AmblesideOnline's Patio Chats:
27. Dictation
We've talked about copywork. Dictation is simply a next step, and it's just as easy.
Here's the process, simply explained: find a sentence in a book. Hand the child the book, and ask him to study the entire paragraph that includes your sentence. When he thinks he could write any part of that paragraph correctly without looking at it, he hands you back the book. You dictate the single sentence while he writes it as he remembered, making sure to get the punctuation right, too. It should be correct since, after all, he studied it first. If it's not, give him less to study next time. You want this to be a successful exercise for him, so adapt the length of the sentence to what he can handle without any mistakes. As he gets better, you can lengthen the dictation exercise.
This whole process takes about ten minutes, and voila! you can cross handwriting, spelling, punctuation and vocabulary off your list for that day.
Here's a free bonus tip: On the days you do dictation (once or twice a week), your child can skip copywork.
