Angelina's Garden

Around mid October, we finished up the modern time period and then started our new year with Ambleside Online Year 2.  We have modified the program somewhat to fit our needs and fit the books we have on hand.  Copy work is an important part of a Charlotte Mason approach to education and has always been an important part of the curriculum for our school.  My kids have learned basic, but very important skills from this process including how to stay inside the margin, how to double space, how to print neatly, how to space letters, how to properly apply capitalization and punctuation, etc.

This year, I created a list, based upon the alphabet, of important Bible verses and prayers: ABC’s for the Orthodox Christian Child  Each week, we try to do at least 2 or three entries of copy work from this collection.   Here is how  I have set it up:  1. I printed  a copy of the ABC’s for the Orthodox Christian Child.  2. Then, I placed the list inside the pocket of a paper 3-clasp folder.

3. Then, I pre-loaded enough paper in the clasps so that he can get through 26 verses and prayers, with a few extra for mistakes.   4. We have an alphabet stamp set, so my little dude stamps the first letter, then writes out the Bible verse or prayer double spacing in pencil.

He has come a long way since the beginning of the year.  But, we still need to work on margins and spelling and capitalization.  The letter O begins St. Ephraim’s Prayer, which is rather long, so I told him he could take 2 or 3 days to do it neatly.  Sometimes my little man is in the mood for copy work and sometimes he isn’t.  I get that.  Sometimes I feel like doing laundry, and some times I don’t.  When he is in one of those anti-writing moods, we just set the timer for 5 minutes.  I tell him to work as hard as he can for five minutes. Then, when the timer is up he can just stop for the day and pick up right there tomorrow.  I have been known to do the same thing with laundry.   Usually, he is surprised by how much work he has gotten done in five minutes… a good lesson in just hunkering down.

Hopefully, as we continue this project , I will show you our progress and what we plan to do with these completed pages.