Thanks for visiting my Draw Write Now review!
As a Charlotte Mason inspired homeschooler, I’m a big fan of copywork.
There are so many benefits of copywork:
- muscle memory
- memorizing spelling and letter formation
- neat writing
- and better attention to detail
Copywork also helps children with punctuation, vocabulary, spacing, grammar, and capitalization.
In this post, I’ll share all about the Draw Write Now series, the books available, how they will benefit your child, and how you can incorporate them into your homeschool.
The Draw Write Now books are often discounted on Amazon here.
What Is Draw Write Now?
Copywork simply involves giving your child letters, numbers, words, or full sentences, that they are required to copy. The copywork is written in a handwriting style, showing exactly how the letters should be formed – whether upper or lower case, as well as the punctuation needed for that sentence.
Children are able to compare their writing with the model given to better perfect their writing.
Inspired by the many benefits of copywork for children, I love including it in our homeschool curriculum. However, I like to make the task a little more fun and interesting by using Draw Write Now (here on Amazon).
Draw Write Now is a drawing and handwriting course rolled into one, as well as being very educational for your child. This book series has been around for 25 years and is loved by many homeschoolers.
Each lesson has four sentences of copywork for your child to complete about a various topic. Then, the child will follow step-by-step instructions on how to draw a picture relating to that topic. The idea is that when you write, you are using a lot of the same strokes as when you draw, so the two naturally go well together.
For example, if the lesson is about dogs, the child will have to copy a few sentences about dogs. Then they will follow simple instructions on how to draw a dog.
You child may draw and write about:
- animals
- nature
- food
- people
- places
- and many more different topics.
For each lesson, there is a beautiful illustration that will inspire your child as to how they can decorate the background of their picture. Or, your child can create and draw a background entirely their own.
What Age Is Draw Write Now For?
The books are intended for K-3, so it’s up to you whether you start your child from book 1, or choose a book with a topic that your child is more interested in.
Book 1 has shorter sentences, which may be a better starting point for younger children. But, it’s up to you whether you want your child to copy all four of the sentences, or just one or two.
Each lesson your child will be practicing their handwriting, learning how to draw something new, and learning facts about the topic, all at the same time.
Beautifully Designed Books
The Draw Write Now series are beautiful, colorful, engaging books.
The drawing instructions are simple and easy to follow. The vibrant illustrations will give your child ideas as to how they can decorate their pictures.
The sentences given are educational so that the child can learn information about that topic, as they also learn to draw it. The sentences of copywork are written in a handwriting style, modeling to the child exactly how the letters and words should be written, whether upper or lower case, along with the appropriate punctuation.
Q & A’s and Book Suggestions
Each lesson includes a question that the child can find out the answer to. The answers to all the questions are on the answers page at the end of each section. This page also includes book suggestions for exploring that topic further.
If your child is really interested in a particular topic, they can read picture books or watch videos, and turn it into a unit study!
Draw Write Now Books Available
You can purchase Draw Write Now books individually or as a box set here.
There are 8 books total, all on different topics:
- Book 1: On the Farm, Kids & Critters, Storybook Characters
- Book 2: Christopher Columbus, Autumn Harvest, The Weather
- Book 3: Native Americans, North America, The Pilgrims
- Book 4: The Polar Regions, The Arctic, The Antarctic
- Book 5: The United States, From Sea to Sea, Moving Forward
- Book 6: Animals & Habitats, On Land, Ponds & Rivers, Oceans
- Book 7: Animals of the World Part 1 – Tropical Forests, Northern Forests, Forests Down Under
- Book 8: Animals of the World Part 2 – Savannas, Grasslands, Mountains and Deserts
Each book includes an introduction with a couple of pages of tips for drawing and even some tips on how your child can improve their handwriting.
Draw Write Now Cursive
The Draw Write Now series is now also available in cursive!
There are many benefits for children to learn cursive writing:
- better fine motor skills
- writing speed
- legibility
- retention
- self-discipline
- and much more
Materials Needed For This Course
For this course, you will need to buy either the official Draw Write Now workbook, or pick up an exercise book from your local store.
The pages in the exercise book should be lined on the bottom half, with the top half empty with space for drawing the picture. Ideally, the book will have big spaced lines, dashed halfway to help your child form lowercase letters appropriately (for beginner writers).
Older children can use books with the lower half of the page lined, and the top half empty, with normal spaced lines.
Aside from the obvious pencil needed to write and draw with, your child will also need something to color in their picture with. I recommend colored pencils, but your child could use crayons or markers too.
Another idea is to complete each lesson on an individual page, use watercolor pencils, and let your child paint their picture afterward! This would probably be better suited to older children though.
There are templates online for half-lined, half-empty pages that you can print out.
Using Draw Write Now Books In Your Homeschool
It’s entirely up to you whether you want to use this series as the main handwriting course, or as supplemental work. You could certainly use these books every day for handwriting if you so wish.
We are using Language Lessons For A Living Education Level 1 and Explode the Code 2 & 3 as our main Language Arts curriculum right now for Kindergarten (year 1), so we use Draw Write Now as a fun addition once each week.
Whenever I get our Draw Write Now book out, my daughter always says that it’s her favorite part of homeschool. Drawing is her favorite thing to do, so it doesn’t even feel like school to her. She would do it just for fun!
What handwriting curriculum do you use? Leave a comment down below!
