One of my favorite blog-hopping activities is to check out certain blogs and get ideas, especially from kinesthetically (hands-on) oriented bloggers. As a visual learner, I sometimes forget to add in components to our day that allow the busy little hands that belong
to our youngest a chance to move!
There are homes that thrive on workboxes. Others live in locations where some of the most comprehensive museums and exquisite parks make great field trips. Some parents are co-op gurus, wonderful artists, or great cooks, while others can make an erupting volcano or Coca-Cola explosion look like tremendous fun.
Is there a task that “defines” your homeschool?
We have tinkered with various methods of learning, some successful and others, well…not so much. But, if there is one staple that defines the Bullard homeschool, it would have to be notebooks—of all kinds. I have several posts displaying our use of notebooks over the years:
This year, with an academic focus on our youngest, we are using notebooks to complete our history, current events and composer studies,
and foldables to complete our science studies.
We even found these great pages to help the youngest learn United States geography!
I never taught the older two US geography; I loved the fact that, between field trips and living books, they knew so much geography without me formally introducing a map. However, for 99 cents, I thought it might be worth the fun to learn a bit more about the states, and we have been able to pull together a number of field trips and paraphernalia as we cover about a state per week.
Although we continue the associated reading, our son’s commonplace book has been put to the side because of the work requirements of his college course. So has his current events notebook. However, we do make a point of teaching world geography at the high school level. Personally, I almost failed this course in middle school; I simply found a world map overwhelming, and once I got lost, I could not catch up with the pace. My obsession with learning something I had never learned when I should have was the catalyst for me developing a passion for locations and places. But moreover, I want the kids to have a heart for people, and for lost souls. This was the heart that Jesus gave Peter, Phillip, Paul, and other missionaries as they traveled through Asia and Africa sharing the Good News. So we talk about locations, but we also speak of people, of cultures, of history, and of religions—what religions are practiced in a given region, and how we might use what the people know to share what they may not know: Christ, the Messiah.
As the kids get older, the kids sometimes choose to customize their own pages without using prescribed pages and spaces. I like the use of prescripted pages because they set a standard for beauty. Here some of my favorite sites for both notebooking pages and notebooking ideas:
(Sadly, one of my favorites, Hold That Thought History pages, now has its domain up for sale).
Well, happy notebooking! I’d also love to see your sites, ideas, and posts—always ready to learn!
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