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SallyT Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 7:39am | IP Logged
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Oh, I think so. If they're "playing" what you've read, then I view that as a narration for sure, and maybe the best kind, in that it's a totally organic response. I don't discount that kind of thing or want to quash it, though at the same time I want to present my 4th grader with . . . well, the *idea* of something academic, the idea of producing something that involves at least a little writing (and my expectations at this age are not high), the idea of a modest project to accompany his reading. And I'm trying to encourage thinking with pencil in hand, even if what's happening right now is thinking about what's the shortest sentence to copy. In many ways he's more than ready to transition to a more independent mode of learning, and I get a lot of mileage out of "you're preparing for middle school." So I see this exercise as part of all that.
I have a feeling that what will happen is that we will struggle through some of these Mom-led, assigned things, and the ultimate result will be something sideways -- keeping a notebook in a totally meticulous, scientific, and prolific fashion, about something completely off my radar, for example. He surprises me all the time -- has grumbled through copywork for years, wailed aloud over having to write more than a line or two, but then shows me a spy notebook in which he has written entire paragraphs, pretty much correctly spelled and grammatically sound. So I do feel vindicated in asking him to do things like this, because I can see that I've given him tools and ideas for things he wants to do on his own.
I also wonder all the time about just how much Mom-leading is too much, and how much is too little, but with this child, if I don't push some, he really will happily only do what he's absolutely comfortable with. He hates starting new books, hates trying new things -- he's one of those difficult-transitioning/negative-first-response poster children, and I do have to push him through things sometimes, just to get to the point where he'll grudgingly admit that whatever I wanted him to do was really okay. Of course, it helps if *I* believe that what I'm asking him to do is okay and valuable, and not just make-work or going through the motions of a method I happen to like.
Sally
__________________ Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
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Becky Parker Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 7:51am | IP Logged
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"playing what you've read" ...
This sounds like my son!
Maybe I should add that to my list of narration options!
__________________ Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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CrunchyMom Forum Moderator
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SallyT wrote:
So I do feel vindicated in asking him to do things like this, because I can see that I've given him tools and ideas for things he wants to do on his own. |
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Love this!
__________________ Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Mackfam Board Moderator
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Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 8:59am | IP Logged
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JennGM wrote:
I was rereading When Children Love to Learn and the chapter on history by Jack Beckman, pp. 66-67 had something I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere...or I've missed it.
He says there are timelines and copybooks. He doesn't mention a Book of Centuries.
Jack Beckman wrote:
Students also keep copybooks of the time periods under consideration. Miss Mason was of the opinion that children must reproduce knowledge to show that they had indeed assimilated it. This is the purpose of narration and the purpose of copybooks as well. The copybook is used for the students to record her findings in an orderly and neat fashion, using beautiful handwriting and illustrations. It is a book that she herself has produced--not a collection of consumable worksheets--and will keep for her own. Copybooks begin as a bookmaking activity--either using wallpaper or fabric (many how-to books are on the market telling how to do this). The student illustrates the outside of her book relative to the time period--Egypt, Greece, Rome, and so on. The pages of the book are left out until the end of the study. Once they are fully edited, they are placed into the book for binding. A title page and a table of contents are also included.
And what are the contents of a copybook? The teacher and students identify the areas to be researched for copybook entries. For Egypt, the list of entries might include such things as religion, daily life, art and crafts, mummy making, the pharaohs, architecture, agriculture, science, family life, occupations, geography, and commerce and trade. These become the focus for study, reflection, and research. As information is found, it is recorded in rough draft form, edited, and then put into a final draft for placement into the copybook. As well, the student's narrations, timeline for Egypt, and any special projects are placed in the copybook. Once completed, the student has produced his own book of the particular time period under study. The book is of his own creation, reflective of his own imagination and personality, in combination with the knowledge gained from his readings. The capabilities of the student are illimitable:
Charlotte Mason wrote:
Let a child have the meat he requires in his history readings, and in the literature which naturally gathers around this history, and imagination will bestir itself without any help of ours; the child will live out in detail a thousand scenes of which he only gets the merest hint. (A Philosophy of Education, p. 295) |
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This is very different than a Book of Centuries. Is this something unique to the Ambleside schools, or is this something I just missed somewhere?
Does anyone else do this? |
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I wanted to go back to your original observation, Jenn...and throw in an observation of my own.
--> Copybooks, Notebooks, Timelines, Book of Century, Century Charts <--
I'm going to observe {and state clearly that this is my opinion} that all of these, in any form or format, is an adequate representation of CM's goal, which was to give the student a way to record and re-present something he/she read in narrative or creative ways which were an expression of the child. A way of giving them a tool to translate something they had read and learned into something creative and an expression of themselves. In essence, this is what we're talking about here - all of these things: acted out narrations, copybooks, timelines, Book of Century. And it's why I don't get hung up on the details of how this tool looks. It can begin somewhere and evolve and change in a variety of ways, but always with the goal of giving the student a tool to translate *ideas read* into *ideas presented by the student*. A narration.
I wanted to give a little background on Charlotte Mason's Book of Centuries.
Initially, her history students enjoyed a book made my Mrs. Epps, a very close personal friend of CM's and a mother of 4. She wrote The British Museum for Children which you can find in its entirety online here. The book is really just a narrative of a walk through the British Museum, even containing terms like, "standing before us we see the statue of...". During this time, students would read in The British Museum for Children, narrate, and keep a Museum Note book, which I imagine was not very unlike a copybook which has been talked about on this thread. Mrs. Epps continued to write for CM in the Parents' Review and other publications, with her specialty being history and geography.
Building on Mrs. Epps' work, Miss Bernau, a student of Charlotte Mason College, came up with a tool which we are most familiar with: the Book of Centuries. The Book of Centuries Miss Bernau developed and which was then used in all of CM's schools, was really patterned after the version Mrs. Epps conceived of, and was meant to coordinate with The British Museum for Children which students in PNEU schools still used.
The Book of Centuries that Miss Bernau conceived of was simple, coordinated well with the students' study of the British Museum, and provided a good format for them to record their experiences and the ideas they came across. Nowhere in CM's writings do I find Miss Mason or anyone else insisting on this particular format as necessary or integral to the study of history. The idea of giving the child a tool to capture ideas and illustrate or re-present them in some way was always key in anything CM articulated and advocated because this, in essence, is a narration. But, and this is my opinion (!!!!), I DON'T believe the format of Miss Bernau's Book of Centuries is of paramount necessity in a CM education.
And I believe this sincerely because I don't find Miss Mason firmly hammering down the idea of Bernau's formatted Book of Centuries in her writing. I see explanations of it as a tool. I see that it was valued because the PNEU went so far as to mass print it so that it could be provided to its satellite schools and students. But I don't find instances that indicate that its format is necessary in accomplishing the Philosophy of a Charlotte Mason education. If we go back to Charlotte Mason herself, this is what we find her articulating again and again:
Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education, p. 295 wrote:
Let a child have the meat he requires in his history readings, and in the literature which naturally gathers around this history, and imagination will bestir itself without any help of ours; the child will live out in detail a thousand scenes of which he only gets the merest hint. |
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I have read through CM's volumes and come across countless instances of her mentioning she thought notebooking was a good idea for this or that...and it leads me to believe that for her, the foundational idea was to let the child re-produce, re-present...narrate in creative ways that which they have read, seen, observed, learned. This is key in her philosophy of education, not the format, if that makes sense.
I would love to know if Mr. Jack Beckman agrees, even partially, and if that's why he has chosen to advocate one of Miss Mason's favorite tools for recording history ideas: the notebook. I'm inclined to believe that he does:
Jack Beckman wrote:
Miss Mason was of the opinion that children must reproduce knowledge to show that they had indeed assimilated it. This is the purpose of narration and the purpose of copybooks as well. |
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So, the bottom line then is, give your child a tool to translate the ideas they've read about into something which is an expression of their individual imagination, something that is a representation of themselves. That tool can look different. It can be any of these or even a combination:
--> Copybooks, Notebooks, Timelines, Book of Century, Century Charts <--
This gives us freedom and liberty in choosing that "vehicle" and that is something else I find woven consistently throughout Charlotte Mason's Philosophy of Education. As long as the child expresses what he/she has read in some form - whether through written narration, acted out in the middle of the living room, recorded on a Century Chart or in a Book of Centuries, through a puppet show, timeline entry, copywork from the reading, illustration of an event - the goal, result, and the philosophy behind the idea remains unchanged: the child has narrated.
Those are my thoughts.
__________________ Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Betsy Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 9:10am | IP Logged
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I am reading this entire thread with great inerest....
I just wanted to add that from my reading and talking with other at the Childlight Conference, CM was rather fluid with her recommendations of notebooks over time. I think she was always tinkering a bit with what was working and not working
I agree, that the main goal of narration or notebooks is to assimilate the information into the child's brain. To grapple with the information and mull over ideas. To make it their own. I think that anything that achieves this goal is good!
__________________ ImmaculataDesigns.com
When handcrafting my work, I always pray that it will raise your heart to all that is true, modest, just, holy, lovely and good fame!
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JennGM Forum Moderator
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Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 9:26am | IP Logged
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Mackfam wrote:
Those are my thoughts. |
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And very good ones! I've enjoyed this discussion, including all the sidetracks because it all fits.
It is all fluid, but I like to line up CM's writings with the practical, and see how it all fits.
I'm not trying to get "hung up" on doing it just so, but I do like to see the big picture, see how other people interpret and put into motion before I decide how to proceed. My oldest has been allergic to writing, and is very similar to both Melinda and Sally's sons. There is a lot of acting out what he has read, both in play, costume, building, Playmobil and Legos. But he does need to be drawn into writing.
I like to commit to something and stick with it, so that's my reason for all the questions and searching on how we want to do this for history. I know there's no wrong answer and it's fluid and individual. I just need visuals for ideas.
Ah, notebooking. That word is the bane of my existence. Sally's notebooks is more my speed of what I consider "notebooking" but all the preprinted pages out for sale doesn't feel like notebooking to me, but has the label. It's kind of turned me off. Kudos to you if you can use them. They just aren't my cup of tea.
All the possibilities are so wonderful, and so enticing. I like to throw out the big net, see all the examples, and then hone it down to the very practical and usable in our home.
Don't throw tomatoes at me, but I want to expand this discussion on some of my other findings.
__________________ Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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SallyT Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 9:46am | IP Logged
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I agree, this is all great, and it's good to be reminded of Miss Mason's own willingness to experiment with the basic idea of assimilation via narration.
And I also prefer the open-endedness of a blank book, even though that very open-endedness gets frustrating when somebody doesn't fill in the preprinted notebook page in my head in the way that I wish. But here, I think, is where I have to just let things grow. It's only the first week of school for us, so *of course* I'm getting these minimal, "Mom is making me do this" responses. An assigned book doesn't become a child's own instantaneously, and what I *hope* is that I'll see responses grow as the relationship grows.
Sally
__________________ Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
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AmandaV Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 23 2012 at 11:20am | IP Logged
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JennGM wrote:
Ah, notebooking. That word is the bane of my existence. Sally's notebooks is more my speed of what I consider "notebooking" but all the preprinted pages out for sale doesn't feel like notebooking to me, but has the label. It's kind of turned me off. Kudos to you if you can use them. They just aren't my cup of tea. |
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I feel similarly. While pretty to look at, I think when one's oldest is an 8 or 9 year old boy who doesn't love to write, they can be overwhelming. My son would be interested in such pages, and I've printed some similar free ones such as those from That resource site, but they he realizes he's supposed to fill it in with writing in so many places.. and it doesn't turn out as well as I'd like. Copywork is enough for us at this stage. Maybe later, I guess? But I do long for the product along with the process sometimes for the prettiness aspect. I do like the copybook idea as articulated by Sally. A variety of choices but you must write. They get a choice but there is not a choice to do nothing.
I am seeing the light with my reluctant writer, as he made birthday cards full of writing this summer. That was great. I'm hoping consistent interesting copywork will help this year, too. Anyway, great discussion so far!
__________________ Amanda
wife since 6/03, Mom to son 7/04, daughter 2/06, twin sons 6/08 and son 7/11, son 1/2014
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TracyFD Forum Pro
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 5:12am | IP Logged
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We are trying to find a happy place with history notebooks as well, although my oldest two are girls. We'll see what my son will teach me
Last year we used blank books along with some Draw Write now (for 3rd grade) and Draw and Write Through History (for 4th and 6th). Predictably, all of them liked the drawing better than the writing, and at least by copying a summary we did not have to go back and edit/erase/rewrite.
This year I was looking at the Ancient History Portfolio but could not really tell if the pre-printed pages would be open ended enough to adapt to any history curriculum. (but it looks really pretty!)
For 7th grade I decided in the end to transition to Connecting with History. This program offers open-ended notebooking pages to print off - just a small B&W picture of the key figures at the top to color (or not) and lines (usually lined paper results in neater handwriting with my kids) (even with those line guides that go behind the page).
Being new to this program I am gathering that these are open-ended pages that can be used for narrations or the copywork in the CWH book. I suppose we can always add blank pages for drawing as well.
Any ideas? I'd love to hear what others have done with these CWH pages, as well as any experience with the portfolio!
__________________ Tracy
Mom to 3 girly girls,
1 absent-minded professor, and one adorable toddling terrorist.
Pinewood Castle
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JuliaT Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 7:29am | IP Logged
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TracyFD wrote:
Any ideas? I'd love to hear what others have done with these CWH pages, as well as any experience with the portfolio! |
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Tracy, we used the portfolios this past year but I was not happy with the outcome. It was difficult to use them without using the author's suggestions. She has the pages designed for specific topics and if you don't use those specific topics then it causes some stress (at least it did for me) to figure out what to put in those pages and how to make it go together seamlessly.
__________________ Blessings,
Julia
mom of 3(14,13 & 11 yrs.old)
MusingsofaPrairieGirl
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CrunchyMom Forum Moderator
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 7:50am | IP Logged
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I bought the History Scribe package a few years ago at a deep discount. I have not managed to use it well as of yet (it is the logistics of printing and using prepared notebooking pages that bogs me down), but I think that it is well done. It is very thorough in what it covers, which might spark ideas about topics you hadn't considered. But you don't have to use all the pages, and there are blank pages in the various formats so you can add things that they didn't include.
__________________ Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Martha Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 8:12am | IP Logged
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I'm telling ya'll those .99 composition books are going swimmingly for us this year. I am rather upset I didn't insist on them with my olders, but frankly all the copy work organizing and gathering and printing and note booking for so many kids ooked so overwhelming to me that I just sort of froze.
All I'm doing this year is using the CCM for the week as their copy work and matching the topic up with the drawing lessons in my Draw Write Now or Draw Through History books. They are LOVING it. The books are coming out beautifully and with very little stress. The most stress is that I sit them down at the start of the week to let them know how to space out the pages. For example, they might only be working on one stanza of 6 this week, so we mark so many of the following pages for the poem. And we usually leave a blank page to the right of the history and science so they can draw diagrams or art of their choice ir to leave additional notes. They don't have to use the drawing options I provide if they want to do their own. CCM and the art books get us over the blank page stump.
Oh and I want to pose the idea that quality of the materials used makes a difference here. I NEVER would have thought that 10 years ago. But a quality art eraser means they barely notice when they erase a line, so mistakes don't cause them to meltdown at the lack of perfect in their work. Prismacolors really do create a prettier picture easier. The composition books erase and take art mediums better and feel more personal than the printed off note booking pages. (Notebooking pages always bomb here and that's the only reason I've deduced.)
I don't know if CM would approve or not, but it's working for us so far. Finally after years of searching, I seem to have struck what works for us. I'm a bit giddy, can you tell?
__________________ Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
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AmandaV Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 8:45am | IP Logged
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Martha wrote:
I'm telling ya'll those .99 composition books are going swimmingly for us this year. I am rather upset I didn't insist on them with my olders, but frankly all the copy work organizing and gathering and printing and note booking for so many kids ooked so overwhelming to me that I just sort of froze.
All I'm doing this year is using the CCM for the week as their copy work and matching the topic up with the drawing lessons in my Draw Write Now or Draw Through History books. They are LOVING it. The books are coming out beautifully and with very little stress. The most stress is that I sit them down at the start of the week to let them know how to space out the pages. For example, they might only be working on one stanza of 6 this week, so we mark so many of the following pages for the poem. And we usually leave a blank page to the right of the history and science so they can draw diagrams or art of their choice ir to leave additional notes. They don't have to use the drawing options I provide if they want to do their own. CCM and the art books get us over the blank page stump.
Oh and I want to pose the idea that quality of the materials used makes a difference here. I NEVER would have thought that 10 years ago. But a quality art eraser means they barely notice when they erase a line, so mistakes don't cause them to meltdown at the lack of perfect in their work. Prismacolors really do create a prettier picture easier. The composition books erase and take art mediums better and feel more personal than the printed off note booking pages. (Notebooking pages always bomb here and that's the only reason I've deduced.)
I don't know if CM would approve or not, but it's working for us so far. Finally after years of searching, I seem to have struck what works for us. I'm a bit giddy, can you tell?
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Thanks for expanding on this, Martha. You are using the Mead-type composition lined books, correct? Not the ones with the blank space on top? So when they draw, do they use blank paper and glue it in or go draw on the lined paper? It sounds like sort of a lesson book that would have been used in the earlier parts of American education, where all subjects were together and ends up a record of much learning, except you are focusing it only on the CCM memory work, correct? So do they use one subject per day for their copywork over the 2 week focus? Monday: Religion, Tuesday: History sentence, etc...? I'd love to see an illustration of this if you have taken pictures. :) We are also using CCM this year with my 6 and 8 year olds.
Another question would be, do you add anything else the children are studying? Or if you wanted them to "notebook" or otherwise document their other history learning, would that be separate?
SallyT wrote:
My kids have little copybooks (those Hygloss blank books from Dick Blick that Lindsey* mentioned in another thread) for each book they're reading independently, including history reading. They have the option of writing original sentences, but so far they're opting to choose passages to copy, which is fine with me. The little book fits inside the book they're reading as a bookmark, so that they can pull it out when they're finished reading and ready to write. My aim is for them to have a little "textbook"/memory book for each book they read.
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I'm loving all the ideas from this discussion. So far with my reluctant writer, I've realized that composition notebooks seem great until we don't fill them up, but they offer the permanent quality and they are substantial.
The littler notebooks described by Sally would be great for smaller units of learning, I think, when you know you wouldn't necessarily fill up a notebook. I guess later, if you wanted, they could be mounted into a bigger scrapbook or placed together in a stack and bound, perhaps?
__________________ Amanda
wife since 6/03, Mom to son 7/04, daughter 2/06, twin sons 6/08 and son 7/11, son 1/2014
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AmandaV Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 8:49am | IP Logged
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For online shoppers, these seem to fit the bill for composition books at a very good price. Not sure of shipping.
Staples eco notebooks
__________________ Amanda
wife since 6/03, Mom to son 7/04, daughter 2/06, twin sons 6/08 and son 7/11, son 1/2014
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lapazfarm Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 9:13am | IP Logged
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This is such a great discussion! I have to tell you it is causing me to seriously re-evaluate my daughter's notebooking process.
We have over the years used a variety of notebooking techniques, from lapbooks to scrapbooks to pre-printed pages and those 99cent comp books.
When I look back on them all I have to admit that the ones that were BOTH most enjoyable to make AND had a satisfying end product were the hand-made scrap/lapbook types that cover only a specific topic/period studied over a short amount of time(see Dragon notebook here and Sailing Notebook here) and the 99cent comp books that held a year's worth of progress on a single topic.
(ex: geography notebook)
The pre-printed pages were fine, but not so enjoyable and produce a product that is fine but lacking in the charm and individuality that I love with the other methods.
So though I have tons of files of pre-printed pages, I really think this year we are going to go back to our old ways of doing things. That means keeping 99cent comp books for ongoing studies, and making individual notebooks for specific topics studied in depth over a short time.
Great discussion. Thanks for helping me clarify my thinking!
__________________ Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Martha Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 10:35am | IP Logged
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Quote:
You are using the Mead-type composition lined books, correct? Not the ones with the blank space on top? So when they draw, do they use blank paper and glue it in or go draw on the lined paper? |
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Yes. No blank space, just ruled lines to write and draw on. Sometime they want to draw more or bigger, and then we use a glue stick to attach to the inside margin where there isn't any writing and fold in whatever part would hang out of the book.
Quote:
It sounds like sort of a lesson book that would have been used in the earlier parts of American education, where all subjects were together and ends up a record of much learning, except you are focusing it only on the CCM memory work, correct? So do they use one subject per day for their copywork over the 2 week focus? Monday: Religion, Tuesday: History sentence, etc...? I'd love to see an illustration of this if you have taken pictures. :) We are also using CCM this year with my 6 and 8 year olds. |
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I am using one book for all of it. So the first page will have a few weeks of the CCC q and a. (bc it's small and doesn't take much space.) but the next 2-4 pages might have their poem and art, followed by a couples pages of science and drawings of atoms. And so forth.
I have been taking pictures! But I don't know how to get them from my iPhone to the board. I've posted them on FB and later this month I plan to blog the month's activities and add them there. So you can PM me and I can text/ email them to you or you can friend me on FB.
Quote:
Another question would be, do you add anything else the children are studying? Or if you wanted them to "notebook" or otherwise document their other history learning, would that be separate? |
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I don't require they add more to it, but some have asked if they can do their intermediate language lesson or some other whatever in it instead of notebook paper. That's fine by me as long as they do their best. Usually I will show them the best page to do it on bc leaving enough space to do the rest of a poem or whatever is the biggest frustration they tend to have.
My 6 year old is a girl and is loving this but won't let me take pictures because she wants to show it to daddy when he comes home and wants to be the first to show it to him.
My 8 year old is a boy who is struggling with reading and writing. He is on par with my 6 year old who is sightly advanced. Which means I avoid going over their books together bc he gets very upset if hers looks better to him. I'm very happy with his! Great improvement! But he is self aware. :( I'm hoping to get pics of theirs at the end of the month when dad is home. I mostly have pictures of books for my dd11, ds12, and ds10.
__________________ Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
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SallyT Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 11:57am | IP Logged
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I sometimes think the lines on the page actually help with drawing -- easier to orient your figures. Grids work well that way, too.
I do love those Mead Primary Journals. I bought everyone the cheap, regular comp. books for general copywork (poems, Bible verses, prose passages, etc) this year, to encourage smaller writing, but I know my 3rd grader misses her Primary Journal. And I think Martha's point about printed notebooking pages is a good one -- the texture of even basic composition-book paper provides a better surface for drawing than printer paper does (though my daughter certainly does her share of artwork on printer paper -- she's not picky!). I also like having my pages already bound, rather than having to think about what to put them in. Our composition books always stay far neater than our binders/folders/etc using printed-out sheets.
I LOVE those notebook pictures, Theresa. How beautiful! We've never done anything that . . . together. I'm hoping that we'll evolve into something similar-ish, but with a notebook for each book we're reading. Some would obviously be more elaborate than others, depending on the lavishness of our relationship with a given book.
I am really liking the Hygloss books (here) for reading notebooks and other things, too -- we're using them for grammar (so far, making up and writing two-word sentences) and German (copying vocabulary from flashcards, then covering and writing the words from dictation). They seem a perfect size for the things we want to do, and the paper is nice. In fact, I'm thinking of getting them for my First Communion class, to make notebooks that way instead of with binders, as we've done in the past. The length is just right for so many things, the size is nice for younger hands and artistic eyes (not so much space to have to fill with your drawing), and they're just so cute!
We were just outside with our nature notebooks (I'm sitting at the study table right now while the 3rd grader is doing math -- this is how I don't hover too much while keeping her company), which went really well. I got, also from Dick Blick, some "Young Artist's Idea Journals" (here), which are like the Primary Journals in that they have lines with a blank space above. The lines are smaller, but the notebook is a nice size, and the spiral binding makes it easier to draw, I think. So that's our nature journal. During Morning Basket we've been reading Rien Poortleviet's The Living Forest, which is a gorgeous book in the format of a nature journal -- sketches with labels and commentary, which I'm encouraging them to try in their journals. (but really we could just as easily have used more Hygloss books!)
Sally
__________________ Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
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Angel Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 5:12pm | IP Logged
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Just a quick question, for those of you who use bound books... what do you do when you'd like to include something that doesn't fit in the book? For instance, say your child does the occasional coloring page from a Dover coloring book or other source. And you (or your child) would like to include it with his other history work, but the notebook is too small to glue it in. What do you do with it? Do you have a binder for stuff that's too big? Or would you use a bigger notebook if you wanted to include those sorts of things? Or would you not worry about including those sorts of things at all?
I guess this comes down to the definition of "copybook" again, and the flexibility or inflexibility of format. For instance, I've used pre-printed notebooking pages from time to time, but like Lindsay, I have a hard time getting them printed at the time they're needed, and we always have better luck with open-ended ones. Sometimes the frames for drawing are too small, or there aren't enough lines to write on. But the composition books with the space for drawing/space for writing are kind of like that, too. And on the other hand, when I use a binder, I often have a backlog of stuff to file in it, and everything gets shoved into the pockets instead, thereby ruining the whole point of having a notebook.
I think, if we go back to Jenn's original quote, I wouldn't consider a collection of narrations on various historical topics a "copybook" at all, because "copybook" (to me) implies that you will be doing copying, not writing anything original. (And, of course, both have their place.) I would consider it simply a "notebook". But do you limit what you include in the notebook?
You know, and for boys... it occurred to me, why can't I print out pictures of their Lego creations for them to glue in the notebook instead of drawing? I have a dyslexic 9 yo and 2 6 year olds with minimal fine motor skills for writing. We're still working in the kindergarten HWT book and they're almost 7. The reality for us is that one sentence of copywork is probably going to be the limits of what they can do and derive any good from it at all. But I don't see anything wrong with taking dictation for boys who have a hard time thinking and writing at the same time.
__________________ Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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Martha Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 25 2005 Location: N/A
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 5:53pm | IP Logged
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My composition books aren't like the ones Teresa posted pictures of above. Mine or more like bound notebook paper. Margin at the top and a red line on the left. We don't write to the left of the redline.
When they do something that doesn't fit on the page, I run a line of gluestick in the center of book to redline margin and glue the short edge of the paper into the appropriate section. Then fold the excess of the insertion over itself so it doesn't stick out of the book.
This way we can still read their copy work, but we don't lose artwork or whatever.
__________________ Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
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Angel Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 24 2012 at 6:04pm | IP Logged
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Martha wrote:
When they do something that doesn't fit on the page, I run a line of gluestick in the center of book to redline margin and glue the short edge of the paper into the appropriate section. Then fold the excess of the insertion over itself so it doesn't stick out of the book.
This way we can still read their copy work, but we don't lose artwork or whatever. |
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Ok. I do like the smaller size notebooks, because I think they're less intimidating than 8 1/2 x 11. Do you have much problem with the glued-in papers tearing out?
__________________ Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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