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TradCathMom
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What do you use for a History/Science Binder/Notebook? I found some neat blank page books at http://www.easygrammar.com/products.html
they have blank covers (nice book-like hardcover bindings), they aren't overly thick but are nice... and blank. These ones are 6/$5 but only 28 pages.
I'm addicted to 3 ring binders and page protectors. I don't think I'm all that creative (or rather I lost my creative juices somewhere along the baby line.
Julie
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Meredith
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Hi Julie, we use lots of notebooks with page protectors. My children have their own Book of Centuries that we will slowly add to as we discover history. We also have a running wall timeline. I have them do separate nature and science notebooks because one is more for sketching and writing and collecting things and the other is more for hard science, experiment notes, etc.
I'm sure you will get many replies on this. Lapbooking is also popular for individual subject areas pertaining to science and history. It's really what you and your children prefer the most. Just remember to encourage them to make it their own, that's what makes it real learning for my kiddos. HTH 
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TradCathMom
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happyheartsmom wrote:
| Lapbooking is also popular for individual subject areas pertaining to science and history. |
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I have alot to learn. What is lapbooking?
(the funny thing is that here I thought I knew all about homeschooling  )
Thank you so much. I just love these forums. I've learned so much. Schooling is so much more fun and exciting adding these little things like narrations and such.
Thanks,
Julie
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MEBarrett
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Julie:
If you go to the Rabbit Trails section there is a forum called Loving Lapbooks. There is a lot of info there. On page two there is a list of websites you can check to see picutes of lapbooks as well. It is a great list.
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cathhomeschool
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Also in the Rabbit Trails forum, there are pictures of some of Elizabeth's children's lapbooks -- under the Ping and Gingerbread Baby threads.
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TradCathMom
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I spent all last evening look at these lap/flap books on the sites that I believe Tracy Q recommended. Those look like so much fun! I found this place to explain it the best:
http://www.tobinslab.com/downloads.htm
I never would have thought a file folder could be made so interesting! My children love making booklets and such and here I thought I had to have one big messy pile.
Thanks for all the links and info and ideas.
Juile
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Kelly
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For history notebooks, we use traditional three ring binders, too. Get the heaviest, strongest possible because they get a LOT of use and tend to break. We also buy plastic page protectors by the gross (or so it seems), preferring the heavy duty, non-glare type (they seem to be tougher).
We've been doing these history notebooks for some years, now, and these notebooks are a major backbone of our schoolwork. The children are justly proud of their notebooks. Whenever my kids get "down" about their work, I remind them that they've basically written not one but SEVERAL history books from pre-history thru the Renaissance! Not too many kids can say that. It always gives them a boost.
Kelly in FL
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Meredith
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The one thing that we really enjoy about our history notebooks, aka the book of centuries is that it's an ongoing project that the kids can add more to; ie. history that's already been studied. Also we include everything from composers and artists to world and American historical figures. They will definately be seeing the big picture as we live our own history and how it all fits together.
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Molly Smith
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I'm really a newbie to the Book of Centuries idea, but I wanted to share something that I think I may have seen first on CCM. You can get printable timeline pages from www.tanglewoodeducation.com for just a few dollars. I ordered the set plus printing rights for 4 more children and I think it came to $2.75! They emailed the file to me in about one day and now I have them on my computer for easy printing. Each page has a timeline across the top and then various size boxes on the page for highlights of the era. Hope this may be helpful for other beginners  .
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TradCathMom
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Molly Smith wrote:
| You can get printable timeline pages from www.tanglewoodeducation.com for just a few dollars. I ordered the set plus printing rights for 4 more children and I think it came to $2.75! . |
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I found there here:
http://www.tanglewoodeducation.com/BOC.htm
$1.25 for the kit and $0.50 for each additional student. How does one know how many students they will have? LOL We may have more down the road LOL
they look really neat! Thanks for the suggestion
Julie
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burgerktjds
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Hope this is the right forum for this question/comment. We've done individual unit studies for history and a few for some other fun ones. So, essentially I have about 11 of those 1"binders for each child. They get re-looked at infrequently and so the bookcase space is killing me to see it devoted to something not that 'useful' for everyday stuff. My question is that I've gone back/forth with putting all the history into a big notebook ala CM. Perhaps some of you have one for World and one for American? I would need to get the children's permission to take apart their history notebooks and then we can put some dividers in there and continually add to them as necessary. It hit home the other day when I realized we learned about Lincoln, Washington, St. Valentine, St. Patrick, Rosa Parks, and the San Francisco earthquake and didn't have anywhere to put a notebook page or a short narration with illustrations. We added them to our timelines (both a wall and individual ones). How do you all organize history notebooks? We're headed toward American history for the next year and so I'd love your input. Thanks!
Teresa in GA
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Chari
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Teresa, below is an article I wrote a hundred years ago  about how we do history and info about our book of centuries........
Today I have a CCM mom visiting, Maria from Sacramento, and I was just showing her my oldest's book (dd16). It is SO full, she will divide it into ancient and modern.....basically, before Christ and After Christ.
I do not think I would want to keep American history separate.....because then they would miss what was happening in the world at that time.
Apologies to the rest of you who have seen this a hundred times........... 
History in Our House!
History is most unanimously the most favorite subject in this homeschooling family Our approach has grown from what it is today through our never ending desire to know more, and then some more, of the incredible past.
In about our third year of homeschooling, we purchased a history textbook from Our Lady of Victory School titled, How Our Nation Began, written by Father Furlong. We started reading about the Indians in America. The next chapter was about the Norsemen, and especially about Leif Erickson. This is where we were inspired to find books about Leif Erickson at the library. The children and I enjoyed his biography so much! We were all hooked, including mom (Like most of us, I have only a mild memory of early history and its people. And, certainly, what I did learn did not keep well in my brain. Most of the time, my teachers never even got to the end of the textbooks, and so I have never even studied WWI or any history past that time period! I have also never had any ancient history and just a smattering of European history. I had no idea why WWI was fought, that there was a Spanish-American War at the end of the 1800's or that Jamestown was the first permanent English colony. I always thought it was the pilgrims that were first! But, I digress..........).
After studying about Erickson, we moved on to Marco Polo, reading an excellent biography and viewing library videos. This was certainly making history more enjoyable. The children were connecting and remembering details. We also used maps to visualize Polo's travels. Christopher Columbus came next. Using the same resources as above, they learned. In addition, we also found a Catholic story of Queen Isabella.
We followed Cortez to the Aztecs, read about Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadelupe. Spent much time in Jamestown and followed Father Isaac Jogues and Father Marquette on their travels in North America, and stopped to visit with Blessed Kateri. We sailed with Henry Hudson, who would never give up on finding that water route across or above North America, and who would consistently make weak decisions, which finally result in his demise. We witnessed Peter Stuyvesant's governing of New York (along with his poor decision-making skills as well).
We did all the usual Pilgrim study, from the Mayflower to Squanto. And, having just finished up our study of the French and Indian Wars (Did you know that George Washington fired the first shot that started these conflicts? And, that he was pushed back by the French on July 4th?), we are heading into the Revolutionary War.
So, what's so special about our study of history? It sounds like what the schools teach, right? Well, we do not do it from a textbook, where we would get a few paragraphs about each topic and then move on (though I do use the textbook as a basic guide, going off on trails led by our studies). No wonder I don't remember much! We use biographies, fictional historical literature, videos of people, places and stories, non-fictional resources, activities (gleaned from specific activity books or the Internet) and discussion. We use our study of any historical topics to build our "Book of Centuries" (see following article). The children make relationships with these characters of history. They feel like they have "been there" as the history was unfolding. The writers of "real" books take us to places in ways a textbook committee could never do. The children write narrations (a retelling in their own words) from some of the studies, and place those in their Books of Centuries. This retelling makes the information their own. Since it belongs to them, they retain it better. I also have them do oral narrations of the readings. They especially like to tell their father what they are studying.
I decided early on, that we would do a thorough and in depth study of history, chronologically, on the discovery and history of America, as already outlined. Using real books, we have also visited history taking place in other lands at the same time. This year, we are also going to start a serious Ancient History study for my soon-to-be high schooler (who very much wants to get this started!), and follow it with the early Christianity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the rest of World history. And, as long as she is doing the study, we will have the little ones tag a long at their own levels.
It goes without saying that we try to have a Catholic view as much as possible about our study of history. We do include lives of the Saints where they fit in. But, there are many periods of history where it is difficult to find a Catholic point of view. I try to do read alouds of most our history so if we come across probable errors, or anti-Catholic bias, we can have a discussion. I feel this will prepare them for the secular world that will often have a different point of view from them.
Now, where to find the resources? I wade through the homeschooling catalogs, especially the Catholic versions, and order the books I want through interlibrary loan (With the homeschooling catalogs, I can usually trust that the books are a "safe" read.). Buying all we could use would never be practical for us, so I make great use of the library. I also look for resources online, such a amazon.com, or bibliographies. I also use bibliographies from the back of books. I ask the advice of other homeschooling moms, and lastly, I may look through books that are "lists of books." I do not just hand the books to the children to read on their own, but I check them carefully, maybe pre-read them, or just read aloud, editing or explaining as needed.
We also include geography with our historical studies. I purchased a book of blank outline maps (they are also available online; search "outline maps") and made copies for each child. We keep them in a one inch wide folder. We pull them out during our history reads..........or any reads, except maybe Tolkien and Narnia......and when we come to "places", we use our maps and atlases to locate them and then the children place them on their outline maps. This makes the geography more meaningful to them because they can associate the locations with the history they are learning.
And, that's it! This is how it is done in our home. I write this for you, to inspire you, to encourage you, to guide you........but, keeping in mind, that all families have different needs and desires. Remember that what works for one family may not necessarily work for another. Sometimes it is good to take a part of what another family is doing, adapt some of it, and dispense with the rest! It is what we do here! Enjoy your history, and if you have any thought to share with us about how it is done at your house, please share! I have a feeling we are about to set sail for a new way of doing things here, with all this new history we are delving into!
Our Book of Centuries
One of the main motivators for my children in learning to love history, is
their Book of Centuries. I had found the idea about making these books from
many different Charlotte Mason Resources. Still, in the end, like I usually do, I adapted to our own needs and desires. A description of our Books follows below:
Supplies:
2 inch wide hard notebook
page dividers
pen
sheet protectors
history resources for filling the book
We started by labeling each page divider from THE BIRTH OF CHRIST, giving each page divider one century. For example, Birth of Christ -100AD, 100-200, 200-300, etc. When we got to the 1600's, we went by half centuries: 1650-1700, 1700-1750, etc. all the way up to the present. The last page divider just says 2000…to catch all our present history. For the time periods before the Birth of Christ, we write, by century, 500-400, 400-300, 300-200, 100 to the Birth of Christ. We will fill in the centuries for ancient history as we need them. Oh, we did have each child use a graphic arts program (Printmaster Gold, specifically) on the computer to print a title page for their books. My oldest used pictures of Beethoven, Mona Lisa, a Dutch girl, Napoleon, an antique airplane, a Viking ship, a book with "history" written on it, a Gothic Cathedral, all surrounding a scroll where is written "Anne's Book of Centuries." My son chose to use some of the same, and included Our Lord's Crucifixion, the Coliseum, a Bible and an American flag and Golden eagle.
So, what do we put in them? Looking through my oldest daughter's book, we have included drawings, written narrations, pictures from historical coloring books (photocopied and then colored with color pencils or watercolors), paintings, copies of historical documents, our "state pages" (see description below), historical copywork, saint pictures, copywork from historical sources, journal entries from figures of history, and a very occasional noteworthy item from current events. We have also included our family Christmas newsletter at the end of the book, as it IS history!
While browsing through her book, we find in the 1700's: a written narration on Peter Zengar and one about King Philip's War, a copy of a letter from George Washington to his mother, copied from the Internet, copywork of the history of the American Flag, another written narration from a book she read about Catherine the Great, an article about a prophesy of George Washington's about America (found this on the Internet at a Catholic site, about prophesy; seems George received a vision), a colored picture of Beethoven, when he was a boy, and a few other written narrations about the French and Indian Wars, including George Washington's role as well as Braddock's and Montcalm's.
I listed these descriptions above to show two things. First, that there are many ways to fill the book. Secondly, and I believe, most importantly, to show that, though we may study at different times about Beethoven, the French and Indian Wars, read about Catherine the Great, another time study about the history of our flag, and then follow up with the Revolutionary War (which we are about to embark upon), we can see in a Book of Centuries, that all these things were going on either simultaneously or one after the other and that there is a relationship within the studies of history. My children enjoy finding these relationships and it helps put all of history in perspective, whether it be about the art of Mary Cassatt, the composing of Handel, the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson, the Crusades, the lives of the Saints, the fiasco of the last presidential election or their own family history.
We do place all the entries in sheet protectors.......since we learned in the beginning…..that the pages will tear out after frequent use. These will be such a great memory book for the children when they are done with their schooling. They take great pride in making them, and are always on the lookout for more to place in their books. In fact, in thumbing through her book last Spring, my daughter decided we needed to do more to fill the BC pages, so, I have built her a curriculum of Ancient History to do this year. This should be interesting!
NOTE: Our state pages consist of two pages; the first includes the name of the state, its year of statehood, a place for the state flower and state bird to be written and then drawn, a small copy of the U.S. with the specific state colored and anything else they feel inspired to add (my son draws a copy of the state flag). The second has just a place to write the state's name, followed by lines down the rest of the page. I made these with the graphics program on the computer. Once a month, more or less, I will read from an interesting book about a state, and the children will do a written narration on those blank lines, each to their ability. And then they use our resources to find the information on the first page. We are starting with the first thirteen colonies and hope to complete all fifty states by the time they complete school. These are placed in their Book of Centuries under the year the states were founded officially.
In the sweet of Mary,
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Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
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burgerktjds
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Thank you --printing your article as I type. This will be a lot of fun to put together and I really hope the boys will help me get into the new way of organizing and seeing the big picture. We have spent time on a few artists (Mary Cassatt is one) and so connecting her into their notebook will be wonderful! I LOVE your idea of Christmas newsletters, too.
My BIG question on the wall timeline was WHERE to put the person/event/thing. Sometimes I put it during their lifetime, other times at their birth. My boys said they wanted everyone to start at their birth--I guess they want consistency. Has that been a big issue? Do you have a separate timeline notebook or wall timeline?? Or do you rely on your entire BOC? Just curious.
Teresa in GA
wife to a USMC for 12yrs and mommy to 3 sweeties
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Chari
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As for where to put the pages.........I just ask my kids, because it is their book.........they are not as consistent as your boys want: sometimes they do birth, or death....but most of the time.......in the time period when the person had his or her main influence.
an event is obviously easier.
I think if your boys like that idea, go with it.......they will be more interested if they have some of the ownership.......but offer them options.
We do not do a separate timeline, wall or otherwise.......the B of C seems to be enough for us.
Wish I could share Anne's book with you,...........it is so inspiring!
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Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
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Kelly
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We have separate history notebooks for each child that are ordered chronologically. Once we finish an era (or run out of room) we move into a new three-ring binder, labelling each one accordingly. We currently have notebooks on Ancient History, Low Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, Age of Discovery (we did the discovers and conquistadors separately, and will ultimately blend this notebook in with our current project...) Renaissance (soon to become "Early Renaissance" & "Late Renaissance") These notebooks contain many of the things Chari mentioned in her great article:
lots of biographies and "mini" biographies;
pictures of the people, photos of projects we did(like taping paper on the underside of the table to experience "painting" the Sisteen Chapel) or shoebox dioramas;
poems (original and otherwise) about people/events we studied;
narrations about historical events;
photocopies of famous artworks pertinent to the era and colored by the children;
imaginary "news articles" about important events ("Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Blessed Virgin appears to Aztec Neophyte..Converts thousands!") and so on.
We typically order biographies by death date, but there's no hard and fast rule there. Everything in the History notebooks goes in plastic sleeves for durability's sake.
Separately we keep a Book of the Centuries. This book usually evolves from timelines we do per era. We are currently working on a string timeline showing Spanish History, especially Golden Age of Spain. We hang things up with paper clips so we can slide them around. We don't just use index cards, either, but often xerox a picture of the person and glue the pic on the card, use holy cards, postcards etc. to give it color and interest.
As with the History Notebooks, we usually order cards by death dates or do separate cards for important events. When we finish studying the era, we use the timeline (and notebook) to make flashcards to quiz each other. Finally, when all is said and done, we take all these timeline cards off The String and put them into our Book of the Centuries. This way, I figure my children will handle and look at the cards several times (creating card, putting it on string, using it to make flash card, putting it in Book of Centuries). This method really helps them retain information better.
Thanks for the great idea of putting the Book of Centuries in plastic sleeves! I never thought of that (Duh!).
Kelly in FL
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burgerktjds
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Now I'm a bit confused (nothing new). I spent a good 3 nights taking apart the children's numerous 1" history binders when we focused on one binder for a unit study. Well, I ended up with 2-- 2" binders with one being around 5000BC-400AD and the other 400AD to present. There's a good 20-25 pgs for things like Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Cowboys, etc. On another CM site somewhere, this was actually referred to as a PORTFOLIO of sorts, something to show ALL that the kids have done, but overwhelming amount to make sense of. This was different then the BOC idea that would contain what seems like a smaller or at least more deliberate selection of information--narrations, character sketches, narrations, perhaps a map or something. That way, you might have several sheets during a time period, but if you added another person/event...it wouldn't get swallowed up.
Does that make sense? I"m thinking I need ANOTHER notebook that would be labeled chronologically and perhaps xerox a few things from the other history 'portfolio'....but it would be neater and not full of everything in the world we did. Seems like a bit of work up front, but if the end result is something manageable to see big picture, connections, etc.--
Ideas?
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Teresa in GA
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: History Binder/Notebook
