Men of Honor and Women of Grace from the Scripture Scribes series from Laurelwood Books is the perfect homeschool penmanship book to improve handwriting. My son had just been talking about how bad his handwriting is when I received this handwriting book to review. Perfect timing!
The people behind Laurelwood Books have been homeschooling for 25 years. The same amount of time that I have been homeschooling! They sell curriculum, books, cds, dvds, and more on their website. They also sell used books and curriculum.
The Scripture Scribes series features four books, covering penmanship for 1st through 12th grades. Scripture Scribes Volume 1 Men of Honor and Women of Grace, $19.95 is recommended for Grades 7-12. It is consumable and should be used with only one student. I have been using Men of Honor Women of Grace with my 15 year old son, who will be in the 10th grade in the fall.
Words for Men of Honor and Women of Grace has 22 Lessons. All the lessons are centered around a character trait. The 22 character traits used for the lessons are honor, mercy, compassion, love, justice, grace, joy, peace, truth, long-suffering, faith, hope, honesty, trust, patience, humility, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, loyalty, diligence, and purity.
Each lesson has an introduction page with a dictionary definition and a Biblical definition of the character trait. This introduction page is followed by 12-13 quotes and scriptures to trace and copy. The quotes and scriptures explain and reinforce the character trait. The quotes and scriptures are written in dotted line cursive for the student to trace. Below that, there are handwriting lines for the student to write the quote or scripture themselves. There are enough lines for the student to write each quote or scripture one time.
Also included in the Men of Honor Women of Grace are several pages discussing the development of the scriptures, Bible translation and copying. They are not long, but do include black and white drawings and samples.
The book contains no suggestions for how many lessons should be done a week. You will have to decide how much time you want your student to work on the copywork every day. Men of Honor Women of Grace could easily be finished in one quarter. If you go at a more leisurely pace, you could complete this book in two quarters, or one semester. On the high school level, there would be no credits earned for completing this course, in my opinion.
I started out having my son do 2 lessons a week. He prefers working at a more leisurely pace of one lesson a week, though.
In the picture above, you can see what one of the pages with quotes and scriptures on the left. On the right, you can see one of the character traits introduction page with the dictionary definition and the Biblical definition of that trait.
Looking back to lesson one and comparing it to where he is now in the book, I can see a definite improvement in my son’s handwriting.
Usually, practicing penmanship is a boring, mind numbing activity. I love that my son has scriptures and great quotes to think about while he is doing this copywork.
To see what other homeschoolers have to say about Men of Hone Women of Grace and the other books in the Scripture Scribe series, click the graphic below.
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