By admin, on September 28th, 2009%
Since I’m recovering from the effects of a non-working thyroid, which has probably been building over a year’s time, I don’t want to add any more stress to my life than necessary.
For writing, Michaela will keep a journal about her new puppy, Annie.
For reading, I am definitely following the Ambleside Year 5 lessons and just calmly going with our own flow with those books. There is one book that Michaela absolutely “does not get” right now. (The Story of King Arthur and His Knights.) Stress? No. That one’s going on the back burner right now and I’m hoping to read that one with her aloud later. In the meantime she is loving the other books and placing figures on our timeline as we learn about new people. Pictures are easily printed from a Google search for this!
Last night we snuggled up with Annie and read more from Farmer Boy, our current read in the Little House series.
I think I have to work? Well, no, Almanzo’s father had to get up at midnight, at 40 below zero, and take a whip outside to rouse the cows that were not in barns. He had so much livestock that they could not all fit into his many barns and shelters. If the cows that were exposed to the air were left to sleep too long they would freeze in their sleep. So little Almanzo awoke to the sound of the door closing at midnight — father going out to keep the cows alive. He’d drive them around until they were good and warm and then let them rest again.
Now that was hard work.
There’s a wild aster in my garden that’s beginning to bloom. I love the tiny little blooms. It’ll look like a snowstorm before it’s done.
We’ll do some light and easy nature sketching.
I’m involved in a Five In A Row Volume 4 co-op this year. I’m very excited about that. As far as creative lessons and things done away from home, that’s where my energy will go right now. It’s easy to choose lessons from the Five In A Row manual, but we’ll be getting the children together to work on lessons and learn together. So much fun!
The Ambleside takes care of itself if we just do the reading. It gives us copywork material, timeline material, discussion material and more.
Of course we are doing math (Saxon 7/6) and many handicrafts. Even now, Michaela is working on a new bed for the doll house. It is being recycled from something I no longer needed. I’ll be sure and post pictures!
Have a lovely Monday!
Lynn
By admin, on September 21st, 2009%
I’m home.
Today is a work day for me, but I’ve enjoyed so much getting back into my little garden after a few days away, walking up and down my little garden paths and noticing big changes in little flowers.
My Ambleside reading this week is in Volume 6, pages 154-158. Volume 6 is titled Towards a Philosophy of Education. You can easily print the pages from the Ambleside website and read along. I’ve only had time to read a short amount this morning, but I loved this:
In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered: –
a) He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
b) Knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e. curiosity).
c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.
I love the richness of the books we are reading using Ambleside Year 5.
Well, I could write on, but I must get to my work desk. That, too, brings some excitement. I have new information at my fingertips and it’s made my job easier and more of a fun challenge. As well, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t see some grammatical or scientific fact that I want to share with my chidren.
Today’s Quote: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ~Winston Churchill
Happy Monday. It’s good to be home.
Lynn
By admin, on September 8th, 2009%
One of Michaela’s school books this year (Year 5 using Ambleside Online), is The Fairy-Land of Science by Arabella Buckley. It was first published in 1879 and I am sure you know it does not take much twisting of my arm to opt for an old book and to think that the garden is full of fairies. 
The forces of science are presented as fairies in The Fairy-Land of Science. In our week 1 assignment we were introduced to a handful of Fairies. There’s fairy Cohesion who locks atoms together, fairy Gravitation who causes the raindrops to fall to earth, and other fairies and giants that you might want to read about yourself!
As Michaela’s copywork assignment for the day, I took a few lines from the first week’s reading, a few lines from a Wordsworth poem about Peter Bell:
A primrose by a river’s brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more.
We discussed those lines and what they meant and I asked Michaela if she thought a flower was just a flower and nothing more. At that point we escaped outside and investigated flowers. We knew already, of course, that a flower is a world unto itself and yet an intricate part of Nature which fairy Life must certainly spend much of her time working on.
Fairy Gravitation pulled our water into the birdbaths.
Perhaps we’ll soon meet the fairy who changes the plants from green to brilliant reds and oranges and yellows every year.
Maybe there’s a fairy Oxidation.
I can’t help but wonder if there’s not one fairy alone whose job it is to create dandelion wish-makers for all the children who instinctively blow the dandelions’ seeds away and make wishes.
One of the passages I loved most from our reading was when Arabella Buckley was writing of imagination and how necessary it is to have imagination when trying to understand the forces of science.
Most children have this glorious gift, and love to picture to themselves all that is told them, and to hear the same tale over and over again till they see every bit of it as if it were real. This is why they are sure to love science if its tales are told them aright; and I, for one, hope the day may never come when we may lose that childish clearness of vision, which enables us through the temporal things which are seen, to realize those eternal truths which are unseeen.
I really had to stop and think about that. I considered when Jesus brought a little child before those around him and said that’s what we should be like — a little child. There is indeed a sweet, innocent and easy belief in all that is told them that children possess. I don’t want to lose that gift of believing what I cannot see.
There were tiny gourds in the garden and one that had broken off of the vine at this tiny stage. Michaela loved its little size.
We tested the fairies. Is a flower really only just a flower? Of course we found flowers to be homes, and food….
for all sorts of creatures.
Nearly every flower offered something of a wonder to us.
The flowers seemed to be even a place of refuge for the injured.
I feel like I’m still just getting started with Ambleside. There’s a tendency in me to push too hard and feel stressed when we do not get enough done. The reading assignments in Ambledside are plenteous and the books are full of important references and rich with vocabulary. I determine everyday to enjoy this transition. I aim for a little more each day. A little more reading, a little more narration, a little more stretching of our minds and training of our abilities to read well. That said, I want to aim with joy and good sense.
Lynn
By Lynn, on September 5th, 2009%
We’ve completed our second week of school, our second week of using Ambleside Online, and all is well.
Michaela’s first written narration attempt was so cute, folded up like a little love letter and slipped into my “in box” on the Narration Station. I want longer entires with more details, but no way will I be too critical on this first attempt! She did it with willingness and seems to be enjoying this particular book very much. I believe as we go along, the written narrations will improve and we’ll find more and more ways to incorporate written narration.
I have already found two ways of incorporating narration: one will be her art appreciation notebook and another will be her timeline.
As we cover people and events in our reading, I am providing images to Michaela. (One more reason to love old, tattered history books from the thrift store.) Each image is glued onto a note card where she can write down information, dates, copywork, or narration and then the whole card can be trimmed of excess and glued onto the time line. The timeline is a series of 8-1/2 x 11 art pages taped together. This will easily come down at the end of the year where it can be folded accordian style and glued into her end-of-year notebook.
The thought of written narration has mae me really excited about all we can put on the timeline. Why can’t narration and even copywork be glued onto the timeline for us to see regularly?
One of the facets of Ambleside Online that I have not written much about is the artist study. Each term of every year one artist is studied. There is a group online that has links to PDF images (so kindly put up by one of the members — thank you) for personal school use. I copied the files to a CD and had them printed onto beautiful 8-1/2 x 11 glossy photo paper for around 1 dollar each.
Michaela now has an art notebook in which these will be kept in clear protectors. Michaela put them into the protectors and then the notebook yesterday, in the order she wanted, and we talked about the name of each painting.
Her art appreciation notebook will be another way to implement narration and copywork. The only way she will truly remember about Raphael and these paintings is to read about them, talk about them and look at them. I will assign narration and copywork related to this art throughout the term and she can put it into her notebook to refer back to.
We have done an art wall in the past, but I think including copywork and narration in a notebook will help Michaela learn the artist even better.
I feel like we are really getting into a nice routine here, but we need to step up the reading. I’ve been very relaxed this first two weeks, allowing us two weeks to do one week’s worth of reading. (The assigments are plenteous!)
To complicate our already busy schedule, Michaela, as she put it, “messed up her peace sign” this week.
Yes, her left index finger fell victim to a backyard stunt that went terribly wrong and we spent an evening in the ER, didn’t get to bed until after midnight, and slept late the next morning.
In a nutshell, she tried to jump through a seat-swing hanging from a swingset (running, by the way), got her finger tangled in the rope which twisted her, by her finger, so hard that it threw her to the ground, abraded all the skin off the underside of her finger and made her finger turn blue and become as big as her brother’s finger. I think she thought that last part was cool, if it weren’t for the pain. We’ve been icing and buddy-taping and waiting to see the orthopedist to make sure there’s no hairline fracture around a growth plate.
Hopefully we’ll be even more on track with reading next week. Real construction began on the potting shed today, so I’ll be putting up pictures soon. We have science experiements to talk about, and more! Until then…
Happy Saturday!
By Lynn, on September 3rd, 2009%
Oh, you know me and visual appeal. I love the thought of having something visually stimulating when it comes to assigning lessons and inspiring children to want to create and write and do.
Narration, or the act of telling back in some form what she is reading, will be a bit of a change for Michaela. I have always incorporated some of Charlotte Mason’s ideas into our schooling, but following the CM style and Ambleside very closely this year, Michaela will be doing a lot of narrating.
If I say, “You are going to tell me every day what you’ve read,” oh my does that produce some sort of expression!
In this pretty, old creamer are narration assignments. I’ll continue to add to them as I get ideas through the year.
Here are the ideas written down so far:
- If you could send a postcard to tell me what happened, what would it say? Create it! Illustrate, including the stamp!
- Reporter! Make me a news story to tell what happened. In fact, do a newspaper page including ads, sales, whatever!
- Draw a picture of one of the scenes you read about today. You can add words if you like.
- Imagine! If the characters could magically fly to modern times, what would they think? Would things have been different for them?
- Use these words to write a creative story about a character you are reading about. (To do this I pull words from the reading and let her choose randomly as she writes.)
- You are the main character and want someone to visit you. Make a travel brochure telling them why they must see where you are.
- Pretend you are the main character and write a journal entry about what happened.
This idea came to me when I found a piece of bright red fabric at The Scrap Exchange. It already had two pockets sewn onto it, but nothing else going on. Except my idea to turn it into a pretty “in/out box” for our writing assignments!
I hot-glued one end over a hanger and then began to embellish it with pretty fabric and tags. I reinforced the back and gave it more length by hot-gluing a bright white and red piece of fabric to the back.
The out box is where I put outgoing narration assignments for Michaela. I choose an assignment that I think is especially good for what was just read. For example, Michaela talks about Isaac Newton’s mother as if she knows her so I think for her to write a journal entry as Hannah would be good.
There’s a pretty strip of fabric that hangs from the top. It’s our “ready” signal. We can switch it back and forth from “in” to “out,” something fun to signal we’re done!
The “in” box of course is where she puts her assignment incoming to me. She can fold her paper in half longways and slip it right in!
I am already working diligently week by week on our end-of-year notebook (I ended up going with spiral again!) and all of her narration projects will be put into this as we go.
I feel like at some point we won’t be using this bright Narration Station day in and day out for every little thing, but as we make the transition into Ambleside and get Michaela used to narrating, it’s something to make it more fun.
I’m not sure at this point how Charlotte Mason would have felt about it, but given her respect for a mother’s need to lead and nurture and her awareness that children were individuals, after all, I think she would have known that I’m just a visually driven, artsy person who had to do this.
Narration Help Resources
More to come!
Lynn
By admin, on September 1st, 2009%
Encouragement That I’m On The Right Track:
If there was any doubt that I had made a wrong choice about using Ambleside Online this year for Michaela, that doubt was alleviated this morning when we started school.
It’s a refreshingly cool morning here. In fact, the weather is so much cooler, we turned off all air conditioning last night. Michaela and I retreated to her bedroom this morning, closed her doors, opened her windows and let the bunnies out to run around in the breeze blowing in under the curtains.
I asked Michaela, “Would you like to do your reading in here this morning?”
“Yes,” was her immediate reply.
“I’ll go get the books,” I said.
“Get Isaac Newton!” she yelled after me.
Inventor, Scientist, and Teacher: Isaac Newton by John Hudson Tiner
Ambleside Year 5, as part of the assigned reading, includes simply ”biography of Isaac Newton” under Science Biography for Term 1. I love that we have some room for personal choice here, and that freedom to choose on some occasions will be exactly how I work in Beyond Five In A Row this year.
We chose the Isaac Newton biography shown above and so far it is excellent. I have skimmed the first chapter and then let Michaela take off on her own. I was very pleased that she is now asking for this book, especially since she was clearly (and verbal about it) put off by the idea of reading about Isaac Newton. She told me this morning that she had expected it to be a boring book full of dates she’d have to remember.
Beginning The Day In The Garden:
This morning began for me in the garden, thinking about how to make the most of the day. Days off go by quickly here and I know I have to make the most of them each week. If I don’t, we don’t get enough done.
I’ve been going through old magazines (I have way too many of them), tearing out the articles that I love best, putting them in clear protectors in a notebook, then recycling the old magazines. I mean, I have only so much book space and it can’t all be devoted to magazines!
Since today is September 1st, I finished up the rest of my August magazines and have now pulled out all of my old September issues. I’ll go through them little by little this month, weeding out, preserving articles, and choosing which ones I just cannot part with. Going through these magazines was a restful time and allowed me to think easily about the day’s school work that lay ahead.
I pulled out an old window to look at and dream about while sipping on tea. Thomas told me last night that his goal is to have my potting shed done by our anniversary in September! That’s two weeks away, people! Do I dare get my hopes up? He’s a busy man and I don’t like to nag too much for him to work here after he’s worked and done building all day in someone else’s house. Still, my very own potting shed/greenhouse. Sigh. I can’t wait to show you pictures.
The garden is bright and cool. The sunlight even seems different this morning. How can I share the just-right temperature with a photo?
Even the goldfish seemed full of energy this morning and there weren’t any mosquitoes that I could see, where usually they are such a nuisance, even in the mornings.
I think it’s a perfect day to do some schooling outside on a blanket.
How Yesterday Went - Working and Homeschooling:
Yesterday was a work day for me, but I had Michaela’s boxes filled with work. She moved through them with enthusiasm while I typed. Some of the things she did:
Doing Even More As We Go Along – Finding Our Rhythm:
Today I’m off work and am trying really hard to get a rhythm going so that our weekly Ambleside reading gets done, I get my Charlotte Mason reading done, and Michaela’s boxes are always filled with work on my work days. Working in Language Arts in the Charlotte Mason style is on my list of things to conquer this week. Michaela’s a good writer — a creative writer — and I want her doing plenty of writing this year, even on my work days.
I could continue writing on and on and on, my to-do list is so full of wonderful things (art, timeline, our yearly notebook, ideas about the workboxes), but I’ll stop here. More later on how this day unfolds.
Happy Tuesday!
Lynn
By admin, on August 27th, 2009%
I think Ambleside Online Year 5 is going to be a perfect fit for us. I am so happy that I chose to go with it this year.
Even after saying she’d like to forgo Prairie Tuesdays for awhile, Miss Michaela suggested we put on some “prairie clothes” and have tea. Apparently just a bonnet is enough to make one feel prairie-ish.
We began school on Tuesday by easing into our weekly Year 5 assigned reading. I chose three books to start with and read out loud to Michaela from each one. The first was Wild Animals I Have Known, the second was Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 5, and the third was The Story of King Arthur and His Knights.
The reading went much more quickly than I’d expected. I know that at Michaela’s age (11) she should be doing much of the reading on her own, and she will be. At this juncture, however, I want to get a feel for which books I think she should read on her own and which I want to read with her. I also want her to have a sense of how long she should sit and read each day – how long it will take her. And did I mention that I just want to read some of the books myself?
My ”assigned” reading this week, from the CM Series Yahoo! Group I am taking part in, is Volume 6 pages 119-127 of Home Education. In it Miss Mason shares the thought (from A. Paterson, Across the Bridges) that “reading aloud is but a poor gift compared with the practice of reading in private.”
I do not think this means that reading aloud can’t be fun or worthy (we love read-alouds), but that a child should have to put some effort into their own education. They should train their minds to be able to read and then digest complex works of literature on their own. It is what their minds crave, if Miss Mason is correct, and I think she is.
Michaela had Lady Earl Grey while I had green tea. She then worked on a scarf she is knitting with a circular knitter while I read more to us about Lobo.
The reading from Charlotte Mason’s Home Education Volume 6 pulled on me as much as any of her writing has. I love the thought that “a well-educated man with cultivated imagination, trained judgment, wide interests…is prepared to master the intracacies of any profession; while he knows at the same time how to make use of himself, of the powers with which nature and education have endowed him for his own happiness; the delightful employment of his leisure; for the increased happiness of his neighbours and the well-being of the community; thst is, such a man is able, not only to earn his living but to live.”
If you teach a child to learn; if their minds are cultivated to enjoy learning, reading, the humanities; if their spirit has not been neglected, but rather good character has been nurtured and duty to others made important, they will excel in whatever profession they find, and enjoy life too.
I love that! More than once yesterday we encountered life situations to which having a right response was way more important in the long run than cramming ourselves full of facts and figures.
One such situation was that a friend had worked on Michaela’s scarf during a recent visit and had nearly ruined the project by making the stitches too tight. Michaela almost could not proceed at all, the stitches were so tight and hard to pick up. We abandoned reading long enough for me to make two new rows of stitches, working past the nearly-impossible row, while I spoke to Michaela about not dwelling on the natural tendency to be angry over this, but by remembering how delighted this little girl had been to sit with us and work on something domestic. After handing the knitting back to Michaela and continuing with our reading, the reading seemed even better than before.
One quote from these assigned CM pages I feel I have to mention, though sad and quite alarming is this: “Germany became morally bankrupt (for a season only, let us hope) not solely because of the war but as the result of an education which ignored the things of the spirit or gave these a nominal place and a poor rendering in a utilitarian syllabus.”
It feels good to do something nice for another person, to give of oneself, to nurture the spirit.
As the days progress, we will add in more books. We have started light copywork (at this point, one quote a day from her reading with attention paid to excellent handwriting), and of course math, and will add in subjects and work until we are doing a full Year 5 schedule.
I have set up the white board and am keeping track of new words we find in our reading, writing out the definition and keeping it up so that all the family might notice it. So far we have:
- puissant
- bivouac
- descried
- fastidious
- despot
- loup-garou
Narration so far is going beautifully, with Michaela telling me at intervals about the stories we are reading. This will soon be transitioned to blog entries and writing.
Last night at bedtime one of her stuffed animals, a wolf no less, was given a new name: Blanca, from Wild Animals I Have Known.
I will continue to post about our progress.
Have a wonderful Thursday!
Lynn
By admin, on August 17th, 2009%
Preparation continues for the uncoming school year; however, our first official school day is still not set. Ambleside’s Online Yahoo! group is such a rich resource, I want to follow along with them for the school year, and Term I begins in September. That does not mean I can’t start a few days early, but for studies such as art, Plutarch, hymns, folksongs, etc., it’s nice to work as a group for information sharing purposes.
Meanwhile, the Year 5 books keep rolling in.
A few of these I had on hand already, like the “Little House” series which qualifies as free reading, but many I have been ordering at the best prices I can find on line.
One book in particular I had to think about was Bulfinch’s Age of Fable: whether or not to get this illustrated version, The Illustrated Age of Fable. The inside cover says this:
Since it was first published in 1855, Thomas Bulfinch’s masterly collection of the myths and legends of Greece and Rome has proved so popular that even today it makes essential reading for any newcomer to mythology.
Now for the first time, Bulfinch’s stores are published with the full-color honors they deserve. For this special edition, his ninetheenth-century literary references have been replaced by paintings — 100 of the most stunning and dramatic masterpieces ever inspired by myth. The array of artists includes Michelangelo, Botticelli, Titian, Poussin, Rubens, and Burne-Jones.
Some of the paintings are disturbing in the sense that they interrupt our comfortable existence and show us pictures of tragedy, suffering, revenge and conquest. Some pictures, such as An Allegory with Venus and Cupid, I wondered about. There’s nudity, as is not uncommon in art from the time period. There’s also seduction, envy, father time and more. I must admit it’s a good lesson even for me to have a visual of how tricked one can be in the face of beauty and temptation. But is Michaela old enough for this painting? Is anyone old enough for this painting? I won’t put it here because I don’t really want it on my blog in case some of my readers think it’s better done without.
Some of the paintings inspire me!
At any rate, I purchased the illustrated copy. I am a very visual person and I think Michaela is the same way. The art books we already have, she will sit and look at them for hours, carrying them with her from room to room.
I like that Ambleside is broken into Terms and that the group follows some subjects together. I noticed that in Term III we’ll be studying Monet and some specific paintings of his. (You can see the Art Schedule on this page.)
Over the weekend, Michaela and I drove over to Barnes and Noble. I was so excited to find a book of 14 large framable Monet prints, at least two of which are included in our Term III Ambleside art study.
I love that we’ll have a large version of Women in the Garden. This book was only $9.98 and they let me apply my teacher discount. They have new teacher discount cards, by the way, that can also be used online!
Reading in Charlotte Mason’s original series continues with the CM Series group. The feedback from reading with a group will be of great help I think.
I am still getting the hang of it. The group sent a notice that reading was in volume 6, pages 112-119, but then they sent an updated notice that reading continues in Volume I. It was, however, good for me to read what was assigned in Volume 6! I am finding that Charlotte Mason did not care for unit study where connections were made for the child ad nauseam. I must admit that there have been times when we’ve been on rabbit trails before and my children had stopped running long before I had. They were ready for a new idea. I’ll need to be careful of this! This is not to say that I don’t like Unit Study. I love that Ambleside offers room for free reading and biography, and we’ll be using Beyond Five In A Row for some of this. What I am saying is that I need to make the distinction between doing something because I’m enjoying it and doing something because it is benefitting Michaela.
Following along with the group reading is a good way to read the original CM series and not be overwhelmed. It was easy to join the group (if you’re using Ambleside, or plan to), then print the assigned pages, and read and discuss via e-mail throughout the week.
It’s Monday, a work day, so I must run. Happy planning!
Lynn
By Lynn, on August 10th, 2009%
For the record, I am a notebooking, journaling, scrapbooking person. I love notebooks. I have a notebook of all my computer work. I have a notebook for all my medical transcription knowledge gleaned through the years. I have my new (much loved, I might add) Charlotte Mason notebook. I have my home notebook. I have a notebook of mosaic birdbath ideas. You get the picture.
Obviously, for school, I love the idea of keeping a notebook.
“Well doesn’t everyone use a notebook for school,” you might ask?
Maybe not in the way that notebookers use notebooks.
A lot of people use notebooks to hold their loose leaf paper, taking out sheets to work on. They use it for storage of things they will consume. Many students have composition books – one for each subject – that can end up worn and tattered by the end of the year.
The way notebookers use notebooks is to create a beautiful specimen of work done through the school year. A notebook is to hold the finished work. It’s almost like journaling or scrapbooking. There are even websites that offer notebooking pages for students to fill with copywork or creative writing, among other things. There are tons of things that can go into notebooks.
You can have one big notebook, or many notebooks. You can have a nature notebook, bible notebook, science notebook, history notebook, unit study notebook, and the list goes on.
That said, there are many ways to “journal” or “scrapbook” or “notebook” a year’s worth of work. This past year, for the first time, I used a spiral bound notebook and put the best of the best into it, scrapbook style.
While I love the way it turned out overall, in that it’s full, and full of memories, I’m not totally crazy over the fact that it won’t lay flat. Ours ended up bulky, but then again I did use one notebook for everything (except for math which is in its own little 3-prong folder – but I did include her end-of-year math test in the notebook for completeness).
Michaela’s 5th Grade Notebook
The first page, of course, has pictures of the girl, her age and her grade.
Throughout the year, I glued in her best work each week, along with pictures to go along.
There are pages from fieldtrips. I love that you can glue in envelopes and make little pockets to store things in, like the Cleopatra bookmark from the museum.
We even glued in funny artwork that she did to show her spontaneously creative side.
But it’s not just Sponge Bob! Large worksheets can be folded in half and glued in so that you can open them up for viewing.
We taped in postcards so that they can be flipped out to read the backs.
Illustrations from a story for her blog. In fact much of her art work is in here, put in with adhesive “corners,” so no glue was used on them.
When we studied Grass Sandals, she made a matching game, but you know we’ll likely not play this again, so I tossed half the cards and put one half in here.
Copywork samples.
Nature study pages.
Pictures from our new bunny adventures.
We glued in many fieldtrip pictures and souvenirs. Again, I love how you can glue in storage envelopes for postcards and such.
We even glued in our letters from our Wild West Cousins we gained while doing our Prairie Tuesdays!
As you can see, this notebook ended up being a portfolio of her work, representative of every subject, covering the whole year, but also a scrapbook, full of memories and pictures and fun!
What I like about the spiral notebook:
- cover is attractive
- it’s more like a scrapbook. You can write little notes directly into it and glue things in as well
- the finished product is pretty (even if mine won’t lay flat)
- they are inexpensive and vary in size, so you can choose what kind you want for what subject.
What I do NOT like about the spiral notebook:
- the finished product may not lay flat if you put in anything other than regular paper
- pages can rip out and there’s no way to reinforce them and put them back in
- because it did require the kind of attention you’d give a scrapbook, it turned into more of something I kept up with versus something Michaela was responsible for. She did the work – I kept the scrapbook.
- requires glue or some type of adhesive
What I like about having ONE notebook for everything
- Work of all subjects can be placed in chronological order, so looking through it is literally like a trip down memory lane
- It forces a weeding out of mediocre stuff so you end up with a really striking portfolio
What I do NOT like about having just one notebook
- Obviously, you have to flip through to find specific things; things are not separated into any order
- You don’t end up with one powerful resource in any one subject area, say history or nature, for example. Imagine building on one nature notebook for 12 years!
One thing that I am really proud of is that this notebook was basically done at the end of the year. Other than waiting on a couple of end-of-year pictures, I kept up with this week by week, making school record-keeping a whole lot easier! You may remember my post on my organization station. I suggest having a system in place for weekly checks and touch-ups, having supplies organized where teacher and student (age appropriate) can get to them.
This coming year, we’ll be doing Ambleside Online with Beyond Five In A Row for her biograpy reading, as well as a co-op of some Volume 4 titles, so a lot of reading and then narration in written and oral form and many projects and “handicrafts.” We’ll be doing foreign language, nature study, art and music appreciation, and if it goes as I hope it will, we’ll stick with Ambleside for the duration. In that case, I don’t know that I want only one notebook for each year.
At graduation, I know there are areas where I would like for Michaela to have resources that she’ll enjoy for her whole life. An art appreciation notebook would be nice. A nature notebook would be awesome. A history notebook would also be awesome.
Here are some notebooking resources that I think are nice:
Math Notebooking - who knew math could make such beautiful notebooks?
Jimmie, the author of the above math notebooking, also has a notebooking exhibit page.
Cindy Rushton, who is known as the Binder Queen, has a nice article - Let’s Try Notebooking, on trying notebooking and letting the children do the work.
My friend Sheri at The Shades of Pink has a section on her blog about her notebooking. Her “crew” has produced some beautiful notebooks.
Another friend, Heather (Blog, She Wrote) has wonderful ideas for notebooking.
Friend Kayla shows how she has one 3-ring notebook for FIAR broken into sections by books rowed.
More to come as I plan how we’ll store our work this next year!
Lynn
By admin, on August 3rd, 2009%
A Child’s Relationship with Almighty God.
I have continued to read on in Charlotte Mason’s Home Education Volume I. (Thank you so much, Ableside Online, for making these resources available.)
My second son, Joseph, who though dyslexic and not immediately appearing to be the brightest academic star on our tree (just give him time), has always had sayings and thoughts that made me think he had wisdom beyond his years. He has always said that little children understand the difference between right and wrong and that you don’t have to give children a lot of reasons for saying no. You just tell them kindly, it’s wrong, and they’ll understand.
Daniel reading his little bible, 21 years ago.
Charlotte Mason wrote:
The most fatal way of despising the child falls under the third educational law of the Gospels; it is to overlook and make light of his natural relationship with Almighty God. ‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me,’ says the Savior, as if that were the natural thing for the children to do, the thing they do when they are not hindered by thier elders. And perhaps it is not too beautiful a thing to believe in this redeemed world, that, as the babe turns to his mother though he has no power to say her name, as the flowers turn to the sun, so the hearts of the children turn to their Savior and God with unconscious delight and trust.
My morning garden time with my watering can and my camera in my apron pocket have become a nurturing habit. Karen Andreola might consider it a part of Mother Culture.
Charlotte Mason’s words have given me some nice things to think on today. (And Philippians 4:8 is my own personal memory verse for this week.)
Though I had not nearly enough wisdom when my children were little, I am very grateful to have had wonderful, steady examples in my life, and bible studies to keep me from getting lost in my own way of thinking.
The morning sunlight points out a lovely web for me to photograph for you.
The garden is full of spiders this time of year. While I don’t enjoy walking through a web, I marvel at the creatures and enjoy studying their habits in my tiny little garden.
Spiny orb weaver.
I don’t know the genus and species, but I know this is a spiny orb weaver. It worked away diligently, allowing me to take a picture or two.
Spiny orb weaver up close.
The garden is full and many flowers are totally spent, bloomed out and turning to seed. If I am going to plant any vegetables for the fall, it’s time to get busy planning and doing.
Today, of course, is a work day, but I’ll look forward to breaks in the garden with Lady Earl Grey tea. This evening I am planning to order some more of the books we will be using with our Ambleside Online this coming school year. I have much to be happy about today.
Finally, a resource you might enjoy. It’s a website that lists books needed for AO and you can categorize them into year, categories, free reading, required reading, etc. Access To The Classics. I’ve put the link in my sidebar under “Ambleside Online Helps.”
Happy Monday!
Lynn
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About Lynn
I am the mother of four delightful children: a 23-year-old son, a 20-year-old son, a 17-year-old son, and a bright and bubbly 13-year-old daughter. I share an apartment home with my 17-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. My little home on the internet is called Rose Cottage because of my love for gardening, roses, and all things romantic and Victorian. Welcome.
I'm a North Carolina girl and I love sharing North Carolina links and information. I do medical transcription from home. My hobbies include making sweet little dolls from clay who are named and have their own stories to tell. I also make old-fashioned brooches. These are for sale in my Etsy shop.
For 13 years continuously, I homeschooled some or all of our four children, but the time came that our homeschool had to be closed. It was the end of a beautiful chapter in my life. I will always be a strong supporter of homeschooling and I will continue to review books and maintain my homeschool website, The Healthy Homeschool. The Players
Lil Ol' Me
Son Daniel, 23
Son, Big Joe, 20
Son, John, 17
Daughter, Michaela, 13
Annie Fatso Beagle
My Symphony
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing
1810-1884
What You Do Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
Contact Me 
I would  for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
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