poetry to our daily diet of food for our brains.


 
(*Please note:  For our review, we were blessed by the generosity of IEW when they sent us a printed copy of the Student Book, which is typically only available as an extra purchase when ordering the Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization package.  However, even in the typical package, you receive a handy pdf version of the student book, which we received access to as well.)

Final Thoughts

I think it is pretty obvious that Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization is a hit here.  I especially appreciate that the program:

• is family friendly. With five levels of increasingly difficult poems and passages to memorize, the collection works for both young and older here.  Plus, IEW's generous policy allows families to photocopy student materials for the entire family's use.  So, families with multiple children need not worry about the burden of buying extra materials. 

• comes with CD's.  Listening to the CD's in our minivan helps us memorize and recall poetry selections.  The CD's also give strong examples of oral communication skills.  For it is one thing to read a poem and another thing to deliver it with clear vocal choices.

• offers excellence in writing through diverse styles.  With selections ranging from 4-line Ogden Nash poems, to Lewis Carroll's Jaberwocky, to orations from Shakespeare plays, to famous historical speeches, children develop a mental library of excellent examples of vocabulary use, purpose in writing, strength in style choices, etc.

And What Do My Children Think?  

Each of my children appreciates how IEW has made poetry selection and memorization a breeze for us.  Truly, it's been our "easy button" for our AMP club preparations and also has provided us with general reading fun and listening times together.  Without question, we have all been enjoying memorizing poetry together in just a few minutes at a sitting. 

Should You Consider This Program?

In a word: YES! Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization has been a win for us and, I dare say, could be for you, too!  If you've been wanting to include poetry in your homeschool endeavors or if you have been seeking a simple way to exercise memorization muscles, I'd definitely recommend this program!  It's ideal for:

• families inspired by Classical or Charlotte Mason philosophies of home education
• families with multiple children
• those seeking to enhance their writing skills
• those who need to practice oration
• those who are looking for one-stop shopping for excellent poetry and speech selections to focus on.

 If you'd like to see parts of the program yourself, be sure to go to the IEW website to access samples.

Learn More

   

Learn what 100 Schoolhouse Review families thought about this wonderfully easy poetry memorization system that also helps with reading readiness, provides a writing foundation, and centers on mastery learning.

Find IEW on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. 

Copywork Made Easy for Children and Mom!

How pysched am I to have received a Lifetime Membership to Homeschool Copywork for review. What an awesome resource it is! Perfect for our present studies as well as for what I have planned for next year and for years to come, Homeschool Copywork offers printable ebooks filled with copywork and notebooking pages on:

• Artists
• Composer Quotes
• History
• Holidays and Special Occasions
• Hymn Studies 
• Inventors
• Poetry
• Preschool Themes
• Science
• Scripture

and more. 

With a Homeschool Copywork Membership, you can access dozens of ebooks filled with high quality quotes and passages connected to things that your children might already be learning about, so your children can practice spelling, handwriting, and memorization through the time-proven ease of copywork.  Indeed, if you are anything like me - a home educator influenced by Charlotte Mason and Classical styles - or if you are simply a homeschooler who seeks an easy strategy for folding handwriting and spelling into your homeschool day, you can quickly download, print, and begin with pleasure.

Professional AND Generous Resources

Amy Blevins, the brains and talent behind Homeschool Copywork began using copywork as a way to improve her daughter's handwriting and spelling skills. Her daughter responded well to some  copywork pages that had artwork to color on them, but Amy could find no more like them, so she began making some herself.  Then, she offered her well-designed pages to others, whereupon Homeschool Copywork was born.

Since Homeschool Copywork began, the collection of professional copywork and notebooking pages that Amy and her team offer has continued to increase. So has Amy's generosity to other homeschoolers. For while, yes, Homeschool Copywork is a business aimed at making profit to support Amy's homeschooled family, it is also a way that Amy gives forward to fellow homeschoolers. 

At Homeschool Copywork , Amy offers a FREE SUBSCRIPTION for those that want to access A VARIETY OF FREE PRINTABLE COPYWORK PAGES AND CHARLOTTE MASON RESOURCES. Then, if you love the ample taste you get with your freebies, you can sign up for an Annual Membership for just $29.95 or a Lifetime Membership for $45.00. Considering that these memberships include access to dozens of e-books and counting, I think they are quite a bargain and that Amy, through offering both free and budget-friendly membership options, truly proves herself to be as generous as she is professional. (Thanks, Amy and team!)

Among the ebooks offered for free at Homeschool Copywork is this patriotic one that I plan to use in July:

There is also this Bible-based FREEBIE, which will grace our kitchen table the day after my my children and I get to the story of Noah in the latest children's Bible we have selected to read at bedtime lately. 

 
I just love how this resource has full-color page options, coloring page options, printing options, and cursive options with variously spaced lines, too.  Just like the Homeschool Copywork ebook we are already using, this one will offer my children plenty of choices, allowing each to work alongside one another at their own particular "just right" pace and level.

Amy and her team are fabulous at understanding that one size does not fit all, but one theme can fit many.  I appreciate how many of their thematic resources are scaffolded for different ability levels.  Printable ebooks often come with print and cursive options, a variety of eye-catching graphics, and different line options.

Some ebooks, of course, are geared towards younger children, while others are geared toward a more advanced crowd.  For example, the Taft copywork.   

When I first glanced at its cover, I thought this ebook might a great one to print for use around the upcoming presidential election. However, after opening it, I realized that it wouldn't be a good fit for my children right now. The passages in it are simply too long for my children's memory and writing muscles at this point. I mention it here, though, for that very reason: it is advanced. 


 Homeschool Copywork offers plenty of resources for members with younger children as well as those with older or more advanced children. Truly, there are resources for every age from preschool through high school, all of which are beautifully designed and easy to download and print.

Our First (Second, and Third) Choice

 

When I signed up for this review, I thought we might begin using the Armor of God copywork to go along with some duct tape projects my son's club would be working on. My thought was that he could work on building weapons and armor with friends during club time, and, then, come home to work on related handwriting, spelling, and memory work at home with his siblings following suit.  (I knew my youngest would love the knight graphics in this ebook, and my middle child would enjoy the faith-based passages.)

 
When my son's club, however, decided to focus on Greco-Roman projects next instead of Armor of God ones, my plan went out the proverbial window.  I was not too worried about that, though, since, with a lifetime membership, neither my children nor I have to rush to download and print any single resource.  We can simply wait until each dovetails with perfect timing into our learning and life adventures, as I know the Armor of God copywork will on the coming year.

Another ebook that I was considering for our first foray into Homeschool Copywork was Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Copywork Quotes about the Human Life.

I loved the idea of passages to honor life and graphics to tie into anatomy and biology.  However, once I perused the actual passages contained in this ebook, I decided that they might be a bit lengthy for my five-year-old, who is still getting used to copywork, and, since I wanted all three of my children to work on the same ebook for our first time diving into Homeschool Copywork, I decided to wait until all of my childrens' copywork muscles are stronger before tackling this beautiful ebook.
 
I am fairly certain we will be able to use Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Copywork Quotes about the Human Life by the time the next 40 Days for Life campaign rolls around.  For, I dare say, by then, all of my children will likely be ready for longer passages. 

Why do I think this?

Because all three children are already getting faster and more focused with copywork using the third choice I made as our first ebook to start with: Character Building Copywork.

I chose this copywork to start off with for several reasons.  It has:

• both shorter and longer passages (so it could suit each of my children's levels),
• graphics that appeal to my youngest as well as to my other children,
• and passages that are timely for writing in my children's hearts.

The first day we used the ebook, I simply printed a small stack of pages out and let my children select from them.  Since then, I have offered them more pages and found that they are all straightforward and simple - yet pleasing! - making copywork easy for the children and for me.  We just sit down, set a timer for 5-10 minutes, and go.  The children copy and color until the timer goes off, and, sometimes, even after if they wish.  Easy peasy and effective. 

Our Thoughts

My youngest son, at five, said:

I liked the picture of the dragon I saw on the website and the knight on my copywork. 

Yes, the graphics are a draw for this little man who pushes himself through the copywork so he can enjoy coloring (and who, yes, sometimes colors first!)

 

My oldest son, at ten, said:

I like the cursive font.  I also like the pictures... I like the spacing, too.  It is big enough to write on.  I also like being able to pick which thing I want to copy.

See how the multiple options come into play.  My son exercises autonomy within the limits given to him.  That makes him happy, and I am equally content knowing he's building his spelling and handwriting muscles while writing worthy things in his memory. 

My daughter, at nine, said:

I liked it because there was stuff you could look at and color in on the pages.  I much preferred the printing ones, not the cursive.  I like that the font is easy to copy.  The g's and the a's do not look weird like in some fonts.  The space for writing is big enough, so it's not too hard, and it's small enough so you do not have to write too big.  It makes writing a little easier.

Again, the options that come with each ebook appeal to different children for different reasons and the ebooks as a whole have qualities which draw children in - such as easy-to-copy fonts and graphics that can be colored in.  

As for me, I am just THRILLED with how many of the ebooks will compliment things I already have planned for the next 6-12 months of homeschool study:

• Human Life and Human Body Notebooking Pages
• the aforementioned Armor of God copywork
• an Amazing Grace Hymn Study and Copywork pages
• Bird Coloring pages
• Copywork about composers like Bach and Mozart
• Thanksgiving Copywork
• Artist Study Copywork 

...and more.  The offerings that are ready to download and print at Homeschool Copywork will be relished in the coming year, and the growing collection will be appreciated, too. As I mentioned before, Amy and her team consistently add new materials to their collection of Charlotte Mason-friendly resources, making membership even that much better!
 

 

Further, membership log-in is easy on the Homeschool Copywork website, where buttons quickly take you to:

• early elementary work
• upper elementary work
• junior-high and high school work
• bonus products

After clicking through the buttons, you simply browse to see which ebooks appeal to you, click on a link for instant downloads, print, and you're good to go.

Is Homeschool Copywork for You?

 
If you are a Christian homeschool family that is inspired by Charlotte Mason or is simply seeking an easy, time-proven way to add spelling, handwriting, and memory work into your homeschool activities, Homeschool Copywork could be for you! Check out their freebies to help you decide if it is and, remember, that there are dozens of ebooks on music, art, history, Scripture, and more available through an upgraded membership.


Learn More

• It's pretty obvious that I am a fan of copywork.  If you would like to read thoughts on why it works so well, click on over to Homeschool Copywork Explained.

• Get social with Homeschool Copywork on Facebook,  Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Instagram.

• See how 100 Schoolhose Review Crew families are benefiting from Homeschool Copywork.

 
    Are you ready for ease with spelling and handwriting practice?  Do you want to tie this practice to topics you're already studying?  Then,why not try a FREE SUBSCRIPTION to Homeschool Copywork today?  I have been loving our Lifetime Membership (obviously).