James Herriot's Treasury for Children Copywork (Free Printable)

James Herriot’s Treasury for Children is a classic I could not do without in our homeschool! This free printable coywork from the book will complement the book nicely as you read the stories to your children.

James Herriot’s Treasury for Children

James Herriot’s Treasury for Children tells the stories of a simple country veterinarian in the English countryside. As he cares for the animals in the neighboring farms and gets to know the people in his town, Herriot sees some interesting and funny sights.

In this book, he tells his tales in a way that a child will understand and appreciate. It was while reading these heartwarming stories with our kids that I found myself opening up to the idea of bringing two loving cats into our home.

Stories In the Treasury

James Herriot’s Treasury for Children comprises eight darling stories. You can find the complete treasury in one book or buy each story in as a picture book individually. (The picture books are out of print and can be a bit pricy.)

Moses the Kitten
Only One Woof
The Christmas Day Kitten
Bonny’s Big Day
Blossom Comes Home
The Market Square Dog
Oscar, Cat-About Town
Smudge, the Little Lost Lamb

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James Herriot’s Treasury for Children: Warm and Joyful Tales by the Author of All Creatures Great and Small

Hardcover Book
Herriot, James (Author)
English (Publication Language)
272 Pages – 10/28/2014 (Publication Date) – St. Martin’s Griffin (Publisher)

Vocabulary Lessons from James Herriot’s Treasury

The rich vocabulary in Herriot’s narratives is one of the first details to catch my eye. You may enjoy discussing some of these words with your children as you read the stories.

When I review vocabulary with our children, I keep it simple. I ask them if they have heard the word before. Do they know the meaning? If not, I read the word again in the context of its sentence to see if they can guess.

If they can’t guess the correct meaning, I share it with the children. Occasionally, I don’t know the meaning either and we look it up together.

It also helps young children to visualize a word. You may want to write it for them on a whiteboard or have them copy the new word in a notebook.

Moses the Kitten
- opacity
- byre
- fortnight
- cosseted
- connoisseurs
- siesta
- incongruous
- congenial
Only One Woof
- stooks
- trilbies
- gesture
The Christmas Day Kitten
- timid
- waft
- bedraggled
- ornate
- sedate
4. Bonny’s Big Day
- carthorse
- muzzle
- lame
- entrant
- spectacles
- bowler hat
- regalia
- rosette
Blossom Comes Home
- cattle-drover
- placidly
- ambled
- bullock
- sty
- vanished
- daft
- suckle
The Market Square Dog
- cowshed
- anaesthetic
- kennel
- enquire (inquire)
- mongrel
Oscar, Cat-About-Town
- rummage
- ornaments
- crockery
- mixer
Smudge, The Little Lost Lamb
- ewe
- flock
- sensation
- battlements
- lumbering
- blizzard
- thawing

What is Copywork?

Copywork is simply the habit of handwriting passages from great authors. After all, how do we learn to do anything well? We watch people who do it well. Copywork allows children to learn directly from excellent communicators by imitating their written words.

Handwriting and copywork are not the same thing. Handwriting should be mastered before copywork. When kids can fluently write, then they can begin copywork. Having said that, copywork is likely to improve handwriting skills, but it is also so much more than that. It teaches good writing form and exposes kids to quality pieces.

Charlotte Mason Copywork Method

When I first started homeschooling years ago, I learned about copywork from reading Charlotte Mason’s written works. Charlotte Mason, a teacher who lived in England in the 1800’s, was remarkably ahead of her time with her ideas about education. Most people credit her with the idea of copywork, although she called it “transcription.”

With my background in classroom teaching, the idea of using copywork and narration as the core of our language arts felt almost too simple. I was used to breaking everything apart—separate lessons for spelling, writing, vocabulary, punctuation, and more.

Copywork, however, is an all-in-one habit that naturally weaves all of these skills together.

After sixteen years of homeschooling, watching my own kids use copywork, I’m convinced it’s a powerful practice—and one that’s far more underestimated than it should be!

Here’s what Charlotte Mason had to say about the habit of copywork.

“The earliest practice in writing proper for children of seven or eight should be, not letter-writing or dictation, but transcription (copywork), slow and beautiful work.”

“Children should transcribe favorite passages.–A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription (copywork) their favourite verse in one poem and another…a book of their own, made up of their own chosen verse, should give them pleasure.”

How We Use Copywork?

We use a single spiral notebook for a full year of copywork. At the start of each day, your child writes the date and then copies the assigned passage, leaving extra space between lines when needed.

A simple rule of thumb is to have children copy one sentence a day in first grade, two in second grade, and gradually increase from there. Some children may choose to do more, and that’s wonderful, but this guideline works well for most kids developmentally.

Keep copywork lessons short, 10-15 minutes! Remember how we dreaded long, busywork writing worksheets in school?

Older children will be able to copy longer passages, but if it takes them longer than 15-20 minutes, it is too much.

Focus on quality, not quantity. Challenge them to keep a copywork notebook of beautiful entries. The goal is to have a habit of good writing.

Extensions of Copywork

After a child becomes proficient in copywork, you can extend this practice into other writing skills.

Cursive– Once children can print neatly and comfortably, you can introduce cursive writing. Teach cursive as a separate lesson, focusing on one letter at a time. When they become fluent, have them complete their daily copywork in cursive. With regular practice, it will become increasingly easy.
Typing– After completing a typing program, children can begin typing their copywork once they’ve written it by hand. This adds an extra layer of practice. The purpose is to complement—not replace—traditional copywork.
Dictation-Occasionally, after a copywork lesson, dictate the same sentence or paragraph to your child and have them write it out. This will be a good way for you and for them to check their spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc.
Illustrating– Some kids love to draw little sketches beside their work, showing the story or the characters. This may help make their copywork fun and beautiful!

What’s included in the Free Printable?

This free printable has 4 pages of free copywork from each story in the James Herriot’s Treasury for Children collection. The copywork selections are 2-3 sentences long. The copywork sections for each day are separated so that each story has 4-5 copywork assignments.

When I use this copywork in our homeschool, I like to read one story a week, either in one sitting or a few different sittings spread out. I have our kids copy one copywork section a day so that they will have finished all the copywork for that story by the end of the week.

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