History Notebooking/Nature Notebooking/Art

[jsleepymom]

So I was feeling fairly decent about what we're accomplishing this year, but then I had to go and look at what other people are doing and now I feel like a complete slacker :glare:.

 

This is our first official homeschooling year although obviously we've been homeschooling preschool type stuff since the beginning. My oldest is 5 1/2 (good reader, no idea what level but currently reading The Boxcar Children), then I have a 4 year old (reading short vowel words with beginning and ending blends), 2 1/2 year old (just trying to get the coloring thing down :tongue_smilie:) and a 6 month old (just to throw a wrench into everything!!).

 

Anyway, aside from reading (phonics/spelling) and Math all we are doing is Bible (reading a story, memorizing a verse every couple weeks or so), History (reading a blurb from a spine, supplementing with readings from other 'living' books), and Elemental Science (so far just doing the weekly experiment and supplementary book or two).

 

So if I type everything out it looks like a lot, but basically we cover most of our read alouds at breakfast and then spend about an hour or so on Math, Phonics and Handwriting.

 

I'm just giving a lot of background info because I really need this notebooking thing s-p-e-l-l-e-d out for me :tongue_smilie:.

 

Should I be taking narrations from my son on Bible/History/Science? Are we supposed to be hiking about the neighborhood gathering specimens for a nature notebook (keep in mind that none of this is my area of expertise - to put it extremely mildly!)? Is my 5 1/2 year old supposed to be able to sketch realistic drawings and label them and make observations at this time? Leading to...do I need to teach him how to draw now (as if I know how) since currently his drawing capability involves stick figures (maybe with oval bodies if he's really stretching himself)??

 

I am just so confused and feeling extremely overwhelmed at the thought of trying to fit anything more into our day, but at the same time I do not want to leave out an important element to my son's education.

 

What age did you begin notebooking with your child? (I wonder if this varies with family size)

 

What does a beginner's notebook 'look' like?

 

How do you teach a beginner to narrate, draw, etc?

 

How often and for what subjects do you notebook?

 

I know this was long for a Friday night post, but I will not be able to sleep until I am sure that I am not short-changing my son on his education (exaggerating slightly here..).

 

Thanks!!

[Pata]

For Bible I never require writing because I want my dd to focus on what we are studying and to enjoy it. For history & science, at 5.5 yo, we were just doing what you typed out. If we did narrations, I would ask her to tell me one thing that she learned and I would do all the writing for her. I usually let her color a picture that was already drawn as she preferred it that way.

 

Nature study is as simple as taking a walk with a purpose. For instance, if we were going to do a nature walk about oak trees, I would read the pages in Handbook of Nature Study to brush up on my knowledge before hand, then we'd go for a walk, pointing out all the oak trees on the way, allowing for time to stop and ask questions/make observations if she wanted. We also would take pictures while we were out. Then, if we wanted to, when we got home we'd put the picture in her journal and I'd write one thing that she learned that day.

 

But seriously, at 5.5 yo, anything more you get done past reading, writing and math is all gravy!

[skueppers]

Your son is in Kindergarten, right? If I recall correctly from my reading of The Well-Trained Mind, the only thing the authors thought was critical in Kindergarten was making sure kids knew how to read. Since you've already got that covered, you're good!

 

My daughter is also in Kindergarten this year, and my philosophy is to make sure we make regular progress in our major subjects (English, Math, and German). We do a lot of other things, but I don't feel that they're especially essential. To my mind, it doesn't really matter WHAT a Kindergartner does for Science or Social Studies, though it's a good idea for them to do something.

 

Relax. I'm sure you're doing fine!

[Wendy in ME]

We are very relaxed about K at our house. My only goal is to get him reading. He spends most of his day hanging out in the school room playing with educational things, drawing, doing puzzles, painting, playdough, etc. I gave him a really nice notebook that I ordered from Amazon. It is a hard cover, spiral bound book of heavy, plain paper. We have read aloud time every day after lunch from a different catagory (literature, history, science or nature, Bible, geography). After I read I ask him to draw his favorite part of the story in this book and then tell me about it. I write down the title of what we read, the date, and his narration of his favorite part. I ask him to put as many details in his drawing as he can remember. At the end of K we will have a great book to look back at. My 2nd grader does this as well but he is starting to write one complete sentence in his book to go with his drawing.

[idnib]

It might be a good idea to write down for him one sentence about the reading. As for the nature notebooking, I would forget it with the ages of the kids you have and just try and get through the day! You can always start in a couple of years if you want to.

[jsleepymom]

Thank you sooooooo much for the replies!! You all have helped a lot! I wanted to be relaxed for K and had convinced myself that the 'content' part of our curriculum would be for fun and anything they take away would be gravy, but then I keep looking at blogs and whatnot and question myself!

 

Yes, my oldest is in K. Maybe I will try one notebook page every week or two in rotating subjects to see if we enjoy it. It will definitely have to be a coloring page or photograph as there is no drawing happening here.

 

Paige - we are enjoying ES quite a bit and look forward to trying the higher levels over the next years! I do have the nature study handbook, just no time to look through it yet!