Norah is almost finished with Zaner-Bloser's Handwriting K. She started this book a little over a year ago.

And it's a good thing she's almost done, too, since her book is almost done for (as you can see from the photo above.)

I've started having Norah write sentences or do "copy work" for handwriting. Copy work is something her handwriting book has waited till the very end to introduce and even now, there isn't much of it to be had. So, I've had to come up with my own sentences for Norah to copy.

I have started by asking Norah to read a story to me from one of her easier phonics readers. This isn't handwriting, obviously, but the reading practice doesn't hurt her any.

While she is reading the story, I use words and subject matter from the story to write out a simple sentence in black marker on her practice paper. When she finishes reading the story, she copies the same thing in pencil on the line below it.


As she has improved at this copy work, I've started making it longer. Eventually, she will be copying whole passages from the best works of literature, but we are only just now starting the preparation toward that.

These simple copy work exercises are bridging the gap for Norah between the rows of letter after letter after letter that she's copied to using the letters in full sentences and paragraphs.