Aesop's Fables Copywork Pages (Free Printable)

The timeless classic, Aesop’s Fables, teaches children valuable lessons through the stories of animals and nature. These free printable Aesop’s Fables Copywork Pages will bring the stories to life while also sharpening your child’s writing skills.

Aesop’s Fables

Aesop uses simple stories to illustrate moral lessons, much as Jesus taught truth through parables. Who can forget the lessons from well-loved tales such as The Crow and the Pitcher, The Tortoise and the Hare, or The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse? If you want to teach your child a truth that will stick, try telling them through stories like Aesop’s Fables.

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Aesop’s Fables for Children: with MP3 Downloads (Dover Read and Listen)

Winter, Milo (Author)
English (Publication Language)
112 Pages – 07/15/2020 (Publication Date) – Dover Publications (Publisher)

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Character Lessons from the Fables

Perseverance

The Wolf and the Kid
The Hare and the Tortoise

Pride

The Tortoise and the Ducks
The Eagle and the Jackdaw
The Fox and the Grapes
The Ass and His Driver
The Gnat and the Bull
The Oak and the Reeds
The Ass Carrying the Image
The Two Goats
The Leap at Roads

Industry

Belling the Cat
Hercules and the Wagoner
The Crow and the Pitcher
The Ants and the Grasshopper
The Farmer and His Sons

Teamwork

The Bundle of Sticks
Three Bullocks and a Lion

Kindness

The Lion and the Mouse
The Boys and the Frogs
The Ant and the Dove
The North Wind and the Sun

Contentment

The Oxen and the Wheels
The Plane Tree
The Hares and the Frogs
The Vain Jackdaw and his Borrowed Feathers
The Goose and the Golden Egg

Honesty

The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf
Mercury and the Woodman

Friendhip

The Farmer and the Stork
The Goatherd and the Wild Goats
Two Traveler’s and a Bear

Prudence

A Raven and a Swan
The Frogs Who Wished for a King
The Ass and the Load of Salt
The Wild Boar and the Fox
The Fox and the Goat

Why We Use Copywork In Our Homeschool

When I first started homeschooling, I heard about the idea of copywork, and it was brand new to me. I was skeptical. After my years of teaching in the public school, copywork seemed too simple to be effective. And what about all those cutting-edge writing methods I had learned to teach my school students?

To me, copywork seemed old-fashioned and people who practiced it must be naive about its effectiveness! The more I looked into it, however, I learned how wrong I was. Copywork is a supertool for learning to write well!

After 15 years of using copywork in our homeschool, I say without a doubt, it is an excellent habit to help teach writing! You must try the practice of daily copywork over time to see its worth. Copywork is not the only curriculum I use to teach my kids to write, but it is my core method.

To see samples of the copywork I use with our kids and to read more about how we do copywork in our home, you may enjoy reading these posts.

Helpful Habits for Writing Well #2: Copying the Best Pieces from Great Authors

Simple Step-By-Step Guide to Homeschool Writing

This video also explains clearly how we use copywork in our homeschool.

How to Teach Copywork

As soon as children can write words fluently, they are ready to practice copywork. I teach our kids to copy the selection of passage exactly as it’s written in their neatest penmanship.

The content should not be so long that it is overbearing for them to complete. As a general rule, I have our kids copy one sentence for first grade, two for second, etc.

I remind our kids to start with a capital letter and end with the correct punctuation. They should double-check spelling and make sure to include commas, quotation marks, etc.

I prefer to give them short passages, but I require perfect execution. If they make mistakes, they must compare their work with the text and correct it.

The beauty of copywork is that once kids begin practicing it, they can do it mostly on their own! Be sure to check their daily copywork, however, because bad habits can easily develop when kids have no accountability!

Copywork Tools

You don’t need many tools to get your child ready for daily copywork. For copywork in our homeschool, I give our children a spiral notebook and a brad folder. I print out the copywork selection, three-hole punch it, and put it in their brad folder.

Each day, the child writes the date in the margin and the copywork selection beside it. Having them write the date beside their work is a great way to observe their progress over time!

Is Typing Copywork the Same as Handwriting It Out?

Typing is a great extension to copywork, but not a good substitute for the physical process of handwriting the text.

I like to think of this as the difference between riding in a car and walking. When you ride in a car somewhere, you observe a few notable landmarks. But when you walk, you see and remember in much greater detail. This is what happens when you write things out by hand. It slows the brain down, and you observe details closely.

“Writing is a distinctly human skill, and like speaking, it reflects thinking. If we utilize technology to make the process too effortless, we may lose not only the discipline and the basic ability to put words on paper, but the quality of thinking that writing well requires.”-Andrew Pudewa

What’s included in the Aesop’s Fables free printable?

This free printable has 6 pages of copywork from the short tales in the book Aesop’s Fables. The daily copywork lists the title of the story and the one-sentence moral. It would be a good fit for a child in the early elementary ages.

How to Access Aesop’s Fables Copywork Pages (Free Printable!)

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