Getting Organized ... Again - Eva Varga

We spent a little time organizing our notebooks today as they’ve been in disarray.  We even printed out coordinated covers for each using clip art from Phillip Martin.  Each of the kiddos have multiple notebooks … blue for Buddy and red for Sweetie.

 

Presently, we use a different notebook for each grade level K-4.  These notebooks contains four sections each:  Spelling & Grammar, Writing, Reading Log, and Math & Logic.  However, this may change depending upon how much written work they produce as we progress.

We use a different notebook for each historical period that we study: Ancients  (5000 B.C. – A.D. 400), Medieval – early Renaissance  (400 – 1600),  Late Renaissance – early modern  (1600 – 1850), and Modern  (1850 – present).  Relatedly, each child also has a separate notebook for their Book of Centuries, Art & Music and The 50 States.

We also use a different notebook for each field of science.  The Life-Science notebook (first grade) has three divisions: Animals, Plants and The Human Body.  The Earth-Science notebook has two divisions: The Earth and Sky & Space.  The Physical-Science notebook has three divisions:  Simple Machines, Force & Motion, and Electricity & Magnetism.  The Chemistry notebook has two divisions:  Definitions and Experiments.

It is a system that works for us.  We probably don’t need to keep all our work but it’s a fun way to look back and see how their skills have progressed.  My assumption is that come 5-8 grade, the K-4 work will be discarded.  We’ll see.