Some Examples of Charlotte Mason Notebooks

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] have to admit that I hate writing posts that include photographs because my camera is terrible. It hates me, and the feeling is usually mutual. But you all asked for pictures. Pictures!

Have some compassion, people!

Ahem.

So first of all, let me just point out that there are some blogs that do a very good job showing photos of Charlotte Mason notebooks, both those done by Mom as well as those done by students. Here are my three favorites:

• Joyous Lessons
• Bent Leather
• A Peaceful Day

Commonplace

This little book is mine:

It doesn’t lie flat, so I don’t suggest this type of book, but it has sentimental value {a gift from my sister-in-law}, therefore I use it anyhow.

Here is a glimpse at a couple of my pages:

And here is a section from E-Age-Twelve’s commonplace:

I use Sharpie pens while he prefers mechanical pencils.

Book of Centuries

I already blogged about our BoC. Here are a couple entries from mine:

I thought I took photos of E-Age-Twelve’s, but I guess I didn’t. Oops.

Nature Journal

Here is E-Age-Twelve’s most recent entry:

This is a special study he’s doing of our peach tree inspired by First Studies of Plant Life by Atkinson. The line at the bottom is there because I told him to divide the page into three sections. This is the winter version, and he’s labeled the terminal buds and leaf scabs and such. He’ll make another entry in early spring, and a third in late spring, with the goal of understanding where the new branches, leaves, and fruit grow out of the existing branch.

I tried to take a picture from one of my daughters’ books, but I just couldn’t get the image to come out. You can see how much trouble I have getting my camera to focus properly. Anyhow, I thought it was cute because she spelled fox “foks.”

Here’s an entry from mine:

And yes, I really did observe that the deer at the zoo needed to be treated for parasites.

Ahem.

The Future of Notebooks in Our House

For 2015, I have two notebooking goals:

1. Start A-Age-Nine on a book of centuries shortly after her 10th birthday.
2. Start us on list keeping.

The list keeping in particular is something I think some of my children, who have the mentality of collectors, will enjoy. I really like the idea of making a grid that covers all the months so we can document which birds are here during which months. I think this will prove more interesting than we realize. We’re pretty in touch with which birds visit our property, but this will add a whole new element.

What about you? What are your 2015 notebooking goals? Have you thought about it?

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