Organizing My Commonplace

Usually on Wednesdays, I try to share a recent entry {from my commonplace}.

Well, today, I'm actually going to share a few recent entries and I'm going to chat a little about how I organize my commonplace selections.

I currently have four** commonplace books because I decided to organize my Keeping into four rough categories: 

:: School readings. I include here everything I read-along or read-aloud with the kids (except for our religion studies).  So far this year, MacDonald, Kingsley, Burnett, and Teasdale have featured most prominently.  This is the book I show to my children when they ask--they enjoy seeing the quotes that have struck me from our reading together.  They choose their copywork from their readings as well, so it's also fun to see if we ever overlap.  (We usually don't. ;))  I also see this commonplace as a potential resource later on, as my younger kids come through the AO years: to refresh my memory on the scheduled books, to use for copywork or dictation selections, and so on.

:: Personal free reads.  In this book, I note selections from any fiction and poetry I'm reading on my own.  I actually don't do all that much reading these days, despite having always enjoyed it.  I read a book a month for a local book club and usually have at least one other fiction and a poetry book going in addition to our school books.  I stay caught up for the book club but usually crawl through the others.  Sometimes, I think that might actually be better than the binge-reading I used to do, though!  The combination of my slower pace and my Keeping of favorite lines or passages has definitely helped me remember what I have read a bit better.

:: Spiritual reading.  I keep here Bible verses or passages, prayers of the Mass or from Catholic tradition, and selections from my spiritual reading, of which I always have at least one book going.  This commonplace is becoming like a personal prayer book, and I absolutely love that.  If I'm in need of spiritual inspiration, I can pull it out and I am sure to find something that will bless me.  And as a sidenote: don't you think it would be lovely to have your mother's or grandmother's book of favorite selections from spiritual reading?  It would be a treasure.

:: Education and parenting.  This category includes my non-religious, non-fiction reading, which pretty much all have to deal with education in some way these days!  Miss Mason herself is the star of this commonplace, though passages from Consider This, Ten Way to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, The Living Page, and other recent favorites pop up too.

Right now, I'm using four of the blank Moleskine Volant notebooks, which are available as two-packs and come in lovely shades of solid colors.  The paper is a bit thin for my Prismacolor .005 pens, but that makes the book itself thin and smaller to store, so I'm fine with that trade-off.  I love that these are the size of a large paperback, so I can pop one my purse for an hour reading and Keeping at the kids' piano lessons, for example.  There are lots of great notebooks and pens out there--these are just the ones I currently like best.

I make entries by date, mostly, though I like to keep the passages from running on to the next page, so sometimes I'll sneak in a small one in the blank room I've left behind.  I add the date at the bottom of each page, and the author, title, and page number at the bottom of each entry.  I've left the front couple pages of each notebook blank for inclusive dates and a list of books quoted for ease of later reference.

To wrap up, let me just say: it is a balm to my busy soul to sit down in the evening with one of my notebooks and copy out the passages that have struck me from that week's reading.  I'm hoping your Keeping refreshes you in the same way, no matter how you organize yours.

And speaking of, if you haven't started your own commonplace yet because you're too worried about getting it just right--just start!  Grab a notebook and a pen, and copy when you feel inspired.  It can be as simple as that!  And you'll have the opportunity to figure out what works best for you as you go along.  And remember, there are lots of examples of all different styles of commonplace books linked-up at Keeping Company--so look there for more inspiration.

** Just as a caveat: is it overkill to have four commonplace books?  For some people, it would be!  If that's you, please feel free to stick to just one, of course--organizing only by date is perfectly acceptable and was, as far as I know, how Charlotte Mason had her students keep their books.  But I have had lots of people ask me how I organize mine, and I'm happy to share because for me, this method actually feels simpler and more intuitive.  But I may be the only person for which that is true. :)