Our Journey Westward » Writing

Notebooking Success Review

Cindy — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:48:58 +0000

Jimmie of Jimmie’s Collage and Notebooking Fairy has just released her first e-book and I had the pleasure of reviewing it for her!! What a gem it is!

Clear. Concise. Full of practical ideas. Easy to implement. Very motivating! Those are phrases that perfectly describe Notebooking Success by my blogging friend, Jimmie.

I’m not new to notebooking. My children have used this method of narration and writing for years in our homeschool . But, after reading Jimmie’s e-book, I felt a renewed passion for this excellent method of teaching and learning – and this old dog even learned a few new tricks!

Jimmie’s writing style is so smooth and succinct that you’ll find yourself easily reading all the way through the book in less than 30 minutes. More importantly, at the end of the 30 minutes, you’ll have all the tools you need to get started (or refreshed) with notebooking right away.

Why incorporate notebooking into your homeschool? Jimmie answers that. How is notebooking with a 1^st grader different than a 6^th grader or 10^th grader? Jimmie answers that. Doesn’t notebooking get boring for children? Jimmie answers that. She covers everything you need to know about notebooking from start to finish, including plenty of grade-specific ideas to get you and your children rolling.

As explained in the book, notebooking works well with just about any type of homeschooler – even those who use a strictly textbook curriculum. I have often mentioned notebooking to friends who are looking for a “better” way to help their children retain information or for children who need extra motivation for writing. Now, I’ll be sure to point those people toward Notebooking Success!

Teaching Computer Skills

Cindy — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:19:33 +0000

Children of the 21st century simply must be knowledgeable about and capable with computers. Besides typing programs and internet research, I like to assign occasional projects that are computer-based. I thought you might like to see the most recent projects…

Writing is something that Caleb does NOT like. But, when the writing is (at least somewhat) hidden, I get way fewer complaints! Using the newsletter program that came with Office 2010, I asked Caleb to create a keepsake page about his summer’s experiences with baseball. Besides the obvious skills of writing and word processing, he practiced page design and inserting photos and clip art. (There was a little more on the bottom of the page, but it included personal info that I didn’t care to share, kwim?)

Mahayla was given an assignment to create an informational newsletter about horses. The topic was her choosing and I was completely floored by her final product. What you see below is only the first of a two-page newsletter. I couldn’t figure out how to copy the 2nd page as a jpg!

Just this week, Caleb has been learning about non-vascular plants during science. We went on a fungi photo walk where he was supposed to find as many fungi as possible to photograph. (We found more than 20 varieties!) I asked him to create a notebooking page about the fungi using some of the photos from his walk. This proved to be a great learning opportunity for him in science, writing and computer skills – typing, fonts, tables and inserting images.

How do you use computers in your homeschool? I’d love to see some of your projects!

By the way, now is the perfect time for studying fungi in most parts of the USA. Check out A Fungus Among Us!

Nature Notebooking and Read-Alouds

Cindy — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:54:11 +0000

Lately we’ve been having lots of read aloud time in the afternoons. I’ve been trying to give my children things to keep their hands busy – paints, knitting, Lego pieces and nature notebooking pages or simple activities. So many of the NaturExplorers notebooking pages and activities can be used on the spur of the moment that they have become wonderful “fillers” during our reading time.

Before we read, I have them hop out into the yard to collect whatever nature specimen they need to complete the page or activity. Since they know we’ll be reading for some time, they don’t rush through the assignment and the resulting work has been excellent! Below are just a couple of examples from the Fruits and Nuts and Delightful Deciduous Trees studies.

(Note that my notebooking pages are copied in black and white. All the NaturExplorers notebooking pages are created in full color, but print just fine in black and white if you don’t have a color printer.)

The Lonely P

Cindy — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:32:11 +0000

Eli wrote his very first story a few weeks ago called The Lonely P. I thought I’d post it for my new friends Kim Kautzer and Debbie Oldar, authors of WriteShop. They were our wonderful, WONDERFUL booth neighbors at the Midwest Homeschool Convention last week. They are such sweet mentors! Be sure to check out their writing programs!

The Loney P, by Eli, age 4

Once upon a time there were pools that the lonely P swam in. Some kids and dads and moms swam there, too.

The P made a friend, the number 2.

The P swam in one pool and the 2 swam in another pool.

He was a happy P now.

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Great Grammar Lessons That Work

Cindy — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 11:00:21 +0000

Great Grammar Lessons That Work is a fun little book from Scholastic that offers quick, meaningful and sometimes hands-on grammar lessons for the 3rd-6th grader. We used the section on abstract nouns the other day to write diamante poems.

War vs. Peace

War

World, bloody

Fighting, shouting, yelling

Guns, commanders, silence, friendship

Celebrating, rejoicing, crying tears of joy

Calm, wonderful

Peace

Poetry at the Coffeehouse

Cindy — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:04:17 +0000

I recently reviewed some curriculum from Moving Beyond the Page that included a Poetry unit. Mahayla worked through the self-directed curriculum on her own and then completed a final project of sharing some of her own poetry in a coffeehouse setting. Here are a few pictures from the “coffeehouse”.

This is some of the poetry she shared.

Nothing like dressing up for you big performance! (Insert rolling eyes.) The poster in the back was a display teaching the audience (her family) about poetry forms and the tv is on because it was playing soft music.

Yummy banana bread. Every coffeehouse poetry reading needs food!

This week and next, the kids are working on presidential projects. I’ll share them with you soon!

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Published Books

Cindy — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:01:00 +0000

This week was our second round of book publishing this year. Back in February, after the kids had written an original story from a picture prompt, we took the story through the writing process. We’re still trying to find a binding method that works for us – these books were comb-bound using a machine at church.

Mahayla’s is titled The Mountain Trail and is about a horse riding incident. She submitted this story to the Girlhood Home Companion and we think it’s going to be published!

Caleb’s is called Josh the Ice Skater and teaches us all a lesson about skating on a not-so-frozen pond.

This week, I asked each of them to choose a children’s book with predictable patterns. They had to study the pattern and write their own version of the story using the same pattern.

Mahayla chose Fortunately by Remy Charlip and Caleb Chose Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews. We sewed the inner pages of the books then used Gorilla glue for the covers. We won’t use Gorilla glue again!

Publishing certainly isn’t for every story, but it’s valuable experience at least a couple times a year. I’m considering asking the local preschool if we can come read these to the children. I think that, too, would be good experience for my children!

Decoupaged Notebooks

Cindy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:40:00 +0000

This was another of the projects we did during our Colonial Life unit. It was super-easy and I loved how the notebooks turned out!

To begin, we found compostition notebooks (the kind where all the pages are sewn together with string and the covers are hard.) I picked out several scrapbooking papers that complimented each other then the kids cut the papers into various square and rectangle shapes. We used Mod Podge to decoupage the scrapbooking paper to the notebook covers.

Just in case you don’t know how….To decoupage, you apply Mod Podge (or any liquid glue, really) to the surface you plan to cover. Place your papers on the glued surface then apply more Mod Podge over top of the papers. Easy!

We turned our notebooks into new Bible Journals. As the Bible is read each morning, the kids are taking notes or drawing pictures about the reading to keep their minds more focused.

Field Trip Journals

Cindy — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:17:00 +0000

Remember the Field Trip Journals? We’re still using them this year and I couldn’t be happier with them. They are proving to make great writing assignments, and I’m finding the kids absolutely love looking through them for the memories. I love to watch the kids sort through brochures, ticket stubs and pictures trying to decide what to include and how to organize the memories. They’re going to make wonderful keepsakes!

The Westward Gazette – Medievel Edition

Cindy — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:35:00 +0000

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