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Notebooking v. Book of Centuries
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I know the BOC is all CM. 🙂 Notebooking is questionable (see other posts on SCM forum on this very topic), in terms of if/how it fits CM. Most importantly, notebooking may be an effective way to do written narrations for young kids.
Is there anyone that does both? My 8-year old, for the last 2 years, has been drawing and writing abou the history we’ve read weekly. She has a neat notebook of her own drawings & handwriting compilation of what she took away from history. It’s really neat. It may not be “official notebooking” (whatever that may be!), but it’s a treasure to keep. No forms printed off from online; simply half a printer paper blank w/ a drawing & half w/ printed off lines for copywork on the history topic.
In my planning for next year and beyond, I wonder if I should continue w/ this (though I don’t want to cause a disinterest in drawing b/c she’s doing it so often “for school”), and/or if I should start the BOC. Again, she’s only 8.
Also, any reason why we shouldn’t/can’t have a century in the BOC’s last longer than ONE layout (left & right sides)? [or at some points where there’s TONS of history a kid wants to document, do you turn a few centuries into a book of decades?!]
Thoughts on notebooking v. BOC? Thanks!
I’m fairly inxperienced with regard to this, but my opinion is this:
My daughter is 7 and will turn 8 in the middle of next year. We did a history notebook this year that was very simple. I feel like she is too young to keep a BOC, so she will keep a history notebook again next year. Essentially, what your daughter has done qualifies as notebooking from what I can tell. I think it is a good, visual, fun way for younger kids to keep a timeline of sorts. It also is a good place for them to record narrations in the form of drawing. As she matures and gets older, she will move onto a BOC which, from what I’ve read, is just a more mature way to “notebook.” So, in my house, the BOC will be for the older kids and the notebooks for the youngers.
My personal opinion is that I think it’s important not to get hung up on the “CM-ness or un-CM-ness” of enrichment activities. Charlotte Mason set about to create a philosophy, a framework, within which there is freedom in the education of our children. The framwork IS important (short lessons, living books, allowing young children time to mature, time outside, habit training, etc.), but within that framework we can tailor the specifics to each individual family. But, that is just my opinion and I am definitely not a CM expert (although I strive to be someday lol.)
Those are my thoughts…:)
Richele, you are too sweet. 🙂 OT, but I use your ideas daily with my kids when we are outside. “Let’s see how big it is. Can we wrap our arms around it? What color is it? What does it smell like?” 🙂
I think that notebooking is great as a BOC and as a history narration record. They are the same thing, IMO, just a different level of both. I actually have my older kids doing a seperate BOC where we enter the important dates/people/events, but for actually retaining and enjoying history they do the notebooking page. They are 10 & 11. The BOC is a good reference, (Oh, Mozart was writing his music during the Amer. Revolution…cool!”) but I felt like it doesn’t really totally reinforce the details of the people/events the same way for them yet. Eventually they will outgrow it naturally.
I felt like notebooking was an extention of CM written narrations for younger kids anyway. She said they could write it, draw it. I think that Charlotte’s main point was that it stays fresh and interesting, not a demand that she HAS to do it or the whole history lesson is blown kind of mindset.
As long as they are enjoying the notebooking and it works, why stress over it? The beauty of CM is that we use the methods and adapt styles of those that fit our needs. There are no CM police, like Sonya says. =)
And yes, the beauty of a notebook style BOC centuries is that you can add as many pages as you want without “messing up” your timeline.
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