Narration Notebooks? How Often? How to Organize?

While I can’t refer you to pages in CM’s volumes, I can share what my 12yodd will be doing this year for written narrations.

She keeps her written narrations in simple composition notebooks. They are super cheap right now while back to school sales are being held.

She has a notebook for her literature and writes a brief narration after each chapter.  Chapters that are short may receive a summary of the chapter; longer chapters might only have a narration of her favorite recalled event.  I see this notebook as a starting point.  She has struggled with reading and spelling, but it’s beginning to come together for her now, so this is a habit she’s building and it’s becoming consistent, automatic, and actually blesses her by helping her realize her abilities and build in them daily.

We started written literature narrations during the last half of the 2017-18 school year.  She  had made enough progress in oral narrations and copywork  for me to see that it was time to move on to written work.

Upon her suggestion, one I was just about to require anyway, she will keep written narrations of her history, geography, and science studies this year.  She explained to me that she realizes that it helps her to have to think about what she has learned and write about it, so she thought it would be a good idea to add all of these notebooks to her day/week.  It’s up to her as to how much, or little embellishment is added to each page.

Her year is packed with living books in every area of study.  And, she is familiar with the routine of read, then narrate (oral, or written).  The amount of notebooks increases, but the process is similar, so she’s excited to be in charge of recording her learning in an easy way.  She will have drawings in these subjects, but she’s already included drawing in her literature notebooks, since it’s another way to record her thoughts.

I see this simple tool as a huge confidence builder and a habit that looks to be a life long pursuit.  I have narration notebooks myself for Bible studies, home keeping, homeschooling, and I keep a commonplace book.  Seeing me do this and watching older siblings do the same in the past makes it just seem natural.  It’s a personal record of what/where/who/why/when/how you’ve learned over time.

Start from what each can handle and build on readiness.

Melissa posted a while ago on written narrations for science with living books. I will try to find her blog post as it gave wonderful examples of her daughter’s written narrations at the junior high level. It definitely encouraged me to continue down this path with our youngest. The others have all graduated and used various methods for learning, including, but not strictly CM. Our youngest seems to be the one who will likely complete her education strictly CM style.  It just makes sense and makes life and learning beautiful.

Blessings on you and your family as you pursue the art of written narration together.

I meant to add that we just use composition notebooks as well. Spiral notebooks get ratty after a while. I use it until it is full, so it could span a couple of years depending on subject. I just place a post-it tab on the page of the new year. My younger girls combine all of their history, geography, and science in one notebook, with a separate one for scripture study. We have a separate one we use for Music study, because I have been doing a study of each instrument of the orchestra so we do things in the front of the book for that. In the back I divided the remaining pages into sections for each musical period. As we study a composer the kids add the name and picture of the composer to the appropriate time frame.

Notebooks can be as varied as your children, but the key to making them successful is consistency. If one isn’t being used regularly, ask yourself why and find a different way to approach it. Also, the narrations themselves do not always have to be in written tell-back form. They can draw, make up a test on the material, write interview questions, etc. This is a good way to keep the notebooks from becoming a drudgery.