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JennGM
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| Posted: April 15 2010 at 9:20am | IP Logged
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SuzanneG wrote:
| What do you mean when you say "from Staples?" |
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Way back when I used to teach 1st grade, I found some great blank decorated pages at Staples. They are sold in a pack, to use in printer, but they have a color border around them. As a teacher, I used the blackboard ABC pattern and used that for the spelling words each week. When I went to using black and white copies, the children complained because they missed the color versions. But I was living on a shoestring budget, so I couldn't do that every week!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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SuzanneG
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JennGM wrote:
| Way back when I used to teach 1st grade, I found some great blank decorated pages at Staples. |
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Oh, right. I have some of those. In each set, she has a few decorated-blank-pages. A pretty border without lines. But, the sets are LINED. Some 1 or 2 lines with room for illustrating, etc....or the whole page lined.
My girls write letters to family members on the fully lined pages and they look so nice!
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Mackfam
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My son likes the Simply Designed pages linked to above. While some copywork for him comes from poetry, his notebooks and copywork tend more towards science and history themes...so a very short quote from a good source works well for us.
Here's an example of his most recent work...my son is studying engineering/physics (on an elementary level, of course) this year. Right now, the emphasis is on physics. His copywork consists of one of Newton's laws of motion. I ask him to include an illustration that helps me understand that law of motion. The illustrations aren't the same delicate drawings as my dd, but that's ABSOLUTELY FINE!!!! His copywork illustrations look more like stick drawings and engineering diagrams!!! Perfect for a boy!!!
For a boy, think of a topic he is passionate about. Use a living book that communicates that passion in beautiful words. For a young boy (new writer), choose a very, very short sentence for him to copy. Ask him if he'd like to illustrate. An illustration does not have to be what we ladies think of as a lovely illustration (beautiful color pencil work, designs, flourishes)...I mean it can be that sometimes, but my fellas more often than not illustrate in diagrams. My son does enjoy coloring in the designs on the notebooking pages.
Another thing we like to do is include a coloring page with the copywork/narration/dictation page. This works great in a history and nature study notebook...but it's definitely not limited to only those topics. The Dover coloring books on various topics are great for this. Choose a coloring page that is pertinent to the topic of study as well as the choices for copywork/narration/dictation and include that on a page facing the written work.
While there are certainly ways to encourage a more feminine approach or expression of work in a notebook, as well as a masculine/boy friendly approach, for the most part the work is neutral and both my son and daughter find the notebook an enjoyable way to collect work. Expressions of creativity are individual!
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Jen Mackintosh
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lapazfarm
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Oh, gosh.
Now you ladies have got me all interested in notebooking again, your enthusiasm is contagious!LOL! 
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Theresa
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Meredith
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| Posted: April 22 2010 at 10:38am | IP Logged
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CrunchyMom wrote:
| I also bookmarked this example of a first communion notebook for reference. |
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Thank you Lindsay for linking me here :) Matthias' First Communion Notebook is one I get asked about the most and he really enjoyed putting it together and we still like to peek through it now and again.
I agree with Theresa too, Notebooking CAN be so fun. Jenn, have you seen Violet's Marine Bio NB?? She's an older child doing her own work, but the same thing can be adapted to a younger child with more help from you, ie. typing out the narrations and letting them add their own pictures either hand drawn or from coloring pages.
HTH a bit, have fun
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Angel
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Jenn, you asked what notebooking looks like for a boy. Maybe this is why I haven't had great success with "standard" forms of notebooking, or maybe it's because we're a bit on the unschooly side and I don't "lead the way" with notebooking as much as other moms do. We often have problems finishing projects. But here is what seems to work for us.
Standard subjects that need to be written down on paper (like grammar exercises and math) the kids keep in spiral notebooks,a separate one per subject. My 13 yo ds has a 5 subject notebook for "language" in which he has one section devoted to the epic poem he is writing. When he finishes it (which I hope he will do by the end of the school year, but think "Beowulf"; it just keeps getting longer and longer) I hope that he will type it into the computer and revise it,print it and make a book (or chapbook) from it, complete with illustrations.
All my kids, including my 13 yo, have their own sketchbooks, which they fill up at about the rate of 1-2 per year. These are spiral bound with hard covers so they lay flat. In these they draw whatever they want, but they often use them to draw more finished drawings of particular interest to them.So,for instance, my 13 yo ds has been drawing swords and Celtic-inspired animals (as we study the early Middle Ages). My dd will use her sketchbook to try out different techniques of drawing people and animals. Sometimes we have gone with a "themed" sketchbook: for instance, my ds made a "Field Guide to Extraordinary Creatures" over alongish period of time, and my dd just kept a small illustrated journal of our trip to Tennessee.
My dd has also kept small notebooks (and by that I mean not binders, but small books with a finite, non-overhwhelming number of pages) in which she copied prayers and illustrated with drawings and stickers, or made narrations of different saints (also illustrated), "Birds of Paradise", and her latest over Christmas: a small "Christmas Botany" notebook, for which she researched common plants associated with Christmas, wrote up her findings,and illustrated with drawings or pictures she printed off the Internet. My younger boys like to keep notebooks (again, small bound books, not binders) as records of discovery sometimes: for instance, rock and fossil books when they are deeply into pretending to be paleontologists. But all of these projects have worked best when they were not top-down creations from *me*, but more ideas that were mostly theirs that we worked out together... and this is *especially* true of my boys.
I think boys often need to see the point of a project more than girls do. My dd will often (not always) cooperate with my ideas because she just enjoys making things pretty or demonstrating what she's learned. And writing isn't a chore for her. My boys need to be able to see what's in it for them. If they're not interested in the subject and they can just *tell* you what they know, what's the point in writing it all down and making a notebook?? (I told this to my dh once, and he said, "Yes, and?"  )
Anyway, when I did copywork with my oldest ds (and we'll be starting again next year, because he needs more of it), I usually just gave him one sheet of paper at a time. (Because of his fine motor and visual problems, I used special paper which alternated green and white so he could see better where he was supposed to write.) He did it, handed it back to me, and I filed it until I had time to put it in a large binder in which I displayed all his loose work -- coloring sheets,loose drawings, writing, math problems, etc, each in their own section. The difference here is that *I* put it together. (I do make them look nice using scrapbook paper) My 7 yo (today!  ) has always enjoyed this process of seeing his work go into page protectors. But there's no theme behind it that we stick to.
Unfortunately, most of our themed *binders* have flopped --including a First Communion notebook I really thought my dd would enjoy making. They just needed longer sustained interest than we had, I guess. We also seem to have trouble making subject notebooks of the kind that Meredith linked to above, and I do not know why. I need to put some thought into this, because I would really like my older kids to do notebooks like Meredith's dd's Marine Biology notebook, and I think that they are of an age when keeping a longer, more organized notebook or binder is something they can do.
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Angela
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Meredith
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Angel wrote:
Jenn, you asked what notebooking looks like for a boy. Maybe this is why I haven't had great success with "standard" forms of notebooking, or maybe it's because we're a bit on the unschooly side and I don't "lead the way" with notebooking as much as other moms do...
...But all of these projects have worked best when they were not top-down creations from *me*, but more ideas that were mostly theirs that we worked out together... and this is *especially* true of my boys.
I think boys often need to see the point of a project more than girls do. My dd will often (not always) cooperate with my ideas because she just enjoys making things pretty or demonstrating what she's learned. And writing isn't a chore for her. My boys need to be able to see what's in it for them. If they're not interested in the subject and they can just *tell* you what they know, what's the point in writing it all down and making a notebook?? (I told this to my dh once, and he said, "Yes, and?" ) |
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Angela, this is SO my boys!!!
Angel wrote:
| Unfortunately, most of our themed *binders* have flopped --including a First Communion notebook I really thought my dd would enjoy making. They just needed longer sustained interest than we had, I guess. We also seem to have trouble making subject notebooks of the kind that Meredith linked to above, and I do not know why. I need to put some thought into this, because I would really like my older kids to do notebooks like Meredith's dd's Marine Biology notebook, and I think that they are of an age when keeping a longer, more organized notebook or binder is something they can do. |
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You know, Violet is really the only one who has ever fully appreciated and completed any themed notebooking. Seamus really enjoyed lapbooking in his preschool and early kindergarten days, but when I took off with more Montessori we were so hands on that tangible evidence of record keeping (NB's or lapbooks) kind of went by the wayside, sadly. Violet has been creating lapbooking for her Marine Bio projects (need to upload those) but I can't seem to interest the boys at all, sigh.
Like you Angela, all the children have their copybooks, art and nature sketchbooks and then "by subject" 3-ring binders, they seem to work. AND they really like having little spiral flipbooks or small spiral notebooks for their spy games, writing stories and just general fun kidstuff
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SallyT
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Thank you all so much for the good discussion. Not only am I interested in notebooking with my own children, but I'm also the First Communion teacher in my parish, and my aim for next year is to have the children make notebooks, using Marigold Hunt's Saint Patrick's Summer as something of a spine. I have a hard time visualizing how we'll actually do it . . . thanks again for all the pictures and links and suggestions!
Sally
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JennGM
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| Posted: April 29 2010 at 8:42am | IP Logged
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Barb -- Harmony Art Mom who also hosts Handbook of Nature Study blog compiled this great page of Notebooking Resources that she uses over the years.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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SuzanneG
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Oooohhhh!!!!!! ALL of her info on her blog is SO HELPFUL! ALL. OF. IT!!!!! She has great stuff about helping littles in nature and drawing-art w/ children-nature journal style!!! It's all so wonderful! And, everything is so simple! Nothing is over-complicated!!!! Now, you have to DO IT, of course , but I just love how she simplifies everything.
Whenever I need a little "shot" to get a bit re-invigorated, I pop on over to her site.
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Suzanne in ID
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Becky Parker
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Jennifer,
I can't get the page to work. Is there something missing in the link?
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Becky
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JennGM
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Becky Parker wrote:
Jennifer,
I can't get the page to work. Is there something missing in the link? |
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Sorry, Becky. I fixed the link. Sources for Notebook Pates
It had a double URL. Shame on me!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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JennGM
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From this old thread, Full Year Notebooks
I wanted to get Avilian notebooks for the ideas, but that page is down, and Internet archive isn't showing it all. Is the site completely down, or moved?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Becky Parker
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Hi Jennifer,
I checked an old link I had saved and it doesn't work either. The site appears to be down. Is there a question about the Avilian System that some of us who have used it could answer? I'm actually very glad you brought it up! I was just thinking about a way to organize my dd's school work next year since she will no longer be using workboxes.
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Becky
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lapazfarm
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For notebooking history, has anyone used these?
History Portfolio Series
They are basically timeline binders with pre-printed notebooking pages and an outline, and the teachers guide has suggestions for filling the various boxes.
I have been looking at these for years, waiting for dd to be old enough to use them, and I think the time will be right for next school year.
They seem like a really great tool. Flexible, yet not totally open ended.
What say you, notebooking queens?
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Theresa
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JennGM
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lapazfarm wrote:
For notebooking history, has anyone used these?
History Portfolio Series
They are basically timeline binders with pre-printed notebooking pages and an outline, and the teachers guide has suggestions for filling the various boxes.
I have been looking at these for years, waiting for dd to be old enough to use them, and I think the time will be right for next school year.
They seem like a really great tool. Flexible, yet not totally open ended.
What say you, notebooking queens? |
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Very nice. I'd love to hear more feedback on that.
I was just thinking of you, Theresa, because of your lovely pictures in this thread about BOC/Timelines/Notebooks.
I think I was going to do Chari's approach (if I read it correctly) with a tab for each era, and let room to grow to put whatever in between. Mainly I'm starting with that because I'm using "First Timeline" by Mary Daly and wanted to put the lovely cards into something that we'll keep referring to.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Angel
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Discovered the Notebooking Flickr Group today. LOTS of pictures to show you what notebooking can look like!
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Angela
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Three Plus Two
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Angel
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lapazfarm wrote:
For notebooking history, has anyone used these?
History Portfolio Series
They are basically timeline binders with pre-printed notebooking pages and an outline, and the teachers guide has suggestions for filling the various boxes.
I have been looking at these for years, waiting for dd to be old enough to use them, and I think the time will be right for next school year.
They seem like a really great tool. Flexible, yet not totally open ended.
What say you, notebooking queens? |
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Well, I'm not exactly a notebooking queen, but... I showed the Medieval Portfolio to my 13 yo ds and got a favorable response instead of a grunt, so I think I may order one.
Do you think the teacher's guide is necessary or not?
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Angela
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Mackfam
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I haven't used them, Theresa, but they do look very interesting!
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Jen Mackintosh
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lapazfarm
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Angel wrote:
Do you think the teacher's guide is necessary or not? |
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I don't know. I think it might be nice to have the suggestions at the ready just in case, but not to feel as if we have to follow them, you know?
Now that I am back to schooling more kids again, I definitely see the merit of having pre-made stuff at the ready, just in case my creativity (or patience) is maxed out.
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Theresa
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Describe Your Notebooks, Please
