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The one who writes them

Maggie

What I kept noticing is how much four- and five-year-olds can actually hold. Not how little — how much. Given something worth memorizing, a child that age will take it in and keep it, and then walk around the house reciting it for weeks.

Most programs for this age assume the opposite. So I started writing the one I wanted.

Maggie at the table with the ruled paper, the sand tray, and an open book.
Maggie, who writes these.

Why it looks like this.

A classical approach takes small children seriously. In practice that means real books rather than readers, a thing to look at closely every week, penmanship on lines, and going outside in the cold to see what is happening.

It also means short. Nothing in a unit here is meant to take an hour. A lesson that ends while a child still wants more is how attention gets built, and every page is written to be put down.

Written as they are taught.

Every unit goes to actual four- and five-year-olds before it goes anywhere else. The parts that do not hold get cut, which is why a unit is as short as it is.

It also means they arrive slowly. I would rather send you one unit that works than a term of material I have not watched a child sit through.

Get the copywork page free.

One printable page — “An apple has a star inside.” on three-line ruling, ready to print as many times as you like. I’ll send it now, and I’ll write when the next unit is finished. Nothing else.