Let's take this notebooking a little more seriously

I've been putting myself through some more teacher training.  We have a teen in the house and I don't want the learning to be all textbook based.  It's has to remain engaging and encourage discussion.

The Primary years have been a lot of fun, and thankfully they're not over YET with Mariposa being at the end of grade 4 level.  But with Maestro, we need to get a little more serious in defining interests while still broadening understanding on the bases already established.

So, where does one go for inspiration?  Friends!  Yes, I've been talking with those who have older children and watched what they're doing.  Still, I really want more angles on how to do this.  How have others successfully pulled together the final years of learning with their teens?

I learned about a month ago that there's a Charlotte Mason High School online course, complete with papers and audio files that arrive in monthly installments.  This is put together by Jim and Sheila Carroll over HERE.

After a few weeks, I've already received enough information to seriously whet my appetite for MORE PLEASE!  After reading and then listening to the audio files, I've been bunny-hopping around the internet looking for more information.

So far, the main inspiration has been to finally sit down and have the children really start working on regular notebook entries.  It was after listening to Cindy Ruston that this has really taken off.  Her talks on her 'Talk-A-Latte' pages were fabulous.  It's so easy, and then I wonder why I didn't seriously set it all up this way from the start.

So, now the children each have a 3-ring binder and all notes are going in there.  Beautification is a good thing, but if we don't have time, we come back to it later.  Whilst we were away, the children were studying parables, such as "The kingdom is like ..."  which they wrote out, then paraphrased the meaning.  I also want them to have a go at making up their own parables as we didn't really have that happen last week.

The children seem to prefer notebooking much more than lapbooking.  The 'everything in one place' works with the plastic sleeves and papers already on hand, and half-done projects easily contained where they can be transported for work elsewhere.

I'm looking forward to 'notebooking' all my recipes.  They seriously need a tidy-up!

If you'd like to check out some of the places I've been to when looking for ideas, here's a quick list:
- A Quick Start for Notebooking Mini-Set, Cindy Rushton
- Notebooking for High Schoolers
- Notebooking Resources for Homeschoolers
- Beautiful Feet samples
- Harmony Art Mom's Notebooking Resources
- By Sun and Candlelight, "My Homekeeping Notebook"
 ...... and there are HEAPS more if you do a google search. :)

*** Pictures to come in a future post .... when we have finished our covers and have a collection of interesting pages to share! :)