Love it, love it, love it!

[stm4him]

http://homeschoolinmama.com/how-to-homeschool-with-journals/

[Guest]

Thank you for sharing!

[stm4him]

And this:

 

http://largefamilymothering.com/2014/07/11/how-to-make-a-homeschool-planner-for-under-a-dollar/

 

Now I want to go out and buy the supplies to do this to my books and my kids' books (actually, I'm sure I probably have the supplies somewhere), and I want to buy some of those newish eraseable pens.  I can't think of the name, but it starts with an f.  Definitely would need the retractable kind.  My kids would love this!  I will post other similar things as I find them.  

[stm4him]

http://largefamilymothering.com/2015/03/01/organize-your-life-with-index-cards/

[stm4him]

http://largefamilymothering.com/2015/01/18/productivity-tools-for-large-family-moms-the-1-plannervideo/

[marbel]

I've always used cheap comp books for all sorts of journal/recordkeeping needs.  My daughter and I cover a few at a time with wrapping or scrapbooking paper.  They are so pretty.  But the insides of ours are not so pretty, especially after I saw the ones linked!  Wow! 

[Momto4inSoCal]

Isn't that sort of like the notebook idea recommended in TWTM?

[stm4him]

I don't know, but I want to order the original WTM book and see what ideas are in there. I bet there were fewer curriculum lists and maybe more ideas like this. But I am just guessing.

[aaplank]

Just beautiful!! I wish I had the guts to implement in our homeschool. Not only are the journals gorgeous, the plan for learning and acquiring knowledge is brilliant.

[stm4him]

I just downloaded Sherry Hayes book today called Homeschool Sanity and I am loving it so far. It seems clearer than her blog. It has mixed reviews, but I am voting with all the positive ones.

[KeriJ]

I just downloaded Sherry Hayes book today called Homeschool Sanity and I am loving it so far. It seems clearer than her blog. It has mixed reviews, but I am voting with all the positive ones.

 

I considered getting that book.  I wondered if it was too specific to the books she uses? (McGuffey readers and Ray's?)  Is there enough general homeschool info in there?

[SorrelZG]

The notebooks described in the WTM are subject specific loose-leaf binders, all tabbed and ordered. Love the idea but it doesn't sync with my mind. This idea looks more workable for me.

[Mommy to monkeys]

Oh my goodness! I'm loving these links!!!

[5wolfcubs]

Thanks for sharing these wonderful links! 

If you like the journal idea, just came across an idea of making an activity book of ideas to do: Ultimate Book of Activities

It is almost the journal in reverse.

 

[stm4him]

I am going to look at that link, 5wolfcubs.  Thanks!

 

Sherry's book was wonderful.  There is specific info about what she uses, but I think it is easily applicable to other books, especially other vintage texts.  I am not planning (right now at least) to use all the books she has listed, but I am using many that she listed.  She does a great job of going subject by subject as well as general learning tools for each.

 

What I did not think was covered as well is how to put a day together like this or how to make a master type plan.  I am more inclined to need to see the big picture in some amount of detail.  She does talk about how to record an individual child's learning for  the day and week.  I need to see how to fit the learning of all the children together into my day somehow, so that is what I am trying to think through now.

 

So far, I am having a wonderful time with my 1st and 2nd grader, but I am having more trouble figuring out how to incorporate my older two.  So I am thinking about the one-room schoolhouse idea but also incorporate individual study.  So I think I will have them read their own Bible (30 minutes?) and a story or poem from an Elson reader.  Then they can do a drawing of either something  from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady or a map.  Then when we are ready to begin, I will have them each come up and narrate or recite from the Elson Reader and show us their drawings.  They can also discuss their Bible reading.

 

Then we will have our devotion with hymnals, New England Primer, and read a few verses each from Psalms and Proverbs and pray.  I will read from the VP and Acts and Facts cards and have them copy down the front of the cards and we will discuss them.  This will be our Bible, history, and science for the day as a group.

 

After that I will begin teaching through a list of subjects.  At the beginning of each subject I will give each child which lesson or page(s) to study from their book.  They will study by reading it, copying it or answering the problems, and memorizing anything they need to memorize.  When it is their turn (going youngest to oldest), they will recite or narrate their answers or what they learned or whatever for 5 minutes or have me test them orally on the material.  Right now, at 5 minutes per child, each of these subjects would take about 20 minutes (plus maybe 5 minutes to get them set up to study).  Here is the list of subjects:

 

1. Music Theory

2. Math

3. Greek

4. Latin

5. Spelling

6. Handwriting/Language/Grammar/Composition 

7. Reading/ Vocabulary

 

I will see how this goes today, though my oldest isn't here so the subjects will be quicker.  It is just a trial run to see what I can learn.  If this doesn't work, I would have them start with the list of assignments and work on each for a certain amount of time and then at the end I would see how they did.  I am just going to have to play around with it.  

 

If I set up their composition books ahead of time with which pages to study for each subject this would save time.  I should also pull up links to the books for each kiddo before we start.  This also may not be enough math time for my older kids, so I'll have to evaluate whether they still need to continue to work on Saxon alongside what we are doing or what.....But I am having fun learning and experimenting.  I can't wait to buy those pens :-)

[stm4him]

I wouldn't set my notebooks up WTM style, but I would consider formatting their entries the way WTM does and then just having them label what kind of entry it is at the top of the page.  I like their composition books to show their work across all subjects chronologically.  It just keeps it super simple and all in one place.  

[Slache]

I wouldn't set my notebooks up WTM style, but I would consider formatting their entries the way WTM does and then just having them label what kind of entry it is at the top of the page.  I like their composition books to show their work across all subjects chronologically.  It just keeps it super simple and all in one place.  

 

You don't think it would be difficult to find old entries that way? You might set up a Table of Contents that they could fill in as they go.

[stm4him]

That's a good idea, Slache.  Like with bullet journals....

[FO4UR]

:drool5:

 

 

Hehe...I've been thinking along the same lines...http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=paula+van+kuren&type=

 

 

For the fall, my kids will have a spiral-bound notebook for all of the biggies. (one for history, one for science, one for poetry/literature, one for geography, one for math...)  Then I will assign work in a modified workbox style. I will simply load the book & journal in the slot and the child will read and write a narration.  (5th-7th grades)

 

 

[Slache]

That's a good idea, Slache.  Like with bullet journals....

That's what I was thinking. This one book for everything is very simple and I *love* simplicity and organization, but I would be afraid of the hodgepodgeness of it without a TOC. Thanks for sharing this. I absolutely love it.

[FO4UR]

That's what I was thinking. This one book for everything is very simple and I *love* simplicity and organization, but I would be afraid of the hodgepodgeness of it without a TOC. Thanks for sharing this. I absolutely love it.

 

Oooh...now I'm thinking I might tweak how I organize my journals.  My nature journal already has a large section with a DIY TOC.  I might just make the other subjects similarly (rather than making them chapter-specific like I was planning).  That would make them generic enough that I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel every year for every child.

 

My thing is that if it's TOOOOOOO open and random that we will not be consistent.  I need something to plop in front of the kids, read, write, lather, rinse, repeat.  (We discuss too, but for the sake keeping the days rolling happily with 4 dc, those discussions need to happen later when I'm checking through the narrations.)

 

If I kept things bullet-journal-like, it would be easy to make a few pages for EOT Exam questions whenever it was time for it. 

 

 

 

For the reading assignments, I could make one or two pages to list the readings to be checked off as the child goes.  For something like history, if I want one grand journal for just history, I would want a simple timeline in the back and space for several books to be read and narrated.  How many books, I wonder?

 

 

Love this thread!

[Slache]

Oooh...now I'm thinking I might tweak how I organize my journals.  My nature journal already has a large section with a DIY TOC.  I might just make the other subjects similarly (rather than making them chapter-specific like I was planning).  That would make them generic enough that I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel every year for every child.

 

My thing is that if it's TOOOOOOO open and random that we will not be consistent.  I need something to plop in front of the kids, read, write, lather, rinse, repeat.  (We discuss too, but for the sake keeping the days rolling happily with 4 dc, those discussions need to happen later when I'm checking through the narrations.)

 

If I kept things bullet-journal-like, it would be easy to make a few pages for EOT Exam questions whenever it was time for it. 

 

 

 

For the reading assignments, I could make one or two pages to list the readings to be checked off as the child goes.  For something like history, if I want one grand journal for just history, I would want a simple timeline in the back and space for several books to be read and narrated.  How many books, I wonder?

 

 

Love this thread! Me too!

 

For History I was planning on a binder (or proclick typa thing). The timeline would be throughout it and the art, memory work, essays, and stuffs would go in chronological order. They would build on it from maybe 2nd or 3rd grade to 12th. Does that sound crazy? You don't have to answer that. ;)

[FO4UR]

For History I was planning on a binder (or proclick typa thing). The timeline would be throughout it and the art, memory work, essays, and stuffs would go in chronological order. They would build on it from maybe 2nd or 3rd grade to 12th. Does that sound crazy? You don't have to answer that. ;)

 

That sounds smart!

 

If it's a binder you can place things in chron. order easily.

 

Only problem, maybe specific to my dc  :glare: , is that when I try to do binders we end up with random papers ev-er-y-where!  And by everywhere, I mean in clothes drawers, toyboxes, kitchen cabinets (I kid you not!), under the couch, hidden between books on the shelf, used as placemats at the kitchen table,etc...  :willy_nilly:  This is why I must Bind.All.The.Things!!!  Proclick might solve that...but $-ouch! (I don't need a proclick. I don't need a proclick. I don't need a proclick.)

 

I'm going to have mine do a history journal that will last the next 2 years. ds12 will start new stuff for high school.  dd10 will start a new one for her 7th/8th grade years.  (These two kids work most of the same stuff except math.)  We'll be going through A Picturesque Tale of Progress and reading through several American biographies for the next 2 years.  Then there is my 8yo, who will also want a history journal but will be working through different material.

 

 

Still thinking....

[NikiSC]

And this:

 

http://largefamilymothering.com/2014/07/11/how-to-make-a-homeschool-planner-for-under-a-dollar/

 

Now I want to go out and buy the supplies to do this to my books and my kids' books (actually, I'm sure I probably have the supplies somewhere), and I want to buy some of those newish eraseable pens. I can't think of the name, but it starts with an f. Definitely would need the retractable kind. My kids would love this! I will post other similar things as I find them.[/quote

ETA:Oops! I hit the wrong button!

The pens are called Frixion 😊.

[ktgrok]

When I was in elementary school, I was in a once a week gifted enrichment program and we TOTALLY did those! We used composition books, and I think we might have kept a table of contents, i can't remember. But I still have some of mine and really love them. My girl staring K next year will totally be doing this. 

[Slache]

That sounds smart!

 

If it's a binder you can place things in chron. order easily.

 

Only problem, maybe specific to my dc  :glare: , is that when I try to do binders we end up with random papers ev-er-y-where!  And by everywhere, I mean in clothes drawers, toyboxes, kitchen cabinets (I kid you not!), under the couch, hidden between books on the shelf, used as placemats at the kitchen table,etc...  :willy_nilly:  This is why I must Bind.All.The.Things!!!  Proclick might solve that...but $-ouch! (I don't need a proclick. I don't need a proclick. I don't need a proclick.)

 

I'm going to have mine do a history journal that will last the next 2 years. ds12 will start new stuff for high school.  dd10 will start a new one for her 7th/8th grade years.  (These two kids work most of the same stuff except math.)  We'll be going through A Picturesque Tale of Progress and reading through several American biographies for the next 2 years.  Then there is my 8yo, who will also want a history journal but will be working through different material.

 

 

Still thinking....

See, my kids are perfect so we won't have that problem. :smilielol5:

 

About the Proclick. I'm definitely a person who doesn't believe in having a bunch of stuff just to have it. We probably have half of what we had when we got married. I'm also incredible frugal. *But* if a purchase, even an expensive one, will make your life better then do it.

 

I used to spend 10 minutes every time we went out trying to get 4 jackets, 4 water bottles, books, toys, snacks and sometimes 4 Bibles in my diaper bag. I finally broke down and spent $150 on a diaper bag that is big enough to hold all of that easily and the kids jackets, some books and packaged snacks just live in there because I don't have to worry about if there's enough room. All I do is ask for everyone's water bottles and we hit the road. I wish I had just broken down and bought it a year ago.

 

If you spend 10 minutes a week picking up those papers, that's 360 minutes a year, that's SIX hours! Just sayin'.

 

When I was in elementary school, I was in a once a week gifted enrichment program and we TOTALLY did those! We used composition books, and I think we might have kept a table of contents, i can't remember. But I still have some of mine and really love them. My girl staring K next year will totally be doing this. 

This is fantastic to hear. Thanks.

[stm4him]

That is why I am against loose paper. It takes over my life. It isn't much more work to show them how to format a few kinds of pages so we can just have the one composition book. When it is full, we start another. I can put on stick on tabs to mark the beginning of new months. There is almost never a need for us to reference their old work except for nostalgic purposes and these are much easier to store in their rooms than a big, bulky binder. For the few loose papers they produce, I store them in their Five Star binder that also works like a notebook that folds back. We used to work from those but pages still got ripped out. In the future I would rather bind their stuff with brads and a cardstock cover or a pronged folder.

[FO4UR]

See, my kids are perfect so we won't have that problem. :smilielol5:

 

 

 

If you spend 10 minutes a week picking up those papers, that's 360 minutes a year, that's SIX hours! Just sayin'.

 

 

 

 

:p

 

and

 

 

I don't spend 10 minutes a week picking up any of it...that is part of my problem.  At the end of about 6-8 weeks I go through the house with a trash bag, and a handful of pages make it back to a box that (is just as messy) is used to keep things to make a portfolio at the end of the year.  This is not a sustainable system.  

 

 

I hear you on worthy purchases.   :iagree:   (...if lulu will print & bind it for me though...)